I Hated Odessa Texas So Much, I Tried to Enlist in the Navy To Escape
Things didn’t go as planned
The high point of my life
I walked across the aisle that night and accepted my Diploma from the principal. I thought I was king of the world that night. I didn’t realize it, but it would be downhill from there.
My dad was in the AirForce, and at the time we were living on Yokota AirForce Base in Japan. When I graduated from High School, relatives of my mom were visiting us from Odessa Texas. They offered to give me a place to stay if I decided to go back to the States before my family.
It was a mistake
It was a tempting offer. It took me six months before I decided to accept it, and go back to the States a year ahead of my family. It was in early January of 1979, I hugged my family, and boarded a plane to the States.
I’m sure my parents had misgivings about my decision, but they knew better than to try to talk me out of it. Their misgivings were well-placed.
No Skills, and no plan, what could go wrong?
I arrived in Texas and immediately tried to find a job. I couldn’t find anything that stuck. This is where the pattern of not being able to keep a job began.
Odessa Texas is one of those places that young people leave, not a place to go to fresh out of High School. Six months after arriving, I went to see a Navy Recruiter, I was getting the Hell out of Odessa.
“ There’s no there there”
Gertrude Stein
The Diet made me sick
A few months later, after losing a ton of weight on the Scarsdale Diet, The Recruiter took me to the airport. I was heading to AFEES, the Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Station.
I arrived at the Hotel in El Paso, I presented my voucher to the guy at the desk. I was there early, so I sat down in the lobby and waited.
All I can say is, “the guy had bad taste”
I was there a few minutes, when a guy sat next to me, and said “ Hi, how ya doing, Where’re you from?” No here I am, a nineteen-year-old kid, and a naive kid at that. “ I’m from Odessa,” I answered.
Now, here is where it gets weird. “ Oh, there’s lots of Gay guys in Odessa.” He said as I sat there, wondering, “ What the Hell?” I was stunned, as he tried hard to get me to go to his hotel room.
I didn’t know what to do, I couldn’t leave, I needed that voucher, so I did what I do, I told him to “ Piss off.” He got up to leave, but he made sure I had his room number.
I was the only one in that Hotel that wanted to sleep
I finally get my voucher and meal ticket. After a nice steak dinner, I wasn’t supposed to order anything that expensive, but I got away with it.
I went to my room, I had a roommate. He didn’t sleep that night. He had the TV on full-blast. The hotel was full of guys going into the Service. I was the only one trying to sleep.
I still can’t find my way out of a sack
The next morning, I arrived at AFEES late, because I got lost. The Physical was terrible, I was out of shape, and the diet had weakened me, and I found out that I had bad knees.
I failed the physical, the Doctor lectured me about smoking too much, then he gave me a voucher for another meal. He also gave me a voucher for a bus back to Odessa.
I wasn’t about to stay in that Hellhole, a few days later, I was on another bus, this time I was going to Denver.
Final thought:
Just because you’re in your late teens or twenties, it doesn’t mean you’re grown. If you and your family get along, it might be better to wait before you move out, and avoid Odessa Texas at all cost.
