Good places and friends make distance places good dreams in old age.

I met the Sergeant Major nightly at the Bowling alley, dance club and bar at Seaside. He was forced retired and slowly dying. You would never know it. He maintained his Texas smile and drank the pain away with whiskey. He wouldn’t take the pain medicine given to him by the V.A. He told me. Make him numb, dumb  and tire. His kidney and liver was gone. I knew him for three years since I came to Fort Ord. California. He was a Korean war and Vietnam vet. He saw me walk-in and waved me over. He had two young woman with him. He was famous for drinking and having money to spend. Sergeant Major told them. This is a real war hero. He takes care of me…