In October of 1964, after
dropping out of VA Tech and returning home a miserable failure, I went to work in the Newport
News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, thanks to the charitable efforts of Mr.
James H. King. I was able to work almost a
year in the Shipyard, and save up enough money to return to Blacksburg in the fall of
1965. Mr. King was a great friend of the family, and
destined to become my stepfather some 15 years later. After walking away from
a 4-year football scholarship at Tech (while I still could walk), I had no money to pay
for college. My father's death in June of 1964
had left Mom with considerably more minuses than pluses. We had no money even before
1964, and an athletic scholarship was my only path to college, or so I had been
told. That's why I'd worked so hard for 3 years playing high school football.
Well, that's not entirely true. Admittedly, I loved the game, especially the
physical violence, a free license to knock the shit out of people. Never wanted to
injure, maim or cripple, just make somebody feel a little of my pain. It was great
therapy for me, as I'm sure it was (and still is) for many a young man with a chip.
However, when I got to Tech, I found the shit knocking a bit tougher than I expected, and
probably quit too soon following an arm injury. Oh well, what the hell, life gets
screwed up one way or another, no matter what we do. Anyway, I first met Leslie Dale
Martin in the summer of 1965 while a "yardbird". I had never heard of him
(he preferred Dale instead of Leslie) at Newport News HS, but we ran into each other one
day in the bottom of some stinking submarine, and became friends. I guess we had a
few things in common, like no father, a working mother, and not much money. In fact,
Dale had grown up without a father, and since I had just lost mine a year earlier, we
were, well, kind of even. We both had pretty
big chips. On a more positive note, however, I still have fond memories of the two
of us chowing down for lunch at one of several boarding
houses close to the Shipyard Apprentice
School. They served "all you could
eat" for 50 cents, but no meat, only cooked veggies, fantastic biscuits, or
cornbread, and ice tea. You see, eating
massive quantities of food was something Dale worked very hard at, and he displayed his
prowess whenever possible. Dale lived in Warwick Gardens Apartments
with his mother and sister, where coincidentally, I had lived 10 years earlier. The sister was about a year or two older than Dale,
and probably graduated from Warwick HS. As I
recall, Dale had transferred from Warwick to NNHS in 1963.
I can’t remember the names of his mother or sister, and the mother is probably
dead by now since she was about the same age as my mom, who died in 1991. In the fall of 1965, as I returned to Blacksburg for
a second attempt at college (this time as an academic), Dale joined the Army. He served 3 years, most of which was spent at the
Pentagon, where he worked as a computer technician. Nonetheless,
we kept in touch, and Dale came to Blacksburg on numerous occasions. He dated a girl from Radford named Ellen Link, who
I believe had attended Hampton HS. I
don’t remember how they met, but Dale visited Radford often, and we would get
together whenever he came down from DC. Unfortunately,
in 1967 their relationship ended, and Dale became involved with a woman from Georgia (the
name escapes me) whom he had met in the Washington DC area, probably at the Pentagon. They married sometime in 1968. Later that year, Dale completed his Army tour of
duty, just as I was beginning mine in November. Going
into 1969, we lost track of each other all together. During
my 3 year adventure with Uncle Sam (1968 to 1971), Dale regularly visited my mother in
Newport News, often bringing his wife and kid (or kids) with him. Then in late 1971, after he discovered I had
returned to VA Tech for a third attempt, he broke off all contact. He very likely assumed I was mentally disturbed at
that point, which I probably was, or that I
was a gluten for punishment. Anyway, we never saw or heard from him after that. Mom maintained contact with Mrs. Martin up until
the time I finally graduated from Tech in 1973. She
said that Dale had moved to Georgia, and was working in a bank.
"So Long My Friend"--Yanni |