what is "a off-base "?

I believe that it means "wrong" as in "should have never existed"...in this case referring to soldiers running a hippie-ish coffee house.

I am only 90% confident in this translation, as it is very obscure.

In this particular passage, "off-base" clearly refers to a military base. Note the reference to the war, "real uniform", and "real marching". Not the kind of marching the hippies did while protesting something or other.

In this case, it means both. The author was trying to be clever by saying "an off base off base coffehouse". The first "off base" means not quite right, different. The second "off base" refers to a military expression meaning not on the military base property. So he set up a off beat coffee-house outside of the base.

Thank you guys.
The context is from Joe Nation's profile. Let's see his own authentic answer.

I am so pleased that you've looked at my profile.
Even I haven't looked at in a while.

Yes. I was being clever: "off base" has a lot of meanings, some of them related, I think, to baseball (an etymologist could tell us) including -
not according to the rules, being out of bounds or impolite - He was off base in his rude remarks.---
not the norm - Joe Nation's ideas fall into both the wildeyed and off base categories.

near, but not on, a military installation He and his extended family have lived in the off-base housing for over three years.
They found they could buy groceries for less at the Base Exchange, but they bought everything else at off-base stores.


So "I opened a off-base off the base coffeehouse "

means 'I opened a not according to the normal rules coffeehouse just outside the military base where I was stationed.'

It was called, for those who would like to know, Thee Coffe House.
(Another pun made by taking one 'e' off the word 'coffee' and putting it on 'The' to make "Thee" because we were connected to a church.)

We did more than wait out out hitches, I left out the tutoring the airmen did in the local schools, the charity work they did (painting poor people's houses), the plays they performed in and many other things. I worked with the local Council of Churches to create youth groups and I volunteered with the city's police department.
We also wrote a lot of pretty good music and poetry.
It was a very good time during a very rough time in America.

I'm still friends with several guys and girls from those days.

Joe(Listen to "Bob Dylan's Dream. That was very close to what we had.)Nation

An etymologist writes:

On message, off message. On base, off base. Baseball, schmaseball.

I've spent several minutes to figure out "not according to the normal rules" to be a word: not-according-to-the-normal-rules.

Thank you Joe.

Hmm. So, no connection to 'being caught off-base' meaning 'unprepared' ?

As in: She was caught off-base by his remarks.

Rather like being thrown out at first by the pitcher.

Oh, sorry. I forgot. You are in one of the baseball-deprived nations.

Maybe we need another etymologist..... :-)

Joe(who is a Boston Red Sox fan)Nation

English learners may care to note that the indefinite article preceding a vowel sound should be 'an'. He opened an off-base etc.

Shouldn't that be, "I opened an off-base off the base coffeehouse"?

I had thought that oristarA had quoted a non-native English speaker.

Rendered into English, that would probably be "She was caught off-guard by his remarks." And what kind of a gentleman makes remarks like that?

Learners of English probably would care to note that the rule that developed as described by Contrex was not so much a rule as a description of what amounts to oral convenience and that there definitely times in English speech where 'a' is used even when it precedes a vowel sound.

Yes. JTT....you are correct and Contrex is as correct as any good teacher in a grammer school.

I would like to claim that I was being purposely colloquial <grin>, that I was merely spelling that particular word as I might have said it.

How would that be?
OR
I have decided to re-write the line to read:
I opened a little off-base off the base coffeehouse.

I think that sticks in another meaning, doesn't it?
Kind of like the difference between the big moron and the little moron standing on a ledge. The big moron fell off. Why didn't the little moron fall?

Because he was a little more on.

Joe(It's time for my breakfast)Nation

I believe that Joe writes it in a poetic way. And thus grammar gives way to humor.

Boy, I hope so.

Thank you, O, for reminding me to update that profile.

Joe(I just finished the re-do)Nation

Joe, a good teacher in any kind of school doesn't misdescribe how language works. Of course you were being colloquial. That doesn't mean that you were being wrong, incorrect, ungrammatical or any of the other words used to describes our daily speech.

Our daily speech, colloquial language is not wrong, incorrect, or ungrammatical. These same people who would deem this oral convenience so, are the same people who deem all the other perfectly natural speech shortcuts wrong, incorrect, ungrammatical.