New Friends; An Ocean View; Recruits; Jodies at Oh-Dark-Thirty; What's My Mom Doing Here?

Sunday morning, a time to meet new friends; this weekend was our first time to visit Unity of the North Shore in Evanston, Illinois. Rev. Kurt made us welcome and we met many members of the friendly  UNS community. During the service, he introduced Suzanne, who gave a brief synopsis of the Messages of Hope documentary (to be shown Wednesday 5 Sep, 7 PM-9 PM) and her S.O.A.R! Workshop (to be held on Saturday 8 Sep, 9 AM-5 PM). If you’re in the Evanston/Chicago area, please visit us at Unity of the North Shore, 3434 Central St., Evanston, IL.  

What do you think of this view from The Bus? That’s Lake Michigan, not the Atlantic Ocean! We are about 80 feet from the surf, happily ensconced at the Navy campground at Great Lakes Naval Training Station. We only have electricity, no water, but the view makes up for those missing amenities. (Not having them means we have to drive a mile or two to fill our water tanks every 3-4 days.) 

The only negative aspect of being here is that this morning at 0606 (that 6:06 AM, like it's really early) this group of Chief Petty Officer selectees came running by singing jodies, or cadence calls. These days, jodies are rather tame and politically correct; back in "the old days", they could be rather risque. 

Great Lakes is home of the Navy’s only Recruit Training Center, as well as the site for much of its basic and advanced ship-related technical training. 

About 42,000 active duty and reserve recruits attend “boot camp” here annually. Another 14,000 attend “A” and “C” Schools here for training in radars, gunnery, signaling, firefighting, and engineering. It’s great being around young sailors again. 

Did I say “young”? It’s true that Navy sailors get younger every year; Suzanne noted last night at dinner that she was older than the mother of a young recruit that was dining with his visiting parents. My reply, “Get used to it, My Dear!” didn’t receive quite the response I had hoped for...  But then today when she went to the gym to lift weights while I ran, she walked in to a small free weight area and suddenly was the only woman amid twenty 18-23 year-old male sailors. They looked at her in shock; Suzanne knew what they were thinking... "What's my Mom doing here?" She then threw a 50 lb dumbbell over her head and put them in their place!