Moonbear said:
She won't live it down? It's your dad who bit the beetle in half.
Yes, and he reminds her of that fact constantly.
I strained my brain trying to think of a good deed that I was punished with no success. I can think of a mischevious deed that I was caught in that went unpunished though. It's one of my personal favorites.
I was in the Navy and we were on a 6 month cruise in the Mediterranean. When we were underway that amount of time they would often keep us busy with ship cleanliness, painting, waxing the floors, retiling, planned maintenance, all that good stuff. I was in the aircraft maintenance department which was fairly small on that ship because it was an amphibious carrier which transports Marine aircraft and they have their own technicians for these cruises. So my department had less spaces to maintain and we usually finished before many of the other departments.
One of the departments that was notorious for being overworked was engineering. They were like moles that lived in the dark, hot places of the ship and you would see them occassionally in the mess hall with their greasy coveralls and a sweaty smell and messy hair. It's about the only time I would see them because they worked twelve hour days and typically stood a 6 hour watch on top of that. Because of all the work they had to do they were always the last to finish the less important cosmetic upkeep projects.
My department was volunteered to help the engineering department paint some of their spaces. (It is unbelievable how much painting I did in the Navy. I was assigned to the hazardous materials department later and thought "Hey, I'm in charge of the paint now.") We weren't too pleased to be doing work for another department because it cut into our minesweeper games
so I and another shipmate decided to have a little fun with the engineers. We put paint underneath one of the ladder rungs and as the engineers came up and down they would get paint on their hands and we would laugh at them. It was more enjoyable when they got really upset but nobody was getting hurt or anything.
Then suddenly I see the ships captain at the top of the ladderwell and behind him is the admiral for the fleet group. They were both dressed in their dress blue officer uniforms and were taking a tour of the engineering spaces. I immediately called "Attention on deck!" and stood at attention. I happened to be painting a wall near the cieling and was standing on the ladder right by the paint. I pressed against the ladder rung hoping they would pass me and not get paint on them. Unfortunately the ladders on ships are very narrow and the captain told me in no uncertain terms "Get off the ladder." He was well known as a disciplinarian and a generally unpleasant person among the majority of the crew. I got off the ladder.
The captain came down just fine. The admiral came down and he didn't just get paint on his hand. He had a line of white paint on his dress blues that was about 6 inches long. The captain glared at me. It seems silly but I was actually very afraid. It's not like I would be fired and would have to look for another job. I was an indentured servant and I was responsible to the captain. The standard punishment for captains mast, of which we had a few every week, was something like 45 restriction to the ship, 45 days extra duty (they mustered about 6 times a day in different uniforms), reduction in rank (and thus overall pay and respect), and reduction in pay for 90 days (on top of the reduction in rank). So I was afraid. Not only could I face this punishment but I would lose the respect of the superiors in my department. I would be assigned to every unwanted duty, the more disgusting the better. They would sometimes ridicule us while we were in their presence and we had no right to defend ourselves. I was typically spared this cruel punishment, but I could imagine myself being subjected to it. (I was ignored for the most part because I was quiet and did what I was told. I learned to be stealthy and pass without announcing my prescence, like a ninja.)
Thankfully the admiral smiled and kind of laughed. He just said "Don't worry about it." And signaled to the captain to continue on. Needless to say, that was the last time I put paint under the rail.
What was the question?
Huck MoM
