Yokohama Navy Exchange was where?

Wally-
Sounds wonderful! Used to see parades like that in Monroe (WA), but the town stopped being rural and such things would just congest traffic more than it is. This's called Progress.
So, where's this town you tell of, that I might try and see the parade next year?

Centralia, Missouri, a little berg North of the Missouri River. Mostly a farming area, but we have a factory, which is in the process of transferring its manufacturing jobs South of the Rio Grande. You indicated that you are a Civil War reenactor, so you would probably be interested to know that a small Civil War battle was fought here in 1864, before I was born. Confederate guerrilla, Bloody Bill Anderson, a Quantrill lieutenant, intercepted a train carrying Union troops on furlough, and lined them up along the railroad track and shot them down, 23 of them, as they let one escape to tell the story. The Yankees sent out a mounted infantry company, about 150 men, to retaliate, and Bloody Bill engaged them near Young�fs Creek South of town, and wiped out the whole company. This is known as the Battle of Centralia. Jesse and Frank James participated in the battle, on the Southern side. The original battle ground was donated and a corporation was formed, and we have a reenactment there every now and then. Also, were you a Corpsman at Madigan?

Wally-
Know of Centralia; haven't been through those parts in a couple decades though. Knew about the affair with Quantrill's boys as Frank James is a direct ancestor of mine, on my dad's side. Good to hear the site's being both preserved and actively used.
I did a Confederate Artilleryman impression out here for awhile before switching over to being a Sutler for both a CW group and an 1848 PNW group. Sold a few trinkets to the tourists, but mostly kept it up for the Impression and teaching, over trying to run a "business".
Yes, I was a Clinical Specialist (MOS 91C) at Madigan in the late 70's/early 80's. After my year working in the ER, I had the good fortune to be assigned one Ward over from L&D so, when my kids were born, I'd pop in there from time-to-time while my wife was in labor, to visit and take her vitals. When push literally came to shove, they rang me up on my ward. I scrubbed in, watched their birth(s) and then went back to work next door!

I was a 91B20 at the 106th Army General Hospital, Kishine Barracks, Yokohama, Japan, 1967-68. Went there direct from Fort Sam. I knew some people who had worked at Madigan, and had many good things to say about it. Heard that Madigan is closed now, is that true?

For all intents and purposes, yeah, it's closed. They built a new, high-rise hospital pretty close by, oh, 10 years ago or so (I'd have to look it up).
The 7+ miles of one-level corridors known now as "Old Madigan" are still intact and the place is used for various ancillary functions.
I could tell a whole passel of stories from my time there, but that should prolly be done in a whole 'nother forum.

A belated Happy Hanukkah to all our Jewish friends at this forum. Sorry, but I missed the beginning date of Hanukkah on my calendar, I thought it fell closer to Christmas. I think it did last year. Hope you all have a great 2010!

My husband's primary interest in black powder shooting is flintlock long rifles, next comes the 1815-era accoutrements. He's been going to the Pioneer Craft Show in Monroe (WA) for the past few years. Do you go to it, also?

You mentioned helping friends build a vacation/retirement cabin in the Shelton area. May I ask specifically where?

Holiday greetings to you and yours.

In honor of all the small towns in America you can see Centralia Missouri's tractor parade on you tube. Its called the Christmas light parade.. I think the fork lift was especially beautiful.
Our little town, Kingston New Hampshire has no parade, but Santa makes the rounds every Christmas eve, attended by the local fire engines and police cruser. He used to go really slow and pass out candy to the kids. Over the years the flatbed got faster and faster, making Santa a harder target for our snowballs. Also they figured, that if they go faster then they can get back to the firehouse for drinking. Makes sense.

Sorry, Lori, but its been several years since we helped on that project. I want to say it's on a place called Black Lake, but I'm not 100% on that.

That semi made me think of the dump trucks and the long-haul trucks I saw in Japan back in the early '70's.

Misopup,
There is a Black Lake closer to Olympia and Tumwater, but not in the Shelton area. We have many lakes in our county (Mason) and the reason I was curious about where you helped build a cabin is that our community has quite a few places that were vacation or weekend places. This was especially true in the '70's, which was before we moved here. (Our community is Fawn Lake.) Do your friends still own the cabin you helped build?

Our son, Jeremy, proposed to his girlfriend Renee this past weekend. Wedding this spring in Seattle, Missouri or Phily...

Eric - We wish your son and his bride-to-be lots of happiness. Does this mean w're all invited?????

Anyway - a happy holiday to all - a Merry Christmas, and all the best for a Happy, Healthy New Year.

It has been great knowing you all, even just via the internet - wonder how many more years we will be keeping this thread going?

I lived there from 1960 through 1963. The complex as stated by others was a bowling alley to the northside a big commisary, a theatre, several shops including cobbler and others. Area 1 was along the beach with the japanese school just beyond the housing pool. Area 2 across ave. D to the side of Nile Kinnick school. The bluff was beyond that. We used to slide down the hill on cardboard boxes during the football games. I miss that time of my life, it was an awesome experence. Lets not forget the fact that we all had maids and house boys. We grew close to them, they were a part of us.

I think you have stated why a bunch of us have had a long-running dialog on this thread. "I miss that time of my life, it was an awesome experience." There will never be any place to compare with the Yokohama that we all remember from the different times when each of us were there.
Happy Holidays and Melly Clismas everyone.

Tom;

For that brief time in Yokohama, we were kings.

I just finished an article that Steffi sent to me by mail, that I thought I would share with you. It was published in the December1995 edition [vol 46/ no 8] of American heritage magazine. Entitled The Little Diplomat it goes into wonderful detail of the life of James M. Lamont Jr, who lived on the Yamato Heights, Yokohama in 1947, one of the 1st dependants to arrive. His father was a full Colonel and the family traveled extensively, implementing MacArthurs policys. Talk about houseboys..these people had there own railroad car..complete with stewards. Eric especially would enjoy this as much of it speaks to his childhood memories. OK Dave .. find it for us and link it..[he's great at that]
And thank you Eric for your kind invitation to your sons wedding. Just let us know when it is so we can prepair our railroad car.

The internet is a wonderful thing - here is the article about Lamont - pictures seem to be missing, but the article is there.

http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1995/8/1995_8_70_...

Thanks very much for digging up this jewel of an article. The writer shared many memories that are similar to mine.
I read this over twice with a grin and a few tears.

I thought you would like it.. more than like it.. you can thank Steffi.. she found it. The tear must have been the honey bucket reference .Today I called the author and left him a voice mail message, lets see if he gets it and joins us. He and Steffi were living very close at that time.. but worlds apart.
A belated welcome to Tom-san.. we are happy you found us !
Medical update.. saw my Dr.. no more rat poison Yea!! [ I was wondering why I had a craving for cheese]