Parallel Lives

I met Ken Godshal because of our surnames. We were both attending University of Texas Business School and had some of the same classes together. Students were assigned seating alphabetically, so we sat together.
We met to study together several times at the library during the year and parted ways at the end of the Spring semester of 1964. I was ousted for poor grades. At the time I didn't know what happened to Ken.
I drifted around for the next year, working part time, attending a junior college in Houston part time.
In the Spring of 1965 I entered a "training " school for Merchant Seaman. The "school" was run by the Seafarers International Union. To be able to work on a merchant ship, you had to have Seaman's Papers that were issued by the US Coast Guard. To get the Seaman's Papers, you had to have the endorsement of the Union. The union used this law to justify working a bunch of young guys and only paying room and board. I worked at the union hall in New Orleans and then got transferred to the Union Office in Houston. I had been working in the Houston office for about a month when one day, in walks Ken Godshal. He had entered the same program a few weeks before me in Mobile, and had traveled to Houston to board his first assignment. I was working , so we only talked for a few minutes. It wasn't until later that day that I realized what a coincidence it was that we had both gotten into Seafaring.
A few weeks later I got my first assignment on a ship going to Africa.
The ship made several stops in Africa unloading a bunch of new school busses and Wheat. The ship was returning to New Orleans where it was to reload and depart for an extended cruise to South America. I planned to stay aboard for the next cruse.
Upon arriving at New Orleans, I was informed that I could not continue because I had received a Draft Notice and had to report to Houston Draft Office. This was the Summer of 1965 and the Vietnam was ramping up and all loose young men were being gathered up. I had lost my student deferment, so I was a prime candidate.
After passing the physical, I decided to sign up for the Navy on a four year hitch. I was guaranteed training in the communications school in San Diego. I also would attend boot camp there.


I finished boot camp and then continued with 26 weeks training at the Radiomen's school in San Diego.
I finished Radio School and had to wait for my security clearance to be completed.
On a Sunday evening, I was returning to the base from a weekend with my relatives in Los Angeles. I was riding the city bus and as I entered, I notice there was a bunch of "boots" returning from their first day out after Boot Camp. They were easy to pick out with their short haircuts and new uniforms. All of a sudden , one of the "boots" walked up to me and said, "Don't I know you?" . I looked up and he did look familiar. I was trying to remember and then he said, "I'm Ken Godshal... we were at UT together".
I was blown away. Another coincidence that we had both joined the Navy.
We talked a little, but the bus arrived at the base, and he only had 10 minutes before he had to check back into the barracks.
I never saw him again while I was in the Navy and from time to time wondered where he had ended up. I didn't remember his home town, so I didn't have a clue as to how I could find him.
Twenty years past and one weekend I was visiting my Mother and she suggested I clean out the remaining items I still had in my old room.
I got a trash bag and started going through the chest of drawers that had been mine, tossing most of the contents away. In the bottom there was a cigar box with various pieces of paper and an old wallet. Before throwing the wallet away, I looked in side and found a small slip of folded paper. The paper had the address for Ken Godshal. He had lived in Mobile Alabama.
The next week I called information for Mobile Alabama, but there were no Godshal's listed. I decided to send a letter to the address and see what happened. Several months passed before I got a response. I was informed that the Godshal's no longer lived there and the writer thought they might have moved to New Orleans. I called information for New Orleans and there was one Godshal listed. I called the number and talked with Ken's father. He told me that Ken was married and that he and his wife had lived and worked all over the world. Currently they were living in Baton Rouge. After I explained who I was, he gave me Ken's phone number. I called several times over the next few days before I got an answer.. Ken answered and I told him who I was... he didn't remember me. I then recounted how our lives had crossed at school, in the Seafarers Union and then in the Navy. He laugh and said that I knew more about his life then he did, but he could not remember me. He and his wife had never "settled down" . They had worked as teachers all over the world, drifting from place to place every few years. He was currently working as a pressman at a printing company.
I told him what I was doing and he commented that it looked like I was settled down and that I was lucky. It was obvious from our conversation that he was still searching.
Our paths never crossed again.

©2011