CHAPTER 16,8 RECREATION FACILITIES Recreation facilities were provided on all islands where personnel were quartered, These included dayrooms, libraries, gymnasiums, athletic fields, hobby equipment, educational classes, beer halls, beach clubs, and snack bars, The dayroom on Parry was 1960 square feet in area and provided lounge chairs, settees, reading lamps, newspapers, magazines, dart boards, card games, puzzles, writing desks, card tables, and ping pong tables. Later, a recreation hall was erected on Parry. It was a prefabricated aluminum building, 3473 square feet in floor area, containing four ping pong tables, three pool tables, and one billiard table, in addition to the recreation director's office and supply roam. During the peak months, this facility remained open and in use from 10:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. The dayroom on Runit was an 8-man tent equipped with essentially the same facilities as the Parry dayroom, except that it had no ping pong table. Biijiri had an 8-man tent for a dayroam, and two ping pong tables in a vacant tent nearby. Engebi had a 20 x 50 ft. quonset which served as a dayroam and provided similar facilities. At all sites but Parry, the library took up a portion of the dayroan and the assistant recreation director acted in the capacity of librarian. At Parry only, the library was a separate room in the dayroam, measuring 100 square feet, and a part-time librarian was on duty every evening. Library hours generally were between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. every evening. Gymnastic equipment was available on all sites, but location of gymnasiums changed with the availability of structures on the various sites, Parry had a 20 x 50 ft. quonset available, containing a 20 x 20 foot mat, stall bars, parallel bars, punching bag, speed bags, lateral bar, skip ropes, and four barbell and weight sets, Biijiri used an 8-man tent to house punching bags and a weight lifting set. At Runit and Engebi punch- ing bags and weight sets were installed outdoors. Athletic activities in which inter-departmental and inter-island teams participated included softball, baseball, volleyball, basketball, swimming, horseshoes, ping pong, boxing, wrestling, judo, shuffleboard, miniature golf, and croquet. Of these, softball proved the most popular sport, both in participation and in spectator interest. All sites but Runit had softball fields; Parry had two, one lighted for night games. League play was held as often as interest demanded, with teams from all sites meeting as often as possible. Refreshments were sold, and games were announced over loudspeakers. In August and September 1950, Biijiri and Engebi combined for a four-team league; at the same time Parry had a six-team league, including teams from Runit and Japtan. In October 1950, a play-off was run, with six teams representing all sites. After this, transportation short- ages and increased security requirements made it difficult to hold interisland competition. 16-37