Back to the Women in my Life.

After out fishing for Halibuts off the  Aleutian Isles in the Bering sea of the Pacific Northwest for ten days and offloading our catch of 25,000 pounds of fish in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, where the fish canaries are, we headed back to the home base at Sand Point arriving on the 4th. of July 1982. Upon arrival all five of the crew members including the captain were tired and mostly drunk from celebrating our catch. All of us were filthy and smelly from head to toe covered with slime and grime and the stench of oil and fish, however because we were all hungry and the lack of facility to properly cleaned up we decided to head on to the only Restaurant called the Windward Cafe ran by two young ladies, a Ms, Judy P. and Ms. Brenda K.When we arrived at the restaurant we found that it was full of fishermen, it being the Fourth of July and the only table left was right by the entrance where we gratefully occupied facing the crowd.
Almost all the customers were rough and tough full bearded long haired  fishermen from the 'Lower 48',anyone of them could have played for the Niners or the Green Bay Packers.. They were loud as most were celebrating the 4th. the only way fishermen in the North do, get totally shitfaced drunk
tell of fish tales, what was the biggest haul of Halibut or Salmon or King or Tanner crabs in what year and what season.. As we waited to be served I noticed one of the waitresses swaying out of the kitchen area with two large pizzas each on the palm her hand and as she walked away displaying her hind view to us I blurted out, "I am in Love!" I must have said it loud enough that she turned and looked at us and when I saw her face I shouted even louder, "I am, in love!" The whole room went like someone had dropped a stink bomb and everyone was figuring out who, heads turned and the sounds of fork and spoons ceased, I felt less than comfortable as for one reason i was the only colored guy in the whole place if not the whole community itself Too late to take a walk and nowhere to go I too mesmerized by her looks that i froze.She stopped midway and turned around to took a good look at who was  the audacious numb nut, her face red she smiled and went about her delivery, she reminded me very much of the girlfriend I had just broke off in Green Bay, Wisconsin.Suddenly i felt my hand being squeezed by the large and hard fingers of my skipper, Donald Bark under the table and he leaned over and whispered seriously, "You got a death wish, pecker head? Can't you tell that half the fucking guys in here are eyeing her already! ! Shut the F,,k up!" I had my foot in my mouth and when she came over later on to delivering our orders I apologized to her saying that i could not helped it.
. The other members of the crew of the Iceland had a good laugh fortunately and one of them said, when we were back on the boat the guys never laid it to rest it was the best 4th. of July topic for five wearied, tired and drunk fishermen. "So, Sam, what cha gonna do bout it man!" Phil Rowe a one time member of the Hell Angels in LA challenged me.  That same evening when the cafe was closed I left the boat and headed towards her apartment where she lived with her partner.Me in my smelly woolen sweater and a thick winter down jacket, long greasy hair and a facial hair like Atilla the Hun reeking of fishy smells set out to find my love at first sight.. Along the dirt path I passed some houses and from one of them an Alaskan Husky as tall as my waist slowly got up and sized me up from the distance and my blood  froze despite the Whiskey in me; i have a phobia of dogs having been bitten once by a German Shepard in Green Bay. (That's another story.). I decided there is no turning back and as I approached the dog stepped off the porch and lowered its head making its way towards me. I picked up a large rock and held it in my hand thinking that it is either you or me buddy, but i was not going to turn tail, no sir, I was a man possessed by Whiskey and Love, in whichever order it may have been.  As I approached the dog which reminded me of a wolf to my surprise it did not attack but just sized me up and went back to its porch. This i thought was a good omen, I faced down my worse nightmare and beat it and so i became more confident and made my way to the apartment.
I knocked on her door when I arrived and she opened it and shock was written all over her face, she was dressed in her night gown getting ready for bed and she looked ravishing. "I meant what I said this afternoon." I told her. She looked at me up and down and told me to get back from where I came and clean up myself and she was willing to meet me at the restaurant the next day. I  felt like i made a gold strike in the Yukon.I had almost redeemed myself with the rest of the guys at the boat. I was man enough to take up the challenge, and removed the shoe from my mouth, I did make an impact when I shouted I was in love!  facing down the Husky gave me the rites of passage. I lived with Judy for almost two years on the Island. The Trailer Home we lived in was never without good food including bottles of Kahlua and frozen pizzas all you can eat. I became a respectable member of the community including acting in plays held at the local high school. We drove from Anchorage to Fairbanks on one of our vacations and later we flew to Hong Kong and to Thailand and Malaysia. Incidentally I earned more selling artworks than I ever made fishing.
Judy was from Kent, Washington and a very Italian family whose father was also head of the Elk or Moose Lodge in the area and spends allot pf time hanging out at many dinners and outings held by the Lodge, I got along with them with no problem but inside somewhere the heart said nope, not this, won't work out, no long term commitments in the books. Like all soap operas our lives slowly drifted apart due to more details setting  in the form of concerned friends and relatives who saw it too. We parted as peacefully as we could and i ended up with loosing all my artworks and pictures that i took in Alaska to her of which i thought was a small sacrifice for a short term good relationship that went sour.
Not much lessons to be learned from this relationship other than the fact that it was grand while it lasted as far as experiences went for both of us.We each had a taste of the other's side of life she tasted what being a Malaysian was all about and I had a good sense of being among the well to do Italian living the American dream in Washington State. As for Judy personally she was a beautiful lady who had the courage and business mindedness to run the only restaurant out at Sand Point in the  Aleutian Isles and made a killing at it. She had ways with people that attracts them to her vibrant personality especially when she visited my families in Malaysia.  .

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