ned,
You were lucky: 18 months is as long as some marriages last! Sadly, none of us remains seventeen for more than a year - however hard we try. That was my age when I met my wife. That relationship lasted for ever. I look forward to cont¡nuing it on the next go round.
The US used to send an aircraft carrier to sit in the Bay of Palma, here in Mallorca. Then, some people began a movement to banish it elsewhere due to atomic power... That represented a huge financal loss to Mallorca and much of the collective Red Lights staff of the Spainsh mainland. You never saw so many hookers in town as when that boat came in! I guess its departure closed a lot of older hotels, too...
Prestwick in Scotland used to play house to the USAAF for many a year, and then the same story; political unrest, coupled with local resentment (echoes of WW2, when the "en route to their doom" American guys in England were cursed by the few local men left around for being over-sexed, over-paid and over here) and the hope of getting more money from the military led to a face-off where the Americans finally said screw you: we're off. It, too, ruined many a bar, emptied hotels and broke many hearts. That px store sure sold a lot more Zippos than there were US smokers on the base! A Scottish friend ended up driving an Chrysler fin-tail for many years...
Like with so much, folks don't always get when they are already well off.
But back to Sardinia: as I heard it, the sealine was always considered useless because you couldn't farm it: the girl children usually inherited it whereas the boys got the "'really useful" stuff where you could raise animals and food. Poetic justice: many girls became rather rich when tourism arrived, needing that worthless land for hotels, beaches and resorts in general. I like when that happens. In general, I think women are worth a damned sight more than men. Who was it said "Women are everything; men just muscle.." it might have been Bert Stern - my memory fails at times (I notice this, too.)?
Rob C
