Bill Andrews:
CLASS OF 1975
Kubasaki High SchoolClass of 1975
Okinawa,
Bill's Story
Army brat. Born in Naha, Okinawa. Have a brother a year older and a brother a year younger; we were the stealy boys that you heard about. That is the reason, you won't find any Torii yearbook pictures of us. If you do, it may be an impostor. I have found a rare HS photo of myself. Take a look at my "Then" picture just above on this page. Do you remember me? A note for the younger crowd; we didn't have cell phones with cameras back then. Most of the so-called selfies of me were hand drawn by my friends and as you can see in the "Then" photo, the artist got a tad lazy and left off all the hair on my head. I had much more hair than that. The smile was pretty accurate and the addition of the guitar was really cool. I believe Katsuya Nagy (aka Casey) drew that during lunch break. Or, maybe it was Mary Ann Arakaki who drew it. Anyway, I found the pic on a table and took it because it looked just like me minus the hair.
In '59, we moved to Germany. Baby sister was born in Germany. We moved to Georgia in '62; went to elementary school there. Georgia teachers are the best! They cured my ADHD with lots of paddling. Yep, that's right, they spanked the ADHD out of me.
Returned to Okinawa in '71. Went to K-9, then Kubasaki HS (72-74). Lived in Ojana. In Ojana, Neil Chastain and his sister Sue were my friends. Then we moved to Machinato. I was the ping pong champion of the Machinato Teen Club for at least 3 or 4 weeks in 1973 . If you were a big ping pong fan, you may remember how I soundly defeated Al Goodknight, or maybe it was Carl or Sam Albert, or it could have been Brian Masaki, or Steve Brochon, or Dave Hopkins; on second thought maybe it was Kevin Schaffer or Richard Nakanishi; anyway it was one of those guys (it is all so foggy right now). I'm sure Sherra Kirshfield, Jenny Owen, or Dorie & Roberta Park remembers. Dorothy Evans was the scorekeeper. Or, maybe it was Kathy Higa. Anyway, it was a battle for the highly coveted Machinato title and I was focused on winning the tournament. Tori Danbara, Diane Olshefsky, Rodney Fogle, Eileen Nakashima, and Rosaline Rogers were rooting for me. Al had a much larger fan base. It must have been those easy rider sideburns that made him so popular. No one thought I had a chance, not even my mentor Norman Cheu. (Anyone remember Norman--very quiet guy but without a doubt the coolest dude at KHS). I think I actually was sober when I won the final game; can't say my opponent was.
I poked fun at Al Goodknight, but I want add that he was and still is one of my closest friends. He was the glue that held all my other Machinato friends together. We hung out at Al’s house where we listened to music and “Cheech & Chong” records. His mother would serve us ice cream, so it was the place to be.
A little on Norman. I don't know much about his personal life, but recall vividly the first time I met him. He was at my house. I didn't invite him over, but probably one of my brothers did. He had a pair of drumsticks in his hand and was ready to jam. But he had no drums, not even at home. He just asked for some pillows. With two brothers around, practical jokes were a frequent occurrence. I didn't know what to think, but I was ready to play along. I took my bass out without plugging to amp and we played a few songs, very quietly. He matched me lick for lick--I never imagined pillows could sound so good. I could tell he was really into the music and very talented. I'm going out on a limb, but it is my opinion that Norman was the best pillow drummer on Okinawa, maybe even the world (U-tube wasn't around back then to prove it). Man, he could play the pillows! But I didn't know how we could ever play on stage together. He said if we could find some drums to borrow, he could play a gig. Well we did that. First time I ever heard him play real drums was on stage in front of an audience and we were getting paid for the performance. His performance was flawless. We played all over Okinawa, many venues, and he never owned a drum set. I want to thank all those guys that let us borrow your drums--they went to good use. As I said, coolest guy I ever met: Norman was the "real deal."
Played in a rock band with my brothers (and with other great musicians like Steve Brochon, Brian Masaki, Roy Suetomi, and George Driskell to name a few). We played all over the rock. I also was in the Kubasaki stage band. We played in the cafeteria during lunches. Yes I was the guy who couldn't read music because I never had a music lesson in my life. We had a really cool music teacher; he never once corrected my off-key playing. He would just tell me to jam while everyone else was playing to sheet music.
We left in '74 and moved back to Georgia. Graduated in '75 from the Academy of Richmond County. In '77 while playing in a rock band on an out-of-town gig, we were driving thru Athens, made a wrong turn, parked in front of the UGA registrar's office, and as a joke we filled out admission applications (we wanted our parking ticket valid...Expand for more
ated). The joke was on us though, because me and the guitarist got accepted. The next thing we knew, we were college students. I became a Georgia bulldog. Soon after the guitarist was kicked out leaving me to fin for myself. I went to ROTC for financial support. Took a test, got a haircut, signed the form and they gave me some money. I'm not sure I realized at the time I was joining the USAF. Then Air Force sent me to grad school USC (I told them I was a dummy but they sent me anyway)--became the first air force Trojan bulldog--a unique breed. (I'm only telling you the details so that your children don't make the same mistakes I made). Lived all over the world, to include Kadena AB, Okinawa and Hawaii, Lived in the Philippines; Mt Pinatubo blew its top while I was there. After that I was put into the JASDF under a special program. Was in the Japanese Air Force for 2 years as an instructor at Hamamatsu Air Base, Shizuoka Ken, not far from Fujiyama. Then went to the S Korea army; ate lots of kimchi and became a soju connoisseur. Then went to the Hellenic Air Force in Greece; then Italy, New Mexico, Utah. You guessed it, I'm a transient--some would say homeless. I couldn't answer the question, "Where are you from?"
I retired from the Air Force in 1999, then got pulled back in due to 9/11. Then I retired again in 2003, and started working at a National Laboratory in CA. Did something strange, I joined the Air Force again as a reservist. Got assigned to HQ Pacific Command, Camp Smith, Hawaii. My job was to guard the beaches. Tough assignment, but somebody has to do the dirty work. I don't mean to brag, but there was not a single attack on Hawaii during my watch. I retired again, this time from the AF Reserves. Soon I will retire from the National Lab. I'm trying to set a record for retirements.
All I can say is, I've been one heck of a lucky dog and I hope all of you are doing well too, Is anyone out there interested in talking about Okinawa 1971 to 1975? Email me, let's connect. I love stories from that time period about Okinawa. Anyone remember the Kubasaki great walk out of 74??? It was epic.
Unfortunately this website would not let me put my email address on here, I'm also on Linkedin under the group Kubasaki Alumni. You can find me there. Or, try andrewsb466 and then put at gmail, you know the rest. Even if you didn't know me, I'd like to hear your stories of Okinawa in the 70's.
A short vignette that just popped into my head recently (Nov 2021). It was Spring of 1972. I was in K-9. There were few guys at K-9 who were lifting weights. It was easy to tell who because they all had broad shoulders and thick arms. One day I was joking with one of them and I said, “Man you must be pumping some iron. I used to lift weights too.” I was referring to the occasional weight lifting I did when I was on the junior high football team in Georgia, but I was never a serious weight lifter. “How much can you bench press?” he asked. “Oh, about 150 pounds,” I replied. “You still work out?” he asked. “Na, I quit. Found out that chicks aren’t into weight lifters. They like musicians. I was buff and bulging with muscles, but decided to lose it for the chicks,” I said, thinking I was being funny. Well word must have gotten around fast. When school was over, there were about 4 muscular guys waiting for me at my bus. They escorted me to another bus. We got off at a bus stop that was close to one of the military gyms. We went in and they directed me to get on the bench, as weights were being put on the bar. Jack Fujikawa was on one side lifting the bar with 150 pounds on it, and Marvin Chunko was on the other side. I actually thought I could do it because of goofy logic that went something like this: I was about 130 pounds and could do 20 good pushups, so benching 150 pounds seemed achievable. Once the weights were above me and I took hold of the bar and they let go, I knew I was deep in the benjo ditch. I let the bar down as slow as possible because I didn’t want to smash in my chest cavity. Once the bar was on my chest I don’t think I was able to move it even an inch. They gave me a couple of minutes to try my best and eat some humble pie. Now, for the best and most significant part of the story. Shortly after moving to Machinato, I met one of the weight lifters again because he also lived there. He asked me to teach him how to play guitar. I did that several times and he was a fast learner. I used to spend nights over at his house and we would play guitars all night long along with records. We had so much fun. He became my best friend and the best guitarist I’ve ever played in a band with. If you have ever heard Brian Masaki play the guitar, you know what I’m talking about. I loved hearing him play. He was truly gifted and he was a big inspiration in my life. I have to add: I didn't know Jack, Marvin, or the others until that day we went to the gym together, but from that day on, I considered all of them to be friends of mine.
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