Looking together in the same direction.

Looking together in the same direction.
Sea otters hold hands while they sleep so they don't drift apart.

by my favorite poet, Mary Oliver

"Instructions for living a life.

Pay attention.

Be astonished.

Tell about it."

Mary Oliver


Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Your Momma wore army boots.....once.

That's me in the middle.

Officer Basic Traning, Summer '74, San Antonio



     I thought of these pictures after posting yesterday's Memorial Day blog.  This all happened a lifetime ago.
     My college education was paid for by a military scholarship, for which I am very thankful.  After 2 years of college at the Univ. of Nebraska in Lincoln,  I received my nursing education at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing....I was a WRAIN-drop.  It was a campus of the University of Maryland, so my BSN is from the U. of Maryland and I am a Maryland Terrapin, as is my husband.  The nursing instructors and educational theory really were first rate.  The clinical could have been more intensive, but you do pick that up on the job.
     I then worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) for 3 years:  18 month on a renal medical and transplant ward, and another 18 months on a Gastroenterology ward.  I was discharged in '77 at the rank of Captain.  Like I said, this was a lifetime ago. 
     Ironically, one of the first songs I remember is one my Dad used to sing:

The biscuits in the army, they say are mighty fine,
One rolled off the table, and killed a pal of mine.

They say that in the army, the coffee's mighty fine,
It looks like muddy water, and tastes like turpentine.

(refrain)
Gee, Mom, I wanna go, but they won't let me go,
Gee, Mom, I wanna go home.                              

No comments:

Post a Comment