Follow-up to Kona curse. Guest Post

Sent to me by Jay Yurth, former shipmate.  Author.  (Amazon.com).

Funny how you can remember so many stories around such a simple act as making coffee on an Aircraft Carrier.  I know that we used to make the most junior seaman on each shift make coffee.  That was just how it was, unless you 'won' the right to do it for some extended amount of time due to committing a mistake on the job.  This was just one of many little power trip items a supervisor had at his disposal to keep order on the ship.  The making of coffee entailed dumping the grounds out, if and only if there was more grounds available.  If coffee rations had kicked in while at sea for some extended amount of time, we would use them thar grounds to make a second, what was it, 10 or 20 gallon pot?  Weak coffee at that point, but still coffee.  Then the sailor would take the percolator up 3 flights of steep ladders into a 'head' with a deep sink., fill it up, then lug the now heavy pot back down the ladders, which now were even more precarious, especially if the ship was moving side to side slowly, put the filter/tray holding the grounds on the stem, then if you could find the hole it went in at the bottom of the pot, you could secure the top and plug it in, all the while being scrupulously watched by the not awake staff mulling around you.  Then the wait started.

Can you remember how many times you stood around that coffee machine on top of the small refrigerator, waiting for the red light to pop on before you could even attempt to talk to anyone?  There usually would be no 'turnover' until the red light was ON and coffee was flowing.  There were mini mutinies within the shop if the coffee mission had failed.  The outgoing supervisor might have to send out a reconnaissance team or point-man to secure some wake-up juice from another shop or division, if the incoming super or Chief was not satisfied.  This might mean bartering.  This required the supervisor to choose the best seaman to do his bartering for him.  The seaman might ask if he could trade a very valuable cup of sugar or a handful of small rectangle packages from some of the 'black gold'.  If the answer was yes, then off he went, quickly, to make the score.  If successful, he would be rewarded with a pat on the back and not have to sweep, mop and wax when the next field-day rolled around.

Oh those rectangle packets.  They were creamer packets.  Usually extremely hardened little packs of cream, that when put in the coffee cup, would float on top of the coffee until vigorously stirred but many times would never dissolve and would simply become a filter of often 'twice run' coffee as it pressed against your lips when you took a sip to start your 12 hour day of keypunching.

Ah, keypunching.  But those are other stories...