Unusual People: Part 2

In the military, you run into lots of people from all areas of the country and many different backgrounds. Of course all people are different...but some people are way more different than others.

In the sixties, many more people smoked than do today, and some had strange habits. One of these was a fellow member of our group of six, or eight guys who worked together, and hung out together after work, and on weekends. There were four of us who bunked in the same cube with two double bunks. I had the lower on one side, and he had the upper on the other side.

One night, I woke up to turn over, and saw him moving. He sat up in bed, turned around and grabbed his cigarettes and lighter from the top of his locker, and proceeded to light up. He didn't look around, and had a blank stare, and almost closed eyes. He just sat there and smoked, and dropped his ashes into the open end of the pipe that was the frame of the bunk. When he was done, he dropped the butt in the pipe, and lay down and went to sleep. Very strange! The next morning he denied that he smoked in his sleep!

Another oddity of his involved his car. First I should explain that of our group of five or six, four or five had cars.  At any given time, several guys were working, or had different plans, so three or four would go out in one persons car. Now when we were in his car, we had to be careful...ONLY cigarette ashes were to go in his ash tray. The butts went out the window. Any other things to throw away did the same, or you kept it in your pocket.

Most of our cars (including his) were from the late fifties, and the ash tray was at the lower center of the dash, and about the size of a dresser drawer! With no A/C back then, how did he keep the ashes from blowing around???  And what did he do with them? We never did find out! (But every now and then, it was empty.)