Timothy McGarry:  

I lived on Guam from 1957 until I got married to my wife Susan (Captain Susan Buckman) and left in 1992. My family's first home on Guam was in Tamuning about 150 yards from the beach known now as Rick's reef. We lived in Hut 26 old Camp Watkins. Kenny, Wally and Terry Werner lived about 2 blocks away, Kenny and Maggie Pier another 2 blocks east around the point from us (I joined Cub Scouts with Kenny Pier). Kenny Werner and I learned to ride 2 wheelers together because neither of us could reach both the pedals and the handlebars at the same time (I was 5 and Kenny was 4). I had a treefort and so did just about all my friends. We played on the beach from Sleepy Lagoon all the way around the point to what became known in the 60s as Ricks Reef. We climbed the cliffs and caught fish with the mostly Palauan and Filipino fishermen. We had an outrigger with the main hull made out of corrugated tin and bamboo outriggers. I went to first, second and part of third grade at old Wettengel on the corner of Marine Drive and the road to NCS Finegayan. The school was 2 story Butler buildings clad in corrugated steel. Joe Borland, Steve Bereman and Ralph Sgambelluri were classmates of mine in first and second grade. In the second grade, I stuck a bobbie pin in an outlet and kicked the breakers in the main wing. That was the first time I was sent to the office but certainly not the last. I went to the third grade at Wettengel for the first two months and got to visit the office for climbing down from the second floor on the pipes that ran down the side of the building. I also got to visit the office for fighting in the playground a couple days later. I went to Mount Carmel in Agat from the third until the seventh grade. Kenny Crandall and I got into trouble frequently for arm wrestling for lunch money with anyone we could catch. We also competed for money splitting tops. I loved Mount Carmel, the grading system was very challenging, the grading went thus: 96 to 100% was an A; 90 to 95% was a B; 86 to 89% was a C and 80 to 85 % was a D; anything below 80 was failing. Not many kids failed. I believe that kids rise to challenges and all the kids in my classes passed with Cs and better. I once got an 89 and thought it was the worst punishment I ever had. Keng's store was right next to the school and had the best Daigo and pickled Papaya. Keng's also had the best empanada anywhere. I played left field for the Apra Cubs from 1960 to 1963. We were beaten the first game all three years by the Yankees from Lockwood Terrace in Naval Station and always won every game after that, taking first every year. I think losing that first game to the Yankees was a tradition because Apra had taken first for the three years before I played and several years after too. Burl Scruggs pitched most games but Bobbie Starling stood in for him sometimes. I was at Agat Junior High for eighth and ninth grades, sort of. I had discovered reading at Mt. Carmel and had even been suspended for skipping school. I skipped out to read all the books I got for Christmas. I continued to skip school to read in the eighth grade but still got very good grades. In the ninth, my reason for skipping changed; my friends and I spent a whole quarter at the Apra Creek, smoking cigarettes, barbequing and skinny-dipping rather than go to school. The people I ran around with at the time, Glen and Jackie Scott, Bobby Starling, Robert Hines...Expand for more