Entry #13: October 18, 2005

Wackernheim, Rhineland-Pfalz, Germany (just west of Mainz and the Rhine River)

McCully Barracks

Ahh, memories of childhood. The taste of homemade fried chicken after church on Sundays, cruising around Papa and Mama’s yard in a motorized police bike, and watching Bo and Luke Duke outwit and outmaneuver Boss Hogg, Roscoe, and the rest of the Hazzard County sheriff’s department in their customized Dodge ’69 Charger, the venerable General Lee. Many of y’all have probably already seen the movie and are wondering why I am writing about it so late. Well, it just opened here in Germany, even at the military theatre. Nonetheless, I am still excited and rarin’ to go see it tonight. The show actually began before I was born and only ran up until around the time I started grade school, but syndication is a wondrous thing. My favorite Matchbox car as a youngin’ was, of course, the General Lee. I’ve actually seen some of the old stars in their post-Dukes pursuits—I saw Tom Wopat in Annie Get Your Gun when I was a freshman in college. Also, I’ve heard about the controversy about the movie in how it doesn’t live up to the same decency standards as the TV series—even Cooter got fired up about it, denouncing the movie. Well, I plan on issuing my own verdict. It’s always tough to beat an original, no matter how hard you spice up the new stuff. I reckon I’ll enjoy the movie, but hold on to the memories of the TV show.

Well, tomorrow, I climb aboard Delta for my return trip to the Land of the Big PX (that’s the States). Hopefully they’ll give me peanuts and a coke instead of that stale mix of stuff I’ve seen before. For the record, I love kids, but just not on airplanes. The last time I did the cross-Atlantic flight, the kid behind me thought my chair was a soccer ball. I almost punted him. Hopefully, that won’t occur this time around. And so the Soldier’s life continues…