Thursday, December 13, 2012

Hawaii 5-0, the Marines and My Sister

Thank you, Brenda at Ponderings With A Purpose!   Memories!!  

And you could add to that - - The Embarrassed

I'm not sure why I thought of this . . . but I had a childhood memory come to my mind just now and it made me laugh out loud. It involves my second oldest sister . . . and the United States Marine Corps.

I have three sisters - two older, one younger. My second oldest sister (I'll call her Mahala), unlike me, was very social, very cute and very popular in high school, which really has nothing to do with this story but may help you to better visualize as you read.   As I've written before, we grew up in Southern California.  To the south of us were two Marine Corps bases - El Toro and Camp Pendleton, which will come into play later.

Mahala used to like to watch Hawaii Five-0 (the original, not the rather lame imitation that is on now), and she would stand on the table and pretend she was surfing as they played the theme song. She was funny/crazy. Still is. In a good way. Mahala also used to like to watch the Johnny Carson show, which came on at 11 p.m. She would lay on the couch in the living room, watch Johnny and Ed for a few minutes and then usually fall asleep. In front of the couch was a coffee table (the Five-0 dancing table).

In my bedroom was a rather large window (almost as large as a sliding glass door, but not really). And it faced the driveway, which you could see from the street. And now that I think about it, how creepy is that? People could probably look in my room anytime they wanted. Eewwww. Anyway, on one particular night I was sleeping soundly when all of a sudden I was awakened by my sister running into my room screaming! And as I sat up in bed, I saw a figure running outside past my bedroom window toward the street. Holy cow!!! Needless to say, I was scared . . . and Mahala was even more scared. I'm sure we got our parents, but I can't really remember.

This is what happened. Mahala fell asleep on the couch in her usual fashion. The TV was on, the front door was locked. Mahala was changing positions and her arm flopped over onto the floor. Or, what would have been the floor if there wasn't a man asleep in between the couch and the coffee table to break the fall of her arm!!! She felt the man, immediately jumped up with what I'm sure was a pretty hysterical freaked out look on her face and came running into my bedroom. (I don't know why she didn't run into my parents' bedroom). We heard the front door slam. The figure I saw running outside my bedroom window - - of course, the sleeping man. Although he was wide awake now and he was bookin!

What we found out the next morning . . . the front door obviously was not locked. Okay. Note to self - - double, triple check all the doors before you go to bed. The sleeping man on the floor? Actually a sleeping 21 year old Marine who drunkenly entered the wrong home. He was stationed at one of the Marine bases and was visiting a friend who actually lived down the street from us.    He had been out drinking and I guess all the houses look the same when you're drunk. He thought he picked the right house. Wrong. When my sister's hand came down on him, he freaked!!! He went running out of our house and apparently found the right house this time (nothing like a good scare to sober you up!). He was way more scared than my sister, and very embarrassed and apologetic in the morning. We never saw him again!

Moral of the story? - - I'm not sure. Lock your doors at night. Don't get drunk. Sleep in your own bed.  You pick.

But thinking about it again this morning just made me shake my head and laugh.

Thank you, Brenda, for giving me a reason to remember this!
  

39 comments:

  1. OMG I would have freaked out too!!!!! Great story though and I'm glad that nothing sinister happened...so often stories like this don't have a good ending. I used to wonder about Daly City, just south of SF, b/c all the houses look the same. Malvina Reynolds even wrote a folk song about them called 'Little Boxes'. If you were drunk, how would you ever find the right house?!

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    1. Our neighborhood houses didn't even look alike! He was probably hoping the first house he came to was the right one :) So funny now looking back!!!

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  2. Love the story! It is quite freaky. Glad no one was harmed in the making of it.

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    1. lol. No, nobody was harmed in the making of this memory :)

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  3. Omg! That is a great story!! Holy crap!! Good thing it was a "harmless" Marine and not a serial killer! Altho I have to say, all the while reading this all I could think was, if this had been my house my dad would've shot that guy dead! And very creepy that you had that big window in your bedroom! Lol.. :)

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    1. Yes! That's what creeps me out the most thinking back on it - - the big bedroom window!

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  4. wow that must have been terrifying---great story :)

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  5. What a great story... and it was my pleasure Judy... I might have to make this a bi-annual prompt just to get all our memory juices flowing!

    Thanks for pondering with me

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  6. Wow!! An interesting story. I am glad it all turned out OK.

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  7. That's an awesome story! So funny, although I'm sure it was absolutely terrifying at the time. Love the morals—I think they're all equally relevant.

    Happy Thursday!

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  8. that is too funny! can you imagine? I would have had a heart attack I think.
    We had similar things happen when I lived in a university dorm. people could wander into your room at all hours of the day if you didn't lock the door.
    Once my room-mate and I woke up to find a man (drunk - aren't all these stories that?) peeing in our closet!!! The boys bathroom was just opposite our door, and I guess he went left when he should have went right.
    but ugh...we laughed about it later though.

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    1. I am SO glad my daughter is not living in a dorm!! haha

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  9. I am trying to figure out how you EVER forgot that story.

    I'll bet you dbl locked and chained the door after that!

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    1. and my sister never fell asleep on the couch after that!

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  10. When we first moved into this apartment, we had someone enter our apartment and walk into our bedroom. At the same time my hubby gets up to go to the bathroom and thinks the shadow in the hall was me then the dogs start barking and he sees me asleep in bed. HE chases this guy for awhile then comes back and calls the police. WE weren't used to locking our doors when we lived in the country and the cops caught him. Said he was stoned out of his mind and that he walked into a few other apartments that night. After that we got a door jam lock and that big thing by the door reminds me to lock our door every night. How scary.

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    1. We've had a drunk guy enter our home here too. He came in, walked to our refrigerator, opened it, shut it. We called the police and he waited for them to get there. Holy cow!!! Drink milk, people!!!!

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  11. Oh my...what a memory! Yikes! Things like this do stay with you!

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    1. Fortunately, nobody was traumatized. Well, I can't speak for the Marine . . . :)

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  12. The Marine is extremely lucky that he lived to feel embarassment. Imagine if your father would have walked out and found him first! This was a scary story and I was much relieved when it turned out ok. I can only imagine what that was like for your sister. I was once staying at the house of a friend alone and woke up to find someone standing in the bedroom doorway! Scared the beejebers out of me, even though it turned out to be a neighbor who was keeping an eye on the house and thought someone had broken in. Needless to say, I didn't sleep anymore that night! Funny how other people's memories stir up ours! I lived in military housing in ElPaso for a few years. The duplexes all looked alike and it wasn't at all uncommon for drunk soldiers to try entering the wrong house by mistake. We kept our doors locked and bolted at night! :-)

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    1. Okay, THAT would totally freak me out - to see someone standing in my bedroom doorway!! Seriously, I would never want to be alone after that - - ever!!

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  13. Oh my gosh, that would have scared me to death! But funny in hindsight. But still creepy - very funny story! Thanks for sharing!

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  14. Oh my! It's a funny story now, but I imagine it was terrifying at the time.

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    1. My sister sure was terrified - but No more than the Marine!

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  15. Was he a cute Marine?

    :-D

    Love this memory, Judy! Thanks so much for sharing it with us!

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  16. LOL! That must have scared the bejezus out of your sister!

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  17. Ha! Hilarious. But scary, too.

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  18. OMGosh how freaky scary! Growing up my dad worked night shift. If something like that happened in our house, my dad would have had to move us all out! Your story gave me goosebumps!

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    1. Now that you mention it, my dad worked nights too! This must have been his night off, though :)

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