Dennis Latham: Life, Fiction, and the Pursuit of Madness

The Haunted Dining Room. The Spirits On Vacation Nothing new to report this week. All the spirits in our house have been quiet for weeks. They do that at times, and just when we think they are gone they will show up again. Our dining room is like a train station for the other side. It fills up at times, and then empties out for awhile.  I wake up early, but I never get up between 3 and 4 am if I can help it. I believe there is more activity during this time. Everything with ghosts seems to happen around the number 3. Has to do with the Holy Trinity. I believe it. We have had too much going on here over the years to deny it.

After Marine Corps Boot Camp and ITR (me on left, my sister, and my adopted brother Little Joe). On leave (age 20) right before we went to Vietnam in 1967. We survived, but we believed back then we would probably die in Vietnam. Kill, Kill, Kill I had been in boot camp at San Diego for probably six weeks. I'm not quite sure how long because the constant torment days ran into each other and one was like the next. I had even gotten a Dear John letter from my girlfriend about the third week into boot camp and I just shrugged and tossed it. I was in enough trouble just trying to deal with boot camp. I couldn't worry about what might be my last relationship before getting buffed or shot up in a war.  We were running for miles close to dusk, as we usually did. I hated running. The DI would count cadence by chanting and making us answer or repeat what he said. That was a constant.  His favorite was the "What are we going to do to the Viet Cong?" We would y...