A large, noisy snack bar (geedunk) served the usual burgers, fries and sandwiches. Beer was cheap, but sold no wine or liquor. At that time, before politicians made all of life's decisions for our benefit, the drinking age in New York State was just 18 years. As a result, the geedunk was always full of young seamen drinking pitchers of beer and plugging money in the jukebox.
The place was very loud. Popular music at that time was largely the surfing sound stuff, played repeatedly at the threshold of pain. It all sounded the same and was always too loud. Three of us conjured up a prank of what might have been called civil disobedience. Or military disobedience, maybe.
We found the main disconnect switch that controlled all the electric power to the snack bar, juke box, lights and all. One night each of us filtered out to the adjacent utility room where we pulled the handle on the switch box, shutting down the power. Yelling and hollering came from the very dark geedunk next door. Instantly, we ran up the stairs and lost ourselves in the labyrinth of dormitories above. All three of us avoided the geedunk after that.
There
was a collection of sailor bars, or shipyard worker joints, along
Flushing Avenue. For whatever reason the only music on their jukeboxes
was Ritchie Valens' La Bamba, or other excessively loud stuff that
sounded like it. The notorious three sailors, plus an accomplice or two
pulled off another caper in one of these bars. I dunno how nobody
noticed while we stole a neon beer sign from the window, then smuggled
it aboard Michelson. We intended to install it in one of survey control
center's picture windows but the neon tubes broke.There was a petty officers' club (or acey ducey club) in the navy yard that was fairly civilized, the music was quieter and you could get a real drink. The food was pretty good too. Sailors and marines used to appear there with dependents for dinner and drinks. It was quieter there as well.
Being in the New York area was good as I grew up on Long Island and had family there. Sometimes when not on one of my night time watches I'd make my way to the Long Island Railroad station and take the train home. Public transport at the navy yard was not the best. The nearest subway station was a long walk through not too hospitable streets. It was better to wait outside the RECSTA for a bus to the subway.
The advantages of being close to New York were hard to pass up. The movies were one of my interests back then. I remember standing in line out in the cold to see Doctor Strangelove when it first came out at a Times Square cinema. So called art films were screened at little theaters in Greenwich Village. One I recall featured Claudia Cardinale in the Italian speaking, and now forgotten, Girl With a Suitcase. Recently I saw it again on DVD. It looked like a different picture from what I remembered. Even the music soundtrack was different. It seems that American audiences get to see only "matinee versions" of foreign films. Trying to keep young sailors out of the bars, the RECSTA showed movies in the evening and on weekend afternoons.
Chamber music concerts at the New School on west 13th street featured the great Russian violinist Alexander Schneider, who led a small group in concertos of J. S. Bach. Schneider was also the first violin in the world famous Budapest Quartet. His brother Mischa was cellist. I thought myself fortunate to get tickets to several of these concerts.
One of the guys had a car. For whatever reason he liked to go to into Manhattan's Chinatown and eat the unredeemed, ersatz chinese food served back then. So, we'd all pile in his little Chevy Corvair and head to Manhattan to drink beer and eat chop suey with egg rolls. This was better than the fare at the receiving station. Manhattan's Yorkville (East 86th street) area was another favored destination, lined with German bars and restaurants.
