Steam & Excursion > "Now hear this. The Plan of the Day has a..."

"...train picture drawn on it!"

All the kind words about my painting in the thread I posted Sunday titled "Sherman Hill: Super bowl of steam" reminded me of something I used to do in my Navy days (64-68) when I was an officer aboard the USS Buck (DD-761).   It was common in our wardroom for the married guys to trade duty days with the single guys when in port in San Diego so they could spend more time with their wives.  In return they would take the duty for us singles when we had liberty at foreign ports, the idea being we could get more time on the beach to enjoy the '"museums, statues and other cultural icons".

On those long evenings in San Diego after I made my rounds I would hang out in the wardroom and watch TV (Batman -- BIFF! POW!).  If that  high water mark of entertainment didn't keep my attention I would doodle on a copy of the Plan of the Day.  Those PODs  usually had plenty of White space for me to drawn in and provided me with a steady source of paper.  I tended to sketch pictures of steam locomotives, usually Santa Fe 3800s since that was way before I was introduced to 8444 and 4449.  On some evenings the sketch would grow into a full railroad scene with lots of detail. 

A few years ago, long after the Navy and then working for Union Pacific Railroad I happened to have lunch here in Omaha with a former shipmate.  He told me one of my fellow officers used to watch me make the sketches and began collecting them.  He kidded me about it.  I had no idea!  I never saved one of the "famous" PODs.

For the record I took the photo of ships' guns from the Buck looking over to the USS Wiltsie (DD-716) when it was tied up alongside us in Yokosuka, Japan.  

JB

 

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Got caught doodling pictures of locomotives in 8th grade scial studies. Was mezmerized by the subject.  Worse yet, my highschool was adjacent to the SP Brooklyn sub.  Somehow, I managed to graduate from North Salem High and OSU...

Thank you for the picture and your service to our country.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/16 14:42 by roustabout.

I was always drawing steam engines and hot rods in the early '50s in school.

Yeah, me too in the late 1940's in grade school.  I would draw lines and lines of trains, then put glue on top of the paper which dried clear and gave it all some "body".  For some reason I never thought anyone else ever did that.

Amazing, and amusing is this discussion to me.  All these years, I thought I was the only one who did "paper trains".  I enlisted a couple of buddies, and we drew entire railroads worth of equipment.....then put some scotch tape over the coupler area, bent a straight pin in two, and viola....we have couplers.  We ran trains all over the house....the railroad did not care much for carpet, plain floor worked best.  The main yards took up most of the living room.  The name was a bit odd....Piedmont and Pacific.  SP must have merged with/acquired the Piedmont and Northern, I think it was.....IIRC a N Carolina juice line I admired from a distance.  Some of the RR still exists, now in the care of my brother.  AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

Did you know a girl named "Sugar" in Yokosuka?  No, forget it.  You don't have to answer that.  She worked outside the gate in "Thieves Alley".

Ed

Speaking of Thieves Alley, I remember a visit there when one of our men lost his wallet ashore.  We were notified by the gate that someone found it and returned it.  He went up to the gate and retrieved it.  Nothing as missing.  

I remember each time we went to Yokosuka right after we tied up the  "Mama San" would deliver flowers to the ship.  She always knew when we were scheduled to return on our next deployment.  Good info.

I don't remember "Sugar".   All in all good memories of Japan and its people.
JB

Auburn_Ed Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Did you know a girl named "Sugar" in Yokosuka?
>  No, forget it.  You don't have to answer that.
>  She worked outside the gate in "Thieves Alley".
>
> Ed

Dont know about Sugar but Carl bought my Mikimoto  wedding pearls there at Yokosuka for $100 (have the receipt) in 1957 and some years ago they were appraised at $3000.  :-)
C

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

Copy19 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "...train picture drawn on it!"
>
>    It was common in our
> wardroom for the married guys to trade duty days
> with the single guys when in port in San Diego so
> they could spend more time with their wives.  In
> return they would take the duty for us singles
> when we had liberty at foreign ports, the idea
> being we could get more time on the beach to enjoy
> the '"museums, statues and other cultural icons".
>
>

" museums, statues and other cultural icons " ......oh of course.......

Chris
>




>
>
>
>  

I doodled "swamp monitors" which looked pretty much like the Arkansas class monitors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Wyoming_(BM-10)

Can't say I ever saw a picture of one of these before doing my doodles. We used to crawl all over the USS Texas on weekends, and I was impressed by the big guns. Perhaps that's the genesis.....

Brian Ehni

Great story! I was a Radioman aboard the Rowan (DD-782) '69-'72.
I just recall using PODs for paper airplanes!
You should have come by Radio Central, I would have given you blank paper - white, green, yellow or pink. Of course, that's not the same as "recycling" a POD!
John



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/16 09:29 by FrensicPic.

Radiomen:  My favorites.  I was the communications officer when I reported aboard and later became the CIC officer.
JB
FrensicPic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great story! I was a Radioman aboard the Rowan
> (DD-782) '69-'72.
> I just recall using PODs for paper airplanes!
> You should have come by Radio Central, I would
> have given you blank paper - white, green, yellow
> or pink. Of course, that's not the same as
> "recycling" a POD!
> John

Copy19 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> married guys to trade duty days
> with the single guys when in port in San Diego so
> they could spend more time with their wives.  In
> return they would take the duty for us singles
> when we had liberty at foreign ports

And absolutely NO money was ever exchanged ... 

Regards,
Burlington John
(YNCS Retired)

No money was ever exchanged in the wardroom that I know of.
JB


burlingtonjohn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Copy19 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > married guys to trade duty days
> > with the single guys when in port in San Diego
> so
> > they could spend more time with their wives. 
> In
> > return they would take the duty for us singles
> > when we had liberty at foreign ports
>
> And absolutely NO money was ever exchanged ... 
>
> Regards,
> Burlington John
> (YNCS Retired)

DD 704-US Borie here. Served from 1951 to 1953 in the North Atlantic.

Jim
Hatboro, PA​

Jim:   Great to hear from you.   Are you a member of Tin Can Sailors? If not I'll give you contact info.   Great newspaper, and contacts.  I recommend it.
John

I had a different version of "paper trains" when I was growing up.

It involved a roll (or most of one) of adding-machine tape.

Carl Shaver
Lombard, IL

Had an XO on the LPD that I was stationed on that didn't like empty space on the POD. My YNs were forever looking for "filler" just so the XO would be happy .....

Memories!
Burlington John