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Tales from a fine storyteller -
Pity she was such a facile liar. Because man, could she tell a tale.
Once upon a time, I knew a young lady through the QL circles named Joyce Hatcher (actually, there is a long list of names between those two, if I was to believe her, but that's another story for another day) - she was the person who introduced me to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
silverkun all those years ago...and she did things for me when both Cliff and I desperately needed them, things nobody else could have done. I never regretted inviting her to come into my home to help care for him, but in the end - lies and money issues ended the relationship. And did I see it coming? Sure - but you always hope you're going to be the exception, right?
Anyway.
She had a lively cast of characters I never met, but that I understood to be family.
admnaismith was talking about a chili cookoff this morning (this came about after finding him winning an ARC in a contest sponsored by seanan_mcguire, and glad I was to see it - holy chrome. Yes, I'm still finding awesome people on LJ - that's just how I roll.) and it twigged a memory of one chili cookoff Joyce told me about.
She had a cousin who was a Marine Corps drill sergeant (I think - this is over ten years ago, bear with me) down at Camp Pendleton - and while I often heard about Cousin David in various references to the military, its culture and whatnot, the best stories involved him and his pet iguana, Sgt. York.
And Sgt. York had always been described as BIG, green and harmless...unless you came in unawares to where he hung out in the bathtub to use the facilities. Maybe Cousin David remembered to tell you about Sgt. York before you got there...but you had a savings throw to make to be sure he did. People often came out of loo blanched and flailing and yup, Sgt. York had claimed another one.
So, there was this chili cookoff. Cousin David was doing the cooking, with some of squad helping out and at the critical juncture, the meat was required.
From what I understand, it was a pound or two of something esoteric, like bison or venison - something less than common fare - stew meat cut, right? And it was out in the truck, in the front seat. Telling the young recruit to go fetch it, he jokingly added "...and you might have to kill it." Adding to the mystique and all that.
Connected the dots, have you?
Yup, Sgt. York had been left to 'guard' the secret ingredient. I'm pretty sure the recruit had come from a part of the country where field-dressing something was common practice, so when he came back with about a pound or two of dressed chunks of meat...nobody said anything.
And damn, they won the cookoff, whadya know!
Cousin David was berefit when he got back to the truck and found his 'secret ingredient' still sitting there in the cooler where he'd left it...and Sgt. York was nowhere to be found.
I don't know what happened to the recruit after that.
But every time somebody mentions a chili cookoff, secret ingredients and quirky recipe titles, I think of this story. I have no reason to think it's true...entirely...and no reason to think it's just a tall tale...entirely.
And I love the idea of someone in the Marine Corps having a pet iguana named Sgt. York.
Once upon a time, I knew a young lady through the QL circles named Joyce Hatcher (actually, there is a long list of names between those two, if I was to believe her, but that's another story for another day) - she was the person who introduced me to
silverkun all those years ago...and she did things for me when both Cliff and I desperately needed them, things nobody else could have done. I never regretted inviting her to come into my home to help care for him, but in the end - lies and money issues ended the relationship. And did I see it coming? Sure - but you always hope you're going to be the exception, right?Anyway.
She had a lively cast of characters I never met, but that I understood to be family.
admnaismith was talking about a chili cookoff this morning (this came about after finding him winning an ARC in a contest sponsored by seanan_mcguire, and glad I was to see it - holy chrome. Yes, I'm still finding awesome people on LJ - that's just how I roll.) and it twigged a memory of one chili cookoff Joyce told me about.She had a cousin who was a Marine Corps drill sergeant (I think - this is over ten years ago, bear with me) down at Camp Pendleton - and while I often heard about Cousin David in various references to the military, its culture and whatnot, the best stories involved him and his pet iguana, Sgt. York.
And Sgt. York had always been described as BIG, green and harmless...unless you came in unawares to where he hung out in the bathtub to use the facilities. Maybe Cousin David remembered to tell you about Sgt. York before you got there...but you had a savings throw to make to be sure he did. People often came out of loo blanched and flailing and yup, Sgt. York had claimed another one.
So, there was this chili cookoff. Cousin David was doing the cooking, with some of squad helping out and at the critical juncture, the meat was required.
From what I understand, it was a pound or two of something esoteric, like bison or venison - something less than common fare - stew meat cut, right? And it was out in the truck, in the front seat. Telling the young recruit to go fetch it, he jokingly added "...and you might have to kill it." Adding to the mystique and all that.
Connected the dots, have you?
Yup, Sgt. York had been left to 'guard' the secret ingredient. I'm pretty sure the recruit had come from a part of the country where field-dressing something was common practice, so when he came back with about a pound or two of dressed chunks of meat...nobody said anything.
And damn, they won the cookoff, whadya know!
Cousin David was berefit when he got back to the truck and found his 'secret ingredient' still sitting there in the cooler where he'd left it...and Sgt. York was nowhere to be found.
I don't know what happened to the recruit after that.
But every time somebody mentions a chili cookoff, secret ingredients and quirky recipe titles, I think of this story. I have no reason to think it's true...entirely...and no reason to think it's just a tall tale...entirely.
And I love the idea of someone in the Marine Corps having a pet iguana named Sgt. York.