Over Here: 34 - The Fool
"There was one fool who lived across the wide cul-de-sac circle. He was a Marine major, and the sort of man of whom I was thoroughly ashamed even at the age of eight or so,'' writes Ron Pataky continuing his life story.
Parkfairfax was not a melting pot. Populated almost exclusively by high-ranking military men and their families, it also included an assortment of fairly high level civilian workers - like my Dad. Only in later years did I come to realize how critical Dad's job was considered at the time. How it actually came about is anyone's guess, but it did. Our neighbor men to both immediate sides both wore four stars on their shirt collars. Below us, in the garden apartment to the east, lived a full admiral. Several former ambassadors and two actual cabinet members also lived in Parkfairfax. It was wartime, and just that kind of place.
There was one fool who lived across the wide cul-de-sac circle. He was a Marine major, and the sort of man of whom I was thoroughly ashamed even at the age of eight or so. This jackass boasted of a lampshade in his living room that he said was made of actual Japanese skin. And knowing him, it probably was. Even then, although undeniably wider-eyed than today, it was completely beyond my imagination, in eight-year-old terms, how any human being could sink so disgustingly low. The good major also made it clear to all who would listen that he himself had personally "harvested" that skin from the body of a dead Japanese soldier on an island called Guadalcanal (where the major himself had been seriously wounded). I "hated" Japs at the time, but it was clear to me that our side had its share of monsters, too!
