Was this a good idea?

When I was discharged from the USAF, I had no idea what to do next.   It happened pretty quickly.  Fortunately I was able to get a job right away.  Maybe that’s because the job was cleaning post offices.  Menial labor is usually pretty easy to get and I wasn’t too choosy.  I had two to do before they opened in the morning so waking at 3:30 AM was something I had been used to from the military.  I used to work 3 days,3 off, 3 swings, 3 off and then 3 mids, 3 off.  Crazy huh?  Well, after working this job for about 4 months, I had saved about $200.  My Honda car had bit the dust so I bought a friend’s Dodge Dart for $75.  This car took me from Tucson to Washington, PA.  I made two stops.  One was to where I used to live near Seven Corners in Falls Church, VA.  So starting at the 4000 block of East Montecito in Tucson, AZ I drove along 10E for quite a bit.  It was me and my dog.  His name was Blue.  I can’t say where he is now but I hope his life was filled with happiness.

I can’t say how long it took me to get to my first stop but I was in no hurry.  I even broke down once in North Carolina.  It turned out to be a loose wire under my distributor.  It didn’t take me long to find the problem and was glad it was easy to fix as I didn’t have much money for repairs.  It was October, 1974 and though gas was not like today, it was no longer $.32/gal.

When I arrived, I looked up a neighbor my brother and I both knew.  I spent the night and was back on the road the next day.  My next stop was the HS I graduated from.  Patton Masonic School in Elizabethtown, PA.  I thought of visiting my dad’s grave near Philadelphia but was running short of funds.  I looked up my French teacher, who I had a secret crush on, and she was getting married to an English teacher from town.  Imagine that!  Needless to say my crush remained a secret.  Her last name was Roth by the way.

My next stop was Washington, PA.  I was going to look up a school chum, Greg Clark.  Hopefully he still lived there.  He was.  As it was near the college, the only parking available was at a meter.  I spent a lot of time moving the car or bailing it out.  I got a job at a local pottery factory sweeping the floors at night.  I spent most of my earnings