It all counts for twenty.

In this post, I mentioned the phrase "it all counts on twenty."  I got curious about the phrase and googled it.  I only found a couple of references

, neither of which had a definition, although both of them made it clear that it was Navy slang.

So I took the question to the Straight Dope Message Board. Apparently, the actual phrase is either "it all counts for twenty (or thirty)" or "it all counts against twenty." The twenty in question is the number of years that had to be served before retirement. If you're stuck with a particularly boring or nasty job, you shrug it off with "it all counts for twenty," or it may be a nasty job, but it's getting me that much closer to retiring.

Letters from dead people can be educational.

Things I've learned about the Grandfather I never met

I'm also going to list things that I probably knew, but hadn't thought about for awhile. 

1. He was in the Navy.  He was assigned to the U.S.S Colorado according to the letters sent from 1930 to 1932.  About every sixth letter he talks about needing to get out of the Navy to be home with the people he misses.
2. He was a fiend for run-on sentences.  They read fine, because I read them as if they were broken up. So I didn't really notice until I typed a couple of them into my notes.  I'd have added paragraph breaks to some of those sentences.
3. He uses the words gee, keen, and swell a lot.  He often starts sentences (or clauses, in his run-ons) with gee, well, or heck.  He used sure as an intensifier, as in 'you're sure swell' or "it's sure keen." 
4. He always writes 'to' instead of 'too.'  (Yes, I do get paid for technical editing.  Why do you ask?)
5. He leaves the apostophes out of most of his contractions and the few he includes tend to end up before the N rather than after it.
6. "I sure have got those blues again . . ." ; ". . .well I should hope to smile."; ". . . well it all counts on twenty."; "I'm an honest square shooting man. . ."; ". . . desperately in love. . .".
7. More than a few people called him Red.
8. His ship was berthed in Seattle when his son (my Dad) was born in Bensenville, Illinois.  He didn't see him until he was 4 to 6 months old. 
9. He and Grandma called my Dad "Little Pal" (with the quotes) before he was born and for about half a year after.
10. In 1931 he usually started his letters to Grandma with:  My Honey Bunny Boo. 
11. I can't send money this week because - things will just be perfect when we finally get together - you're nearly perfect - you're an angel - I almost never leave the ship so I won't be tempted - I get crazy jealous when your letters mention other men. 

This is from Grandma's letters.  I remember other bits and pieces from Aunt D's things, but I'm not going to open that box now.