Halt! Who goes there?

But wait, I don't remember that Beagles was a guard at Spandau.

He wasn't.  Guard Duty is another one of those jobs that have to be done, like KP, and it's done on a rotating basis.  Your name is on a duty roster, and when it's your turn, you just do it.  Different units have different areas of responsibility; Mr. Beagles could have just as easily been assigned to guarding warehouses, offices, the motor pool, or even the swimming pool.  Once you gain a little rank you don't stand guard duty anymore, you get to sit an office as "commander of the relief" and only go out when the shifts change every couple of hours.  It's much easier and you're not standing out in the rain.  Guard duty sucks (KP sucks even more) but I still remember the First General Order: I will guard everything within the limits of my post and quit my post only when properly relieved.  I don't remember the rest of the general orders and there were only three at the time, reduced in number from seven or so.   A lot of corners were being cut at the time.

There were other jobs like guard duty and KP, such as CQ and Duty Driver, both of which demand a lot of sitting around.  CQ (charge of quarters) has you sitting in the office answering the phone, and probably includes cleaning the place up.  Duty driver is self explanatory; you have a jeep assigned to you and if anything needs to be picked up or dropped off (including people), there you go.  Otherwise there's a lot of hurrying up and waiting.  Duty driver was the best, zipping around in a jeep was a lot of fun, but they don't use jeeps anymore.

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Kept those goobers to myself, Uncle Ken.  I think some gas stations sold them but they were mostly sold from roadside stands, if memory serves.  And yes, always in a small paper bag but cold, not steaming hot.  I may have been eating them wrong; the YouTube videos show people shelling them in their hands and then eating the nuts.  The way we did it was to just pop the whole thing in your mouth and let the tongue and teeth do the job as you enjoy the weird slimy juices and textures.  Spit the shell out after you've sucked it dry and grab another one, not as messy as shelling them by hand, I think.  Disgusting, yes, but not as messy.

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More later

Go for it, Uncle Ken!  I'm more inclined to ponder the end of civilization myself, but to each his own.  There's room for everybody on this ship through troubled waters.  I mean civilization, not the Institute.