By Don
Arriving at the Bermuda Naval Operating Base bachelors officer quarters in September 1958, the first thing I had to fix was the air conditioning in my room. Not easy. There was none...the building had no A/C. My personal effects shipment arrived in one week and my first VW Bug arrived in six weeks, courtesy of my father who shipped it when he and Mom returned from a trip to Germany. I had sent him a cable saying oh so sadly, “Forget Porsche 911, I’m being sent to Bermuda, send VW.” The Porsche had too many CCs, too big an engine for BDA law. So very terribly sad. I also told him my new Pontiac at home in NJ was now his and he should sell it and keep the money.
Within a month, I installed a small window A/C. I had a phone but did not know the number. The first time the phone rang was about two weeks later. I answered it by saying, “Please, what number are you calling?” So now I had a base phone but only I knew the number. No need to tell the squadron. I had a single bed, a metal table and a metal chair. I shared a shower with an adjoining room. Numerous pieces of soap were stuck to the shower walls. It was filthy. My request to paint the room got a good laugh.
Within three months I painted it, lowered the ceiling by using a fishnet effect two feet lower than the ceiling, replaced the overhead light with a lantern, cleaned and stocked the fridge, made a sofa bed out of two mattresses and a red bed cover from Sears at Norfolk, put in a nice chair, got a grass rug, painted the inside of the door red and made a bar out of a rum barrel that cost me two pounds and six pence at a Hamilton booze warehouse. The rum dregs were still in the barrel and the Bermudian and I had to empty the barrel. We did with smiles. I made and hung full length bleached muslin drapes at the window wall. I also had photos and jet models displayed.
I was ready for inspection and ready for female guests. It happens that all BDA hotels use brackish water in their showers and the base was popular for its fresh water showers, with the water coming from a giant man-made hill that was a water catch. Little did I know that a year or so later, my wife would learn to drive around that water catch. I forgot to teach her how to back up and she failed her driver’s test.
One or more nurses visited frequently and thought my room was “cool” and not because of the air conditioning. Liebfraumilch wine and cheese were always available along with St Pauli Girl German beer. Later on, when my parents visited, salami was also available. It took a few more weeks but the room finally got a two piece six speaker Fisher Hi Fi phonograph stereo which when put on full volume, would make the curtains vibrate. By the way, a 40 ounce bottle of rum cost $1.10, scotch and whiskey was cheap and the Cuban Rum of choice was Matusalum at a horrible cost of $2.35 a quart. It was not sold in the States as it was considered a drug of sorts.
Initially, many of the officers were NAVCADS or Navy ROTC peeps made officers after failing to complete college. Two or three years at an Ivy league school apparently ranked way above a Clemson grad. Still, I made friends with the good guys and tolerated the others. Strange, I never met a Navy jet jockey I didn’t like. But then again, I wasn’t around long enough to really know them. The senior officers like LDCRs were much older, many from WWII and some were very easy going, especially at the officer’s club bar.
Time off was spent at the island’s hotel bars and in downtown Hamilton where one outside upstairs patio place allowed one to watch the waterfront cruise ships, ferries and girls when in season. Season was College Spring Week and Vacationers. Restaurants were superb, steel bands played, and lobster tails tasted wonderful even after too many drinks. We also had many beach parties at Horseshoe Beach, a very large length of wide sand with craggy hidden coves. Two officers had boats and we spent many an hour cruising around.
My room was considered by most girls that entered as a den of iniquity but few could resist. Not that the straight arrow owner was a threat. There were many parties, some of them simultaneous in other rooms down the hall. Occasionally, we would tee up multiple and duplicate recordings of a 21 gun salute of the battleship Missouri on three or four Hi Fi rigs, including mine. The turntable would spin and we would hold the needle at the beginning as someone yelled the count down, 5,4,3,2,1 and we all placed the needle at the start. Of course the volume was full up on all the Hi Fi’s. The second floor would vibrate with the sound and we drank to it. We also frequently played the 1812 overture and when the bells of Moscow sounded, drunks would pretend to ring those bells a la Quasimodo.
I met three or four girls in BDA. On one date, a girl pulled out a cigarette and held it towards me for a light. I had no matches or a lighter, nonsmoker that I was. My friend reached over and ostentatiously produced a lighter and that date was effectively over. On another date, I now had matches and when the cigarette stunt was pulled, I grabbed my matches but the wind kept blowing them out. My friend then smoothly pulled out his matches, rolled the cover to make a circle and lit the girl’s cigarette through the circle. I began to feel snake bit about co-eds that smoked. Sometimes at a bar, a girl would start a conversation with “do you have a light?” So I began to just say I do not smoke. They just went away down the bar to the next guy. Understand the ratio was near 5 to 1 during Spring Week and we had cars and local knowledge.
All in all, the junior officers were all unique characters with wild personalities. In 20 years in the Navy, I never again saw a bunch like those guys. Maybe it was the plodding big seaplanes, maybe it was the rum, maybe just BDA. Our favorite pub and bar was the Waterlot Inn. It was partway to Hamilton and the Langosta (Lobsters) were fantastic. After one bachelor got married he honeymooned at BDA at an unknown hotel. If we knew, we would have ruined his honeymoon. His last two nights were spent at one of the few rooms at the Waterlot. Ten years later I got a "training flight” to BDA from New Orleans in a C-54, DC-4 to civilians. I went through the Waterlot’s guest book for ten years ago. This family became lifelong friends. In the guest book for that date it had their names and it said, under remarks, ”Conceived Here.”