I think most Civilians have no idea how Basic Training changes your life in little ways. Even tho I grew up in a huge family, I used the bathroom by myself. Sure there were knocks on the door and questions about: "What are you doing in there?"
But it wasn't until Basic training that I saw anybody but me...naked. And I sure didn't see fifty men naked, wandering into the Latrine to: "Shit, shower, and shave." With commodes just right next to each other...no stalls. No dividers. No privacy.
And there in starts today's weird memory. Bear.
Most of us were 18 years old. A smattering of 16 and 17, and another small smattering of guys in their 20's. (1969 and the Draft caught a lot of Newly minted College Grads, and young Fathers.) So most of us, were...well...smooth. Maybe a shadow of a mustache, and some brightly colored pubic hair.
But not Bear.
He looked like someone tried to make him into a rug. From head to toe...hair. Dark. Thick. Curly. And everywhere. Only the bottoms of his feet were uncovered. Maybe.
He put up with the stares. The comments : "Bear, is that fur?" "Bear, want to use my shampoo...I only have one bottle tho, I guess you could do your arms." "Bear, when you go to the Zoo...to they try and recapture you?"
And he left that hair - or some of it anyway, in sinks, on shower walls, bedsheets, and worst of all, soap.
In Basic, most of us just used whatever soap was left in the dish next to the shower. Otherwise you would go through a bar a day. But nobody touched "Bear's Soap." It looked like some kind of giant caterpillar- or mini hedgehog.
He even got yelled at by Offices and Senior NCO's because thatches of hair stuck out under his collar, sleeves, and the back of his neck. Demerits all.
If he put on a swim suit at the Pool ... and laid down on the cement to dry, people would wonder why someone left a soggy rug by the pool. He was so hairy that he easily could have worked one of those Traveling Carnival Freak shows.
And then he caught this weird rash in AIT (A bunch of us from Basic went to the same AIT). In order to treat it...they had to shave his entire body. I bet that took a Team of Nurses. And when he came back to the Barracks, he was on profile for ten days. The first two, he was to wear minimal clothes and not shower. I guess to give the medicine a head start. So he was restricted to Barracks.
when he came from the Infirmary he had a robe on. When he took it off to hang it on his bunk. We all stared at him.
He said:
"What? You already have made every remark possible. What is it now?"

And then one of the guys stumbled out the words we all wanted to say:

"Bear...you ...you ...you are skinny!"

We never knew.