The "Molly Maguires" were miners in the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania who organized into a union during the 1860's and 1870's. These miners were chiefly, although not exclusively, Irish and the union was called the Workingmen's Benevolent Association. In general, the members of this union were also members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a semi-secret fraternal society, which had its origin in Ireland as a completely secret and anonymous association.
This organization of Irish miners was dubbed the "Molly Maguires," after a group of Irish peasants who dressed up as women to antagonize their landlords. This group was infamously known as murderers and assassins and the press and police in America applied the name to the Irish miners. The label was used by both the press and the owner-operators of the mining companies to their distinct advantage. They called anyone who was pro-union a "Molly," inferring that they were criminals at best. This helped to subdue, even if only slightly, uprisings in the work place.semi-secret fraternal society, which had its origin in Ireland as a completely secret and anonymous association. ADHD Left - squirrel is gone.
I digress. We get off the bus at Fort Dix and are told to stand on the painted feet in the parking lot. Like it was yesterday - these MPs come driving by in an open jeep with their white helmets and one of them yells, "You'll be sorry!" "Ha! I thought, I want to be here." Do I? Right...of course.
So a Drill Sergeant tells us to go into this room and sit on some bleachers. "Who here smokes?" he says. Most of the guys raised their hands. "Who smokes Camels?" A few raised their hands. "Good then, give me a cigarette." He then proceeds to light up. "Go ahead and smoke," he says so they all light up. Great, my first intro to the Army and it's almost midnight and my first look at a real "Soldier" is a Drill Sergeant who bums cigarettes. This would not happen in today's Army. No way no how.
That was the "hollow" Army. And that was no joke. The Vietnam War ended just months before and these guys coming back were a mess. Drugs were all over the place. Shoot - at my first assignment I was with a Military Police Company that kept guys who got busted for drugs in the Headquarters Barracks. One Sergeant got busted for selling pot and and four months later he's a Sergeant again...BIRD!!!!!!My first meal that night? Hot dogs and beans - yeah, can ya believe it? Could there ever be anything more clichéd than beans and franks in the Army? I doubt it. But all that to say that basic wasn't what I thought it would be. I flew through. Of course, I played sports year round so all the hard Soldier stuff was a breeze.
Then we had our first pass. Five of us went to the enlisted man's club and sat down for a few brews. I didn't drink (at that time) so I was the designated walker to be sure we all got back on time. Not one of us was over 18 and I was still 17 but this was the Hollow Army and the thinking was that if a guy could go out and fight and maybe die for the country doggone it why can't he have a beer? All we needed were our ID Cards and you got served. Heck, we even had beer machines in the barracks. At some places you could drink beer for lunch while on duty and they would issue tickets you could use to get the booze since they put a limit of 2 beers on you during duty. Of course there were bad non-drinker guys out there who would sell their beer tickets to the highest bidder. Every Friday afternoon was beer and soda time and the Commander or First Sergeant would buy beers and sodas and put them in iced garbage cans and that was the warm up for the evenings fun.
So here we are and the guys are building castles out of their beer cans when she appears. Now back in those days women were looked at a little differently...not in a bad way or that it was ever right - it was the way it was. Heck, the main magazine for the Army - Soldier's Magazine, would have a picture of a girl in some type of swimwear on the back inside issue cover of every issue. But out this lady? comes. She may have been 21. She was wearing a bikini, she didn't look too good to tell you the truth and I think she may have had a few before she got there...Then the magic starts...she turns on this boom box on the floor and starts gyrating...it was so bad that any teen-age lust was overcome with barrels of laughter. I mean, come on - this was supposed to entertain us? Not likely...not in this generation. But hey - there she was. The entertainment didn't last very long that I remember but it was a memorable performance...at least for five new teenagers in the Army.
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