[Shipyard Sam]

When we are in the Avondale yard in the early '70's, the place would shut down on Sundays, so that gave us a day off, too. A few of us, and there were only a very few of us, would get a bottle of Boone Country, apiece, and roam over the shipyard sticking our heads in new, undiscovered places that needed exploration.

We approached a Navy DE about ready for launch, and with but one civilian guard around, we easily persuaded him to give us a look-see aboard the ship. His guided tour took us into one certain room that we soon found out was highly classified when the supervisor of the lonesome protector of the Navy's property caught us as we were crossing the gang plank back to solid earth. We did some mighty persuasive talking and were allowed to return to the DELTA QUEEN, but the guard didn't fare so well as I later found out when Big Cap gave me a talking-to, as only he could.