The front room was very large and square, and it opened out to the street. It had a bay window with a table and chairs. I also had an armoire and a double bed. There was a meter-driven gas fireplace that required shillings, and a couple of over-stuffed lounge chairs. I had everything I needed, […]

I went to The Ruskin School of Art in Oxford, England. It wasn’t part of Oxford University; it had some affiliations but it was really a finishing school for English debutantes who wanted to meet and marry young undergraduates who had Lords for fathers. They all had thick ankles with peaches and cream complexions. They […]

In Okinawa, I made many enemies because I went into maintenance control with my own ideas. A major warned me that the men would punish me and he couldn’t protect me. He suggested I stay in the prop shop and I wouldn’t have any problems. So I opted for the trouble. I just never slept […]

I went to the public baths in Japan in gardens in separate houses. There were female attendants. I was often in Tokyo in the wintertime, and would walk to the bathhouse through the snow with little straw sandals in a light cotton kimono and nothing else. You took off your kimono and squatted down and […]

Kenji, one of the guards who had become a friend, invited me to his home, where I met his wife. He took me on walks through the exotic countryside. I was a kid from Portland, Maine, and there I was, being guided through some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. These farmers became […]

During my time in Japan, I would go into the hangar and meet with all the Japanese guards. One of the perks of meeting them was that I had coffee. When the crews came back we had thermoses of hot coffee and lots of cream and milk and sugar. The guards didn’t like coffee particularly, […]