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Last Summary Update: 11-10-2026

GI Shower and Coffee
Airdate: Saturday - December 11, 1971

WOR Show
Original Airing

audio

(NOTE ABOUT TIME REFERENCES: Since there are many different copies of shows out there from different sources, all time references are from the beginning of one single recorded copy, since various copies, depending on when the recordee started recording, had news at the beginning or shortened themes. The times would vary from copy to copy.)

First Spoken Line After Theme Ends

Hello, test, 1 - 2 - 3 - 4. . .

Show Description

[ Courtesy: GROK Summary - - ]   
  This free-form broadcast opens with observations on plastic consumer culture and youthful "madness," then shifts into two extended, closely observed army reminiscences: the forcible barracks shower given to a chronically unclean soldier, and the freezing night wire-laying mission that turned Shepherd into a lifelong coffee drinker.

### Opening Digressions
Shepherd comments on the post-Christmas glut of plastic junk and notes that other countries are even more devoted to plastics than the United States. He reads about Britain's new acrylic tombstones being tested in a cemetery in Reading, England - lightweight, weatherproof, and easy to install - contrasted with traditional stone or granite memorials. He then mentions a California high-school prank in which students drove nude in cars along US 1 while police pursued them with a helicopter, and an advertisement from a British newspaper recruiting Royal Marine Commandos by promising adventure (shooting, judo, parachuting, rock climbing) in one's spare time.

### The GI Shower
The first major story returns to Shepherd's time in Company K. In a crowded, poorly ventilated barracks during constant rain, the air became almost unbreathable. One soldier, Howard Martin (from Atlanta), had gone roughly eight months without a shower or laundry and was radiating an overpowering smell that affected the entire company. One night a man at the far end of the barracks declared that someone was going to take a shower immediately. Everyone knew who was meant. Several men dragged the protesting Martin feet-first off his bunk, carried him to the latrine, and, joined by dozens more soldiers, scrubbed him under the showers with harsh GI soap while still wearing his fatigues, then stripped him and finished the job. Other barracks soon brought their own offenders for the same treatment. Afterward the barracks was livable again; Martin began showering regularly and ostentatiously, and the incident was never openly discussed. Shepherd notes that such scenes are common in military life but almost never appear in books or movies.

### The Coffee Story
The second anecdote explains how Shepherd, who had never drunk coffee, became devoted to it. As part of a Signal Corps wire-laying team with a large soldier named Goldberg, he spent a long, freezing night crawling through mud, rain, and sleet to string camouflaged telephone wire. After roughly seven hours, soaked and numb with ice forming on his clothes, they crawled back to the field kitchen. The mess sergeant poured steaming, already-sweetened coffee into their canteen cups. Squatting beside a truck in the gray cold, Shepherd drank the hot liquid and felt warmth return; from that moment the smell and taste of coffee were permanently linked to survival and relief.      
  

WOR ID

Time	Station ID (All times approximate)
23:50	This is WOR New York friend, so be calm. . .

Brass Figlagee Award

"I will award the Brass Figlagee. . ."

Commercials (All times approximate)

Time	Sponsor	Notes
32:39	Ornithopter (Flying Bird)

Music (All times approximate)

Time	Music Title	Notes
	Moon Madness

Engineers, Staff, and Guests in Booth

Time	Engineer, Staff or Guest
15:23	George
20:58	Jerry Lambert

Instruments and Special Effects Played During the Show

Instruments Played

None

Related Plots / Story Lines and Other References Used

Time	Category	Date	Title	Comments
16:58	Army		Signal Corps
18:23	People		Martin
41:15	People		Goldberg

Airdate History ' - Original' date is earliest known broadcast)

This Show

		Date	Title
		December 11, 1971	GI Shower and Coffee Notes: 0	Original Airing

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"Imagine 4,000 years passing, and you're no longer a memory - Does it seem possible to you?
You better believe it's possible, not only possible but certainty." - Jean Shepherd - October 7, 1971