In 1982 while stationed in Panama, my friends Debbie, Edna, Darlene, and Sheila and I were hanging out in the barracks. Four of us lived on the Pacific side of the country, but Sheila lived on the Atlantic side of Panama, a couple of hours drive away – (not an easy drive either). She needed to leave early evening or late afternoon, but we were all stuck up on the third floor scared to death because for some odd reason, there were a lot of bats flying around in the hallway. Sheila needed to leave, and we had to find a way to get her out of the barracks. We kept yelling out the window to anyone who would listen, but no one would listen, so we threw a huge blanket over all five of us, tip-toed out into the hallway, and one for all, and all for one, together we pulled the fire alarm.
A few minutes later, everyone evacuated (except for the five of us), and firemen were swarming our barracks looking for the fire. They never found the fire, but they did find us 😉 Those handsome firemen escorted us out of the building safely, and we had to stay outside for a couple of hours. Everyone was angry at us for keeping them up late when we all had to be in formation the following morning at 4 a.m. for our usual 3-mile Monday morning run. At the start of formation that next day, the Battalion Commander announced that after PT, the five of us (called us each out by name in formation!), were to report to the Commander’s office.
We rehearsed the story, each one of us telling the same lie. One by one we went in to get questioned, and all five of us stuck to our story and denied pulling the fire alarm.
At Major Schuler’s retirement party, he laughed and asked us, “So tell me ladies, were there bats in the belfry?” And once again… we all denied it.
Today I was laughing with a friend about unconfessed lies from our past… silly stuff like this – little white lies we told as kids, like when I turned my coat inside out to sneak out of school unrecognized by my teacher who had told me I had to stay after school for talking to much! (shocker, I know).
Major Schuler is long gone now, and I’m all grown up (well, sort of), so here’s my confession.
Yes Sir. We did it. We pulled the fire alarm.
Whew, I feel better 😉
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