[Granville-Hough] 30 Nov 2009 - Thule Recreations

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:44:14 -0800
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Thule Recreations - 30 Nov 2009

       As I thought about my experiences at Thule 46 (now 48)years ago,
the thought
came to mind, what did we do for recreation?  (By the way the name Thule
is pronounced "Too-lee" with the accent on the Too. I think it means
"the end of the earth.") Now back to entertainment.  I want to mention
the USO
groups who would come up periodically for six weeks.  They would perform
at all the clubs and service centers and Nike Hercules batteries five
nights a week, and you could go watch them.  Some were very good, and
some were readily forgotten.  I was never fond of night club
entertainment, but I did watch several groups.  It was really my first
introduction to electric guitars, sound boxes (amplifiers),  and other
gimmicks that I became very familiar with later when my son Robin
embraced that culture.
    We had a small gymnasium for the air base, and I renewed my interest
and skill in handball.  We never had a base competition, but I would
have placed pretty well.  One long summer day, it seemed very warm after
a game and I stepped outside the gym  to look at the thermometer.  I
believe it was 39 degrees Farenheit, but I was told the record was 41
degrees.  So that was the warmest day I ever saw  there, and it was
about 1 August.  Of course the flowers were in full bloom on the
hillsides  desperately trying to make seed for the year; but, alas, it
was to no avail.  A week later, we had snow and a killing frost.  Try
again next year.  On the cold side in the darkness of winter, the
average temperature was between zero and ten degrees.  The coldest I saw
was forty degrees below zero, and it gets colder than that on the high
plains and mountains of the U. S.  March was the coldest month, then the
longer days gained the upper hand.
    I think every battery had ping-pong tables which could be set up and
there were spirited games.  In my BOQ (Barracks, Officers Quarters), we
also had pool and billiard tables, and of all things painting by the
numbers materials.  You could do a Marylyn Monroe, or you could do your
wife and children, if you were clever at it.  We had a library with all
kinds of curious donations from former folks.  Of course, we had
Protestant and Catholic services on Sunday, and some of us attended
quite faithfully, though I can remember no sermon I heard there.
    Of course the soldiers were always interested in inventing their own
entertainment.  When the ground became fully covered with snow and ice
chrystal, some soldiers in Delta battery decided to bob-sled.  After
some different trials, someone suggested that the engine hood of an old
staff car, turned upside down, looked like a natural bobsled.  So off to
the dump they went and found just what they wanted.  They got it off and
proudly brought it back.  It worked quite well on the road and down some
nearby slopes.
They went to the highest slope near their battery to get a real ride.
Two people got on it and started down.   They had not reckoned on the
reaction of the ice crystal  to the heat developed from friction of the
hood.  The  hood got faster and faster, and they had no control
whatsoever.   They were going so fast they were afraid to jump or roll
off.   People who were watching thought it was going 100 miles an hour
and ran for safety.   As it got into the battery area, it began to hit
obstructions, building, and finally  stopped, less the two fellows.
Both were badly injured when they were knocked off by various impacts.
So that was the bobsled adventure.  I think the two soldiers had to be
rotated so they could get hospital treatment not available in Thule.
One way to get out of Thule.
    In my BOQ we had an Air Force Lt Col who was interested in the whole
Arctic scene.  When he got his month's leave, instead of coming to the
states, he wangled an invitation from Danish Liaison Officer to spend a
month with the Eskimos hunting seal, narwhals, and polar bears.  He made
friends with the Eskimos, who were quite willing to take on a neophyte
hunter interested in their normal way of life.  He learned the seal
techniques in a day or two, then proposed they go hunt polar bears.  Now
the Eskimos had learned that when you hunted polar bears, they also
hunted you.  They had ways to do it and survive.  First you needed to
have a polar bear suit, which made you look just like another polar
bear.  (And of course, you needed a high powered rifle with multiple
shots.) The only way the Eskimos had to cure polar bear skin was to use
human urine and other ingredients.  It had to be pliable enough to allow
you to do all the things polar bears do, but the suits smelled to high
heaven of polar bear and human urine.  You also had to learn all the
characteristic noises  polar bears make.  A small group of three would
then go into polar bear territory and crouch along making routine polar
bear noises.  When the polar bears saw this group and smelt it, they did
not necessarily come straight forward.  They might go far around and
come up in your rear.  So you had to keep alert 360 degrees.  I do not
know how many bears they saw or killed on the hunt but the Air Force
officer came back with a polar bear suit, probably the one he had worn
on the hunt.
    In the month while he was gone, several new officers had arrived.
He decided to give them a good scare.  So, one evening he donned his
suit and came out into the hallway making polar bear noises and
scratches on doors.  The newly arrived officers looked out and saw this
polar bear creature in the dim light and made for the exits, shouting:
"Polar bear in the BOQ, Run for your lives."  Others said, "you must be
mistaken, polar bears only go to the garbage dump."  The refuges
insisted: "I saw him, I heard him, I smelled him." By then the Air
Police had been called and arrived to confront the culprit, which they
did with pistols drawn.  Then the culprit took off his head piece and
his bear claws and convinced them it was all a hoax.  But not to the
Commanding Officer.  He arrested the fellow, locked him up, charged him
with whatever seemed to fit; and asked he be transferred immediately,
which soon happened.  Another way to get out of Thule.
    So we had our amusements, some harmless, some otherwise.  Love to
all, Grampa.