Guest Blog Part 1 - My dad, Wayne Bullard

So, my mom and dad are on vacation to DC. Actually, greater DC. My dad was a sailor on a ship called the USS Johnny Hudgens back in the day. And the surviving midshipmen are having a reunion. And, as he did 2 years ago with the USS Lexington, my dad made a showing. I may add his first email later, as it is as hilarious as this, depending on demand.

The following is his second email to me detailing his trip. (Actually addressed to all 4 of us children)

Well, we made our cruise on the river OK.  It was a dinner cruise and the food was OK.    Some  kind of unidentified bits and pieces of meat in some sort of  sauce....I mean if you care for stuff like that-- we floated about and passed some of the old parts of town and watched the scenery from a window-- through the misty rain.   Lots of old sailors here.  Tonight we    had a meal of "potato crusted Halibut" just for the heck of it and it was OK.  Hope they didn't catch it in any of the muddy polluted waters we spent 3 hours on.

    Tomorrow they will "haul" us down to the Mall and I don't know where else yet. 
We are going to decide that tonight-in a few minutes I think.

Sunday is a free day.  There is a  big march tomorrow on the capitol called the 9/12 thing and I will see it I guess, whether I want to or not.  I believe it is another tea party.  Glen Beck is to speak.  I don't know what is left to see after tomorrow, but that's what Sunday is for.  We will probably just drive around, out to Mount Vernon and places like that.  I want to spend a little time in the Smithsonian Museum of American History.  I may go back to the Holocaust museum too, it's very interesting.

    Anyway, we are doing OK.  Except for the fire.

Last night the fire alarm went off.   At 1:35AM it did.  Very loud horn (brand new) and a white flashing light woke up our tired old bodies.  I peeked out and told Pat..."don't worry about a thing...I'm pretty sure it's a false alarm as I put on my pants."  I walked down to the desk and there about 55 people were on their way out.  Outside.  A fire truck  could be heard zonking his way toward the hotel.  Another one was coming too.  The Pakistani clerk was answering two phones a time saying..."Fire on floor 3, get out now!!!"    

    I went back to 131 and told your yawning mom, "just a false alarm but let's get dressed."  She is a gentle soul and I sure didn't want to alarm her.  "You might want your purse, your car keys, your cell phone, and anything else you would want to save in case the fire is real and we can't come back in," I said, calmly. 

     With that, and a backward glance at my laptop I went back to the hall.  By this time the loud fire alarm had about ruined my hearing but I could see a new and alarmed group in the main lobby which is where we went.  I went on outside to look for smoke.  Harry said, "it's up on 3rd floor" as I noticed he was in undershirt, PJ bottoms and one sock on his right foot and a bare foot on the other.  I stared at the foot and he said, couldn't find my other sock and didn't look for the shoe.  My room is on the 3rd.  "Did you see any fire?" I asked Harry, but he said, "no, just smells like the place is burning down and it's smokey."

    That was enough for me.  I didn't know which to do first, move my DeVille further off from the hotel and then go back inside and encourage my frightened wife to come on and say to her   "Let's  go to Oklahoma."  I decided my car was far enough away as the firetrucks continued to arrive along with police cars.  I scanned the parking area for TV vans to see if any of them wanted to see how I was taking all this, but saw none.

     I went back in the lobby from the chill night and my wife was doing an excellent job concealing her fears and concerns.  In fact she was trying to cheer up some of my old shipmates and showed no signs of the fear I knew was bound to be enveloping her very being.  I let her be....ready to make a break for it by way of my soon to be afire room if I had to.  Two more firemen, carrying axes, followed closely by two wearing OBAs**  made-their way to the stairs as a cop warned people not to go back upstairs nor use the elevators.  I hadn't seen such pessimism since Bill Cathey had delivered his prognosis on main street Allen one night about a car wreck out on 48 which had "killed" Glenn Hunnicutt...or so he mistakenly thought.  **Oxygen Breathing Apparatus

     My friend, Happy John and his live in Church of God of Prophesy girl friend had yet to show up and I was concerned but I didn't know what room he was in.  I should not have worried.  I couldn't have awaken him or her if I had  wanted to.  The next day John said he and Margaret had gone to their  room and gone to bed after taking out their hearing aids, their teeth and unscrewing their fake appendages and ingesting a few sleeping pills.  They heard nothing and were quite bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning--in stark contrast to the Jap across the hall who fled wearing only his T Shirt.  I didn't look back at him to be sure if he had any shorts on or not but I know your mom did.  Had my name been Lot, she would be a pillar of NaCl.

     I was more than a little bit let down when the firemen starting coming down on elevators, as spic and spiffy looking as they had looked going up...the fireman, the one who stopped and explained it to us,  said it was a bag of microwave popcorn mis-programmed on a microwave and while there had been no actual blaze, had there been one, he would have put it out along with the other dozens of dedicated ax swingers in attendance. 

     Tired and disappointed we all went back to our chambers where we tossed and turned for more than a few minutes before drifting off to sleep. 

     I will now take your mom down the hall, where a rousing party is underway in one of the meeting rooms and continued this blessed meeting.  Have a good night, Love,

Wayne Bullard

601 E Lee Street

Allen, Ok.74825-0517

-waynebullard@sbcglobal.net