Motivational Poster Thread (warning content)

Played a lot of pool in that place. They had more flat chested dancers than anywhere else. I hope Saigon Sam's is still down the street....

 

Saigon Sam's main location is still on the opposite corner from Toby's. Not the original location I remember, which was in the path of the bypass, but close enough that you wouldn't notice unless you had a really good memory. New River and Camp Geiger gates are all messed up now. Lots of changes in the twenty-six years since I retired.

 

It's been a few yrs back since I was there ,,I was headed north on 17 ,, expecting to see the Second Front bars ,, and they were gone .
After I got out ,, they started " cleaning" up J'ville ,, they started with Court St ,,, what's a Jarhead got to do now , that they're closing all the bars ?

 

New breed. The drink quietly and go home early. It's killing the whole "second economy" around the Camps.

 

I think the economy around Camp Lejeune has shifted toward food and hospitality to match the current pay of military personnel. (A Private today is making $2407 in base pay) Instead of drinks at the bar and microwave bar food it's now drinks at the sports bar and real restaurant food. A lunch tab for two is in the $80-100 range at most places.

If there's a restaurant we don't have in town yet, there's probably two planning to open soon. Even the sandwich shop at Wawa is packed. I won't hold my breath for Krystal Burger, since we're several hundred miles outside their distribution zone, but this little town at the end of the earth, an hour drive from the nearest interstate, has surprised lots of businesses in the past. The young, constantly changing population and their disposable income is the key.

A visit to the range is always interesting. I asked some Marines if they were still issued training ammo. They'd never heard of such a thing. They shot up a couple hundred dollars worth of ammo on Saturday, and were back again on Sunday.

I remember when we made $412 a month as a Private. One guy in the platoon had a car, and we'd dog pile into it, get some Mountain Dew and pretzels, drive out onto some tank trail and take turns shooting a .22 at some cans. Saturday night we'd see how many guys could fit in the trunk of a '72 Roadrunner when we went to the drag strip.

If the car was broken, and it often was, we'd push it over a ditch to work on it. If we had to go anywhere we had to get squared away and hop the base bus to get to town. I still see those concrete mushrooms occasionally around base. I bet nobody knows what they were for nowadays.