We spent just two years in Lake Charles and were transferred to Robins A.F. Base in Warner Robins, GA. I had been denying but was pregnant with #4. It seems like my 20s were spent being in that condition. Arriving in W-R, we had to take an apartment in a row house for about three months and then moved to a duplex on Whitehead Circle. It was all base housing. The concrete row house was damp and crowded as the rooms were small. The house on Whitehead Circle was pure bliss. We were situated at the top of the circle and had a huge yard for the kids to play in. Joey was just three years old and loved to wander around the yards and turn on every sprinkler, much to the dismay of the neighbors who left their car windows open. We had a family of nine children living in the next house. He was a Secretary for AA and his telephone number was one digit off from mine so can you just imagine how many "drunks" would mis-dial and call me. Needless to say, we got an unlisted number. It was here that Aunt Liz and Uncle Ben came to see us for a couple of days and ended up staying a week. We had such a great time! They were on their way home from a vacation in the Caribbean and stopped in. Guess everyone drove then. Bill was born in September so now we are a family of two & two! I think we finally figured out what was causing all of these pregnancies! LOL! During the second summer, Dad brought home a "retired" 20-man life raft and "blew it up" with the vacuum cleaner. It made a great swimming pool for kids. The big family next store moved away and Hourihan's moved in. Do you remember the baby alligator they had? Their kids were Corky and David. I think after work, their dad was a boy scout leader so was always thinking of fun things to do. The early 60s also brought John F. Kennedy's assassination. I was housecleaning when it came over the television. Horrible!
We stayed in W-R until 1964. And then, went on to Rhein Main, Germany. What do you remember about W-R?
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Georgia is where I start to have more memories--I really don't remember a lot of stuff before living there. I remember going to Sacred Heart, walking to school, going to the drugstore and seeing the "whites only" water fountain and bathroom. I remember the life raft swimming pool and some of the neighbors but not the alligator. All the girls had a crush on Bill Chapman who was one of the neighbor men, and we would swing on the swings while singing "Bill Chapman, how I love you" to the tune of "Johnny Angel." LOL We were watching "The Last of the Mohicans" at school when one of the nuns interrupted the movie to tell us we had to stay afterwards and say a whole rosary because Kennedy had been assassinated. I remember watching the funeral procession on TV. Also remember "duck and cover" drills at school and having a footlocker packed with bottled water, blankets and food rations in case we had to evacuate during the Cuban Missile Crisis. No wonder I was a nervous child. LOL
Wow! You really have good recall. Where did Chapmans live? Kath will remember the alligator I think. Do you remember the parade with the Cisco Kid in it. We laughed because his clothes were all greasy looking. Do you remember the Miesners, the Scott or any others. Dad and I had some rough times in GA. We really argued a lot. I hope you don't recall that.
I remember all of the same things as Jane, but I thought they sent us home early from school when JFK was assassinated???? I remember the nuns sobbing. I definitely remember the alligator as I spent hours with Corky playing with him AND the ducks and rabbits and every other pet Mr. Hourihan brought home- as well as my own Nibbles the bunny and 'ole Louie. I remember the gnats during the summer and swimming in the life raft-though our neighbors went one better and brought an even bigger life raft home. I think originally we had a smaller one and after they got the big one, we got one too and would go back and forth between "pools." I remember Cynthia and Corinthia from next door. They were the cutest babies! I went to school a year early (skipped Kindergarten) and hated most of it most of the time, though one of the priests was very cool and would have races after lunch. If we won, he'd give us icecream. Looking back, though, I think he had a "thing" for the older girls. Funny what comes up when you start heading down Memory Lane. There's much more, but I have to get to work...LAST day with kids. :)
I remember the NCO club and all the kitties on the stairs and petting the Cisco Kid's horse. I do remember the Scott's and when you had Billy, we stayed with someone whose house smelled like pee, and I was scared all night that you wouldn't come back.
There was a little girl down the street who got a new puppy, and I went over to play with it. I got so upset with the girl because she thought it funny to swing the puppy in circles by its tail. Jane called Billy, "Winky," and that stuck for a long time...Georgia was where I got whacked in the face by the teeter-totter on the swing set and had 5 stitches in my lip, causing Dad to "lose his lunch," as you used to say, Mom. Once Jane made a "swing" out of string, and I pushed her on it before she was ready, and she got tangled up and hurt herself. I felt bad for a long time about that. The first little house we lived in only had a shower, and it scared me to death. Dad would get mad at me because I didn't want to take a shower, but it was really scary. I spent a lot of time being scared...We rode our bikes up to the gas station, and once my bike mysteriously stopped and I went head first over the handlebars...lots of Georgia memories!
The puppy's name was COOKIE! Why do I remember this stuff?
The pee-smelling house was Stefans who lived next door in the row house. She had 3-4 little kids but loved all kids, just wasn't the greatest housekeeper. I know she gave me a fluted bowl for minding hers once. I still have the bowl. Do you remember when Joey Hudson told you that there wasn't a Santa Claus and you both came running in the house crying? I soon set him straight by telling him that I believed in SC too and he just looked kind of startled.
You THOUGHT she loved kids, but she was MEAN when you weren't around! Once I read her name, I remembered. She put on the big act in front of other adults, but she was mean to her kids, and she was mean to us, too.
I didn't know that but kids complained all the time about baby-sitters. When we moved to Whitehead Circle, we didn't see much more of them At that time, you could stay in the sub-standard housing which was less expensive or move into Wherry Housing like we did.
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