And yes, the post chess club means "the chess club that resides at ft knox."
Wrestling practice was every day. Chess club was Tuesdays and sometimes Saturdays. Later we switched to Fridays. After wrestling on chess days, I would walk to the on-post recreation center, which was several miles from the high school. I'd play till about midnight or sometimes a little later and then walk home - about four miles. Sometimes I didn't get home till about 1 or 2 am.
Kinduva strange thing: If one of my brothers was five minutes late for dinner, they were in deep feces, but I could come home at 2 am and my dad was just ask, "Another late night at the library?" or something like that. OTOH, I never got arrested, either, so Dad was a little bit lenient with me.
I remember one day I gave blood - my first time. I had asked my dad for permission, but he doesn't believe in it for himself and refused. Then I did something I knew was wrong and that I hadn't done previously since I was a child - I went to my mother, who signed it. I gave blood, THEN went to wrestling practice. As I was late, I had to wrestle everyone (go through the mills). There were a number of us in the same boat. Then I walked home ... as soon as I walked through the door, my dad knew what I'd done. He didn't even yell at me. It was cold and my lips were numb. I was very dizzy. A few days later is when I broke the second guy's collarbone. I quit after that and just focussed on the intellectual things. I don't remember if I quit of my own accord or if my dad made me quit. Either way, I went back to playing chess a lot - not so much as I did in middle school when I'd play 12 or 14 hours a day, but maybe 1 or 2 hours every day, plus the club time. It was a lot of fun. I started out so shy and uncertain. But the guys (one officer rated an expert and an enlisted fellow rated C) who started the club disappeared and I was left holding the bag. I was never elected, but the rec center people came up and sort of assigned me to be in charge and put me down as the president. Thereafter I always showed up. It was also a lot of fun because the post Hawaiian club met downstairs and was playing their drums and doin the hula downstairs. I *loved* watching the girls do the hula. One day a girl came up to play with me - she was wearing actual coconuts. Dazzlingly beautiful and I couldn't take my eyes off her. I didn't let her win - I just honestly couldn't concentrate. Unfortunately I was too shy to strike up a real conversation and answered her questions with yes, no, duh, uh. Jesus did I blow that one.
Anyway, the chess thing was a big part of my life growing up.
k
