SUNDAY MEMORIES
Judy Wills
Our daughter, Janet was born in the base hospital on Loring AFB in June of 1971. Fred came to visit me in the hospital the day following her birth and asked, “You didn’t really want to stay here another year, did you?” I nearly jumped out of the bed!! “Where are we going?” I screeched! San Antonio, Texas, for Fred to be an instructor at the same OTS where he had trained as an officer.
And so, in September, we headed out from Maine – with no regrets!
We took our time, traveling through parts of Canada and the northeast states of the U.S.
1971 – Hotel Frontenac – Quebec, Canada
The Von Trapp Family Lodge – Stowe, Vermont
Boston – U.S.S. Constitution – Old Ironsides
We stopped in Washington D.C. and Fred’s parents met us.
The Lincoln Memorial – Washington D.C.
We finally arrived in San Antonio later that month. I had a great-aunt, Lillie, who lived in San Antonio, and we stayed with her while we went house-hunting.
We finally settled on a newly built house in a subdivision not too far from the Medina Base, where the OTS was quartered and schooled, as well as not far from Lackland AFB itself. Ray Ellison was the builder.
1971 – Our first house – San Antonio, Texas
2017 – Our first house – renovated. That tree really grew big!
I’ve looked up the house on Zillow.com and it says it has 1,724 square feet of living space. It also says it has four bedrooms and two baths. The new owners must have added on, because it only had three bedrooms when we lived there! It also says there is a fireplace in the family room – that must have been in the add-on, because we didn’t have a fireplace anywhere in the house!
The entry way had a coat closet, and was separated from the living room by half-walls that had spindles up to the ceiling.
1974 – Fred and Janet in the living room. Notice the spindles in the half-wall
The living room was rather long and narrow, and ended with the dining room against the end wall. There was a mural on the wall.
1973 – Janet’s 2nd Birthday. Janet and Karen enjoying birthday cupcakes
There’s the mural on the wall of the dining room
The kitchen was off the dining room, with a pocket-door between. The refrigerator and stove were on the right wall as you entered the kitchen, with a divider between the kitchen and family room that included cabinets, sink and dishwasher. At the end of the kitchen was a nook large enough for an eat-in table and chairs. There was also a storage cabinet in that nook, which was convenient.
1972 – After church, Janet crawled up and got into the french fries.
That is the eat-in nook, table and chairs, and storage closet in the wall.
Also between the kitchen and family room was another half-wall – wood this time – that also had spindles to the ceiling.
1972 – Christmas with our little tree. This shows the wooden spindles in the half-wall
The door to the backyard is behind the tree
Karen and Janet admiring our Charlie Brown Christmas tree.
We placed our piano in that room. There was a door that led to the backyard in that room. The door to the garage was between the kitchen proper and the eat-in nook.
The master bedroom was at the far end of the hallway, with a bath attached – shower only – no tub. The second bathroom was down the hall, across from the middle bedroom, and the third bedroom was at the end of that hallway, with long windows facing the street.
It was a comfortable house, and we enjoyed our three years there.
I’ve written about one incident that happened while we were there: The house next door to us caught fire in the middle of the night. Please see my post of September 21, 2014 about that incident – My Husband…My Hero.
More next time…
~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~
Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .
Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.
After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.
Old Things R New 
lovely
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