#522: The Walkman at tech school

Feb 1983, Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, Indiana. In the middle of winter, 18 degrees & 2 inches of snow on the ground, & I'm stuck here 4 a 10-week journalism & public affairs course so I can go out & work on base newspapers 4 the U.S. Air Force.
Fort George Harrison was an Army base, with officers' homes dating back 2 the late 1890s. But I spend my 1st few days in a low-budget open-bay dormitory with a dozen other Army guys, some of whom yell pretty loud & slam things around when they get drunk over what seem like endless weekends....
After a few days I get "promoted" in2 the Air Force dorms, called "the condos" by the Army guys -- 3 guys share a room, there's a decent bathroom in each room, actual comfy beds & DESKS(!), & a real window you can open 4 fresh air, if you dare.
The dorms R cushy, but there's a problem: They're COLD. My theory is they're built out of permafrost. The central heating isn't on, 4 some godawful reason....
Classes start -- & they're terrifying. 1st thing the instructors do is inflict on us a 2-hour 200-question grammar test, 2 see if we know enuf about English 2 actually BE here. We're all scared shitless. I comfort myself by repeating over&over that I may not know parts of speech, but I know what they do, how they work. I end up with a 71 on the test -- nothing 2 B proud of, but I'm told it's the 3rd-highest grade in the class. Some folks bomb completely & get sent 2 Remedial Grammar -- & spend 2 MORE weeks in Indiana....
Then classes REALLY start. Basic stuff. Can you write in English? (Seriously.) Can you construct a news story? OK, now go out & interview somebody about their job, or about their neat hobby. Take photos 2 go with it. (You mean -- *GULP* -- actually TALK to someone? Interview them?! That's right, Scoop!) People start bashing on typewriters late in2 the nite all 'round the dorm.
While dealing with that, the Public Affairs part of the course gets rolling: Make a speech about the following military-related topic, completely unprepared -- GO! Oh, you survived that? OK, write a 20-page research paper on the following topic, & then B prepared 2 do a speech based on your research paper, with visual aids, & have it ready by the end of the week -- so we can videotape you!
Oh, & by the way, tomorrow you're going 2 shoot a photo essay somewhere on base. You know what a photo essay is? Great. Make sure you ask people B4 you take their picture. & if they yell at you -- you're on your own, kid....
This week we're gonna publish our own base newspaper. You, you & you -- you're the editors. Make it happen. It's due Friday. Oh, & this'll count 4 1/2 your grade 4 the whole course.
This went on 4 2-1/2 months, with 100 young Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines & Coast Guard folks scrambling 2 get all this work done. There was drinking, there was partying, there was carousing, there was womanizing. Marriages crumbled. I mainly hid in my room.
Every single week I was absolutely CONVINCED I was gonna flunk out. Somehow I survived it.
No suprise that I turned 2 music 2 help get me thru it. Almost immediately upon arriving on base I splurged & bought a Sony Walkman & a handful of cassettes 2 help screen out interference when I was studying & help me sleep thru my roommates' alarm clocks at 5 am. + we didn't all have the same musical tastes, so when there were other folks in the room I'd put the headphones on out of courtesy.
(Not everybody did this -- 1 of my roommates liked 2 fill the room with funk from 1 of Indy's top urban stations, EVERY morning B4 he went 2 class. It got him motivated. Hard 2 argue with that. Do you wanna get funky with me? It's too funky in here! We want the funk, give us the funk! Slightly later on it was Michael Jackson's "Beat It" & "Billie Jean" -- great, but WAY 2 loud....)
I'm convinced that Walkman & those cassettes got me thru tech school alive & relatively sane.
I was cripplingly lonely; I'd bn married 3 months & the separation was ripping me up -- I sent 20 pages' worth of letters home 2 the new Mrs. every week. Bob Seger's "Even Now" was my freakin' theme song 4 the 1st coupla weeks I was at school.
Then things got better. 1 of my roommates was a pretty good guy -- young & petrified, like me, but no dummy, & fairly talented. We could converse like humans & help each other study. & when we got on each other's nerves I'd put the headphones on.
Caught Modern English's "I Melt With You" on 1 of Indy's FM stations & bought the cassette, AFTER THE SNOW. 2nd side was freaking brilliant; 1st side kinda turned in2 very quiet art-rock.
Followed it up with Dire Straits' LOVE OVER GOLD, which I hadn't heard a note of, just loved their previous album MAKIN' MOVIES & figured I couldn't go wrong. LOG had 1 perfect cinematic 14-minute opening track called "Telegraph Road" (still my fave Dire Straits track ever), & the title track was pretty. "Industrial Disease" was kinda silly. "It Never Rains" was kinda bitter. & "Private Investigations" was kinda mood-music.
Grabbed Steve Winwood's TALKING BACK TO THE NIGHT cos I liked his previous album ARC OF A DIVER, & saw the video 4 "Still in the Game" & was sucked-in by the choruses. "Game" turned out 2 B the best thing on the album, but I remember picking up trash around the dorm building while the Walkman played "Valerie" in2 my ears....
Loved U2's 1st album BOY & thot their follow-up OCTOBER had some nice stuff on it, so I grabbed WAR when it appeared -- & discovered that ghostly guitar sound of theirs had mostly disappeared 4 the harder, more martial sounds on "Sunday Bloody Sunday" & "New Year's Day." I'm not sure I ever got any farther....
There was other music in the air, 2: The local FM stations loved Men At Work's "Be Good Johnny" & Genesis's "You Might Recall." I was hooked on Fleetwood Mac's mournful "Wish You Were Here." Def Leppard's "Photograph" summed-up a gorgeous young Air Force woman 1 of my classmates had convinced himself he was in love with....
Late at nite I'd stumble downstairs 2 the "day room" on the ground floor where my classmates would B pounding typewriters or shooting pool, & the TV would B on with MTV running stuff like Adam Ant's "Goody Two Shoes" -- a song that more than 1 person there said summed me up pretty well....
& of course when Michael Jackson's THRILLER album hit, we all heard "Beat It" & "Billie Jean" 24/7. Culture Club's 1st coupla hits were getting played constantly, Ghod forbid.
& 1 Indy station featured "The Seventh Day" -- 7 albums played back-2-back every Sun nite -- a great way 2 wrap-up the weekend even if it was all albums you already knew: DARK SIDE, Cars' 1st, Boston 1st, ABBEY ROAD, REVOLVER, WHITE ALBUM, BACK IN BLACK, etc. ....
Music was everywhere with the students. Noticed 1 classmate was listening 2 Rush's SIGNALS, so I mentioned I really liked their previous MOVING PICTURES, but hadn't heard the new 1 Xcept 4 "New World Man." He & I started playing stump-the-band 2 test R musical knowledge. Can't remember what-all we played, but I remember his big trick question was the slashing, driving opening riff from King Crimson's "The Great Deceiver" -- WAY too easy....
...Somehow I survived it, 10 weeks in Indy, graduated in May & then went on my way 2 a job at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas -- a job that did NOT involve working on an AF newspaper. As I climbed in2 a taxi 2 the airport, suddenly 1 of the Navy women who I knew in passing grabbed me, gave me a huge hug & a great big sloppy-wet kiss on the cheek.
"Oh, I'm SO excited for you!" she said. "Graduated and you get to get the hell outta this place! Good Luck!"
"Thanks!" I yelled as the taxi pulled away. But all I could think was: Where the hell has she been for the last 10 weeks...?