Dark Skin & Blue Eyes

In the wake of World War II, Uncle Sam scattered his military bases all over the world. Life as a soldier meant officers barking orders; getting hassled, getting bullied. The daily grind and the pressure of it all left them no time to ponder about what their country had gotten them into. But in the evening when they took off the uniform, the soldiers changed back into young men - men with only one thing on their mind.

Indeed salvation was just around the corner - teenage girls, dressed up and made up, gathering in groups of two and three outside the gates of the barracks. The very pretty ones could dream of meeting their James Dean or Marlon Brando. The average girls, and that was the majority, were hoping that if they could just snatch an American husband, their entire life would be like it was in the movies - driving big cars and throwing big parties.

Alfred, the hero of this book, watched this little universe very closely. He peeked into all the GI bars - one of them even became his second home - and befriended the American families who came to live in his country. The word adventure does not quite express all that happened during those two years he spent working as in apparel salesman - in reality, it was a brush with death, and that more than once.