USS Intrepid

Oh how I love the word prompts of today, especially for the memories they inspire. As soon as I saw the word “intrepid” I immediately thought of my years of growing up in New York City. It’s safe to say my friends and I were intrepid teenagers, but those aren’t the memories I’m sharing today.

The few years following high school graduation were particularly full of excitement and mischievous behavior for us young adults, discovering more of what the “streets” had to offer outside the clutches of our overprotective parents. One night we all took a trip to the big city for a party on the USS Intrepid. Special Ed, a popular hip hop artist at the time, was performing for a huge publicity event. It was one of our many adventurous outings of those days, with the added anticipation of meeting who we considered to be a local celebrity (raised in Brooklyn). Not sure who remembers but Special Ed’s song “I Got It Made” was a hit on the party scene back then, howbeit he was never quite considered “big league.”

Anyway, I remember dancing all night long, being silly with my friends, and of course checking out the fellas, but I also remember being amazed at how all of the night’s events were happening on an old aircraft carrier from World War II and the Vietnam War. As a teenager I can’t say I cared too much, considering the opportunity we were given. At this moment, however, it disgust me to think we were actually allowed to party on an vessel where Navy men made the ultimate sacrifice decades prior.

Eventually I made it back to the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum, now a National Historic Landmark. I don’t have any original pictures but here are some courtesy of the internet.

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©️2019 CSNelson, dontforgetthehalf

Inspired by:

WORD: clutch

FOWC: intrepid

Daily Word Prompt: howbeit