Throwback Thursday - The Notebooks

To clear up some confusion, the Notebook passages posted on Throwback Thursday were written by my father and found by me after he passed away. They were his attempt to tell the family history. He was in his late 80s or early 90s when he wrote them. Today's chapter:

As time passed more natives were walking about. They climbed the coconut trees and cut the coconuts down. instead of waiting for them to fall one at a time.

Not long after  that we saw women and children with the  men. It was quite a sight. The women were grss skirts. Actually two, allowing no peek-a-boo below the waist. From the waist up, they had no cover at all. Some had bosoms that were even, others had one firm bosom and the other would be long and hang. They had a disease Elephantiasis. At that time no cure or even now.

It did not take too long to have the feeling that the island was safe. If any Japanese were discovered by the native men, they would know what to do. They knew their history of head hunting. And our commanders made sure that we were warned that it was o.k. to look at the women and that's all. Further that they were not too far from head hunting. When this was a part of their life, they would cut off the head of a victim, put over a fired and shrink the head to the point where they could use some special straw pierce each side, string it and wear around their neck as a piece of jewelry.

Also one could come down with all kinds of illness. We sustained more illnesses of any kind than casualties then those received by gunfire.

Our camp was close to a river we were up above it and its bed was wide and a good height for its sides

Tropical rainstorms pour heavy amounts of water and until it went into a dry period. It was rough water. When things were dry it would be a trickle. 

We built a dam using gasoline drums. We filled them with rocks and came up with a nice pool. One night we had a downpour. We heard a noise but nothing to worry about.In the morning we found out what the noise was about. The force of the water shattered our dam. The drums were scattered all over the area, paw paw trees were down. It was a mess. Paw paws are fruit. Delicious and don't chew the seeds. They do better work then Ex-lax [ed: a laxative]

[ed: The notation on the back of the top photograph: Darling, Here's one of natives at a tribal sing sing. This is how they  dress when they go on a bender. Notice the hourglass drums that they hold. Call them kundus. Those are clam shells they have in their lips. Love, Joe]