Preparing For The Next Milestone

In which Teófilo narrates the events leading him to make another life-changing decision by enlisting in the U.S. Air Force.

Figure 1. USAF Recruitment Poster, 1984-85. (Source)

Like I’d said before, when one’s at the bottom of the pit the only way to look is up. With God’s grace I looked for a way to climb out and started to. It wasn’t easy, but thank God I got it done.

Mercie and I drew closer together as we considered our future options. We were about to take charge of our lives. Some events led us to make fundamental decisions.

Papal Visit

Figure 2. Pope St. John Paul II in a typical pose. (Source: Detroit Free Press)

In October 1984 Pope St. John Paul II visited Puerto Rico. It was, and has remained to date, the only visit to the Island by a sitting Successor of St. Peter. The atmosphere was electric during that week and on that Friday, October 12, all of Puerto Rico’s principal network TV channels consolidated their operations for the sake of peace. About 500,000 people attended the open-air Mass in San Juan that day.

I’d wanted to attend with Mercie but Doña Elba refused permission for Mercie to go. In fact, Doña Elba was getting more controlling of Mercie even when we were technically adult, and more confrontational. I threaded lightly because she was feeding me, and I did chores around the house to make my keep worthwhile to both of them. However, there was a limit to what we were willing to tolerate, and I saw Doña Elba’s negative as arbitrary.

Papi got to see the Pope and told me he waited for the Pope’s Mass for several hours, plus the Mass. Papi called it his own personal miracle he was able to stand all that time. He came back from it with a quiet sort of joy.

The UPRM Catholic Student Group was permitted to have an exhibition about the Pope at the Main Library. I lent several of my pictures and a biography of the Pope. I remember the biography was opened on the picture page, showing then Cardinal Wojtyla shaving and praying while kayaking in Poland back in the 60’s. These were pictures I thought humanized the Pope before those curious about the meaning of a Polish Pope.

Pope St. John Paul II had become, ever since that time I prayed for his life at school the day he was shot, the Pope of my youth and early adulthood. He became a father figure to me. His level of habitual communion with the Lord was obvious to everyone who saw him. He was a spiritual giant. I’m a proud member of the “John Paul II Generation.”

For loud anti-Catholics in Puerto Rico, most of them from the Pentecostal wing of Protestantism, the Pope’s arrival was an occasion for prophecies of damnation. Their take was that the Island would soon undergo divine punishments as a consequence of the Pope’s visit. Secularists also objected though they were more subdued in their criticism, I suppose because they knew no one was listening to them. Neither group dampened our joy.

Yet, a controversy arose because pro-independence Puerto Ricans began to doubt the Pope would kiss the ground upon deplaning as was his custom. Indepedentistas argued that the Pope would not kiss our ground because he only kissed the ground of “sovereign” nations. He did kiss our ground of course because the Pope didn’t care about such peccata minuta. He just hated flying…

January 1985: Aiming High

Figure 3. Historic Ponce Firehouse. The U.S. Air Force recruitment office was located on the wing to the right back in 1985. The Firehouse is a museum today. (Source)

Mercie and I spent another Christmas and New Year’s together as had become the norm ever since, with very few, painful exceptions still in our future. She had been doing very good at UCPR but my seesaw grades continued on.

As you may recall, Mercie and I had been legally married since September 1983. It was our escape clause and we feared we might have had to use it.

I don’t recall what triggered it, but a loud fight ensued between us and Doña Elba in January 1985. It might have taken place after we escaped to Ponce’s old Teatro Rívoli to catch a three-movie matinee show that included Prince’s Purple Rain and Gremlins. We considered using our “get out of jail card” at the time of the fight, but thought about it better and decided against it.

We soon proceeded to the U.S. Air Force (USAF) recruitment office, located at that time in the north wing of the historic Parque de Bombas de Ponce (Ponce Firehouse). The Firehouse was an active fire station back then too. I then began my enlistment process in the USAF. Back then the USAF’s recruitment slogan was Aim High. So we did.

We would administer the Sacrament of Matrimony to each other, becoming inseparably together forever. In fact, another reason we needed to marry is because our desire to consummate our love had increased exponentially. St. Paul the Apostle wrote to the Corinthians once:

To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I do. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion (1 Corinthians 7:8-9).

The Holy Apostle had made a good point and given a great counsel. We knew we had to consecrate ourselves to Christ and to each other before the altar as our departure point for our lives together. A military career will ensure us of enough income on which to build our new household and start our family.

I enlisted with a reporting date to Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas in May 1985. I went opposite to my gifts and talents and signed up as a Security Policeman. I would reinvent myself from the ground up.

The die had been cast. The year 1985 would prove to be the next pivotal year of our lives.

Bonus Video

1984 was a year of great hits that have since become emblematic of the entire decade. Here’s a list of the 100 Music Hits of 1984 according to Rolling Stone Magazine.

Here’s also a favorite love song of ours.