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Fred Remembers-Part 14

25 Nov

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

 

We also used to make trips into Tokyo itself by either car or train.  One interesting thing about the train ride was that – of course the Japanese could always tell who the Americans were, and we could tell who they were – the students, because they were always in uniform.  All the school children wore uniforms.  For some years they had been studying English in school.  One of the fun things was that some of the little school kids, some of them pre-teens or even teenagers, would come up and ask us to help them with their pronunciation.  They knew the grammar better than I did, but they needed some help with their pronunciation.  They never could get the “L” and the “R” sounds.  It just wasn’t in their language, so it was foreign to them, and they had lots of struggle with those sounds.

Back in those days, Kobe beef was the rage which, if I remember right, was beef that had been fed beer to drink, and when they slaughtered the beef, aged it with potatoes and carrots and other vegetables for quite some time, which made it very tender.

There was an interesting restaurant called Suehiro’s (advertised as the World’s Largest Steakhouse with the World’s Best Beef), which was our favorite restaurant.  This was back in the days when, in most restaurants, you could get a steak for $1.25.  We used to pay $3.00 or $4.00 for one of those fairly big T-bone steaks at Suehiro’s. It was a real treat – you could cut it with your fork it was so tender!  I think that now that same beef would be over $100 for the meal.

There was a Tea House in Tokyo that was a multi-storied building.  Each story served a different type of tea.  Green tea in one, and very sweet “black” tea on another floor.

 

Fred’s Mother, Kitty (in white top, center), performing a Japanese Tea ritual

 

There was a theater on base that was round, with an opening in the roof that could be opened in good weather.

Charles wrote:   Since this was a flying outfit, I also flew with our pilots, sometimes in the local area cruising around Mount Fuji or crossing the Sea of Japan to take passengers to Korea.  On one of those trips I flew over with 169 people on board, and on the return to Tachikawa, sat in the cabin with the pilots and the engineer.  On that flight our number 1 engine developed a fire. The engineer, a Master Sergeant, took his tool box and made his way out through the wing, passing through the number 2 engine nacelle and out to the number 1 engine which had been shut down. There he removed the generator which had caught fire, anchored it to the wing and then returned through the wing to his station in the cabin. During this time we were at 9000 feet and the plane, under three engines, had lost only ten knots of speed!

 

Tachikawa AB Chapel

Billy Graham visited Tachikawa AB in 1956.  Charles is on the right

Sometime in the summer of 1956, my Dad was transferred from the chaplain’s office at Tachikawa to the chaplain’s office at Johnson Air Base. Actually, it was a pretty good promotion for him.  So we moved across from one side of Tokyo to the other to Johnson Air Base, which was a beautiful facility.  We moved into a three-bedroom, four-plex there, where we had a little more room to spread out.  The middle two houses were two-story.  The second story had three bedrooms and one bath.  There was a large storage closet.  It was big enough for only one twin bed – that was my bedroom.

Credit Google Search and bobp31-Homestead-FHA

 

The Wills Family, Base housing, Johnson AB, Japan

 

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

JUDYJudy 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.
She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Tags:

Fred Remembers-Part 13

18 Nov

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

 

Shortly after we were settled in Danville, Dad took off for Japan.  We waited patiently, expecting it to be a long wait (for us to join him in Japan); however, one of the serendipities was that the powers-that-be on the Air Force Base in Tokyo had arranged to alleviate the housing shortage by allowing selected people to actually build a small house on the property just adjacent to the base.  It was leased property, and we could build the house and then sell it when we left, to somebody else who would eventually then sell it to the Japanese.

So, I believe it was for about $3,300 Dad built, or had built, a three-bedroom, single bath house – no garage.

 

Charles at the back of the house

Front of the house

It was done sometime in either April or May of 1955.  So instead of having an 18-month wait, we had a much shorter wait.  In early May, we got on a ship in Oakland, California, and 21 days later, arrived in Yokohama, Japan.  That was an interesting trip, itself (more on this later).

We enjoyed the little house there in Tachikawa AFB, in Japan.  We lived on base in one of 10 or 12 small houses on the edge of the base, right next to a Sentry Dog training area.

Charles wrote:   While waiting for the house to be built, I lived in the BOQ, of course, which had the advantage of being close to the Officers Club where I took all my meals. The food there was excellent and cheap. The club dues were something like $2.00 per month, and for that we received one dinner per month free!  The Tachi O’Club was also famous for “Smily” and his orchestra which was also very good.

 

 

Credit Google Search and Fiveprime

 

Dad had the 1955 Chevy shipped over to Japan.  He had to drive on the left side, like the British. After less than one year, a taxi company offered to pay full price for the car.  If it had been plain black and standard transmission, they would have paid double the price offered.

After Dad sold the Chevy to the taxi company, Dad bought a second-hand 1950 Buick  station wagon “Woody” – with wood on the sides.  It was a bucket of bolts, and we didn’t travel in it very much.  Most of our trips were made by train.

We had a lot of interesting experiences in Japan.  In the time before we got there, Dad had discovered that one of the things the Japanese had done was a lot of construction.  A 2-3 hour trip of about 50 miles away in the mountains west of Tokyo, they were building a dam, called the Ogochi Dam.  At that time, I think, it was about the fifth or sixth largest dam in the world.  We could go out there on an excursion on Saturday or Sunday and watch them build it. It was an adventure just to drive out there, because the roads were in terrible shape, with huge potholes, some that would almost swallow up a whole car.  But we usually made it out there safely, and enjoyed the scenery en route. The drive and the dam were quite spectacular.

 

Photo credit wikipedia

 

Charles wrote:  Tachikawa was a lovely assignment. The religious program was full and satisfying.  We were comfortable in our little home and on base.  We were close enough to downtown Tokyo to get there by rail or to drive there on avenues K or L.  We drove down Japan Highway #1 to Oiso for a day at the beach and on another occasion drove to the Gohra hot springs area where we enjoyed the baths, and our children could climb Mount Fuji.  We drove north to the resort city of Karuizawa, on wretched roads, to see our daughter Emily enjoy a stay with friends there.  Our favorite drive on a Sunday afternoon was to see the Ogochi dam, following a winding river road in the mountains.  For a trip in winter time we took the Romantic Railroad to Nikko and enjoyed several days on the ski slopes with a chaplain friend and his family.

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

JUDYJudy 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.
She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Tags: ,

Fred Remembers~Part 12

11 Nov

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

 

 

Charles wrote:   Late in 1954, I received orders assigning us to Far East Air Forces.  So we were being moved to Japan.  

We left Tyndall in the winter of 1955, on February 1st, with the temperature being 28̊.  We headed West on U.S. 98 in ground fog.  The fog was right at windshield level.  We drove across country through Texas – and it took two days to across Texas! [that was before interstate roads] – then  across New Mexico and Arizona to Yuma, Arizona.

Charles wrote:   On our first day out of Tyndall heading to the west coast, we arrived in Beaumont, Texas in late afternoon.  Going through the city, we happened to be the last vehicle in the line to go through a light.  Unfortunately, a beer truck following us, also attempted to go through, but went too fast, and when we got into the next block discovered he didn’t have room to stop, so he crashed into our new Buick, bending the trunk lid.  Kitty had her sewing machine in the trunk, and she was concerned about that, but more about the children.  The driver came to apologize, but Kitty yelled at him, “what are you trying to do….kill my children??”  He arranged that very day to have a check cut for repairs for our car, so we continued on out to the west coast.

 

 Charles and Kitty with Sally by house on Beacon Beach, Tyndall AFB, Florida

1953 Buick, light green bottom, dark green on top

I think we ended up spending a few days with my Aunt and Uncle and cousins – I think at that time they were in Pasadena, California.  We drove up to Danville, California, which is just east of Oakland in the San Francisco Bay area.  Dad found a place for us to rent.

I think that, just a few days after we arrived in Danville, Dad decided to trade in his car – the 1953 Buick that was rear-ended – on a 1955 Chevrolet V-8 which was coral and gray.  It was an interesting car, and we really enjoyed it.

 

Emily and Sally by the coral and gray 1955 Chevy

We got in a three-bedroom house in Danville, south of Walnut Creek, California. It was a very affluent area, near Mt. Diablo.  Us kids were enrolled in the schools there.  I attended San Ramón Valley Union High School.  It was a new building.  I was quite disappointed to find they didn’t teach any Latin at all, or Algebra 2. They only had Business Math.  So I took two hours of study hall.  I had to take spelling again, something I hadn’t had to take since the fourth grade!  I was not impressed with the California schools.  We went to Japan during my second semester of my 10thgrade.  Since I could not take Latin and Algebra 2 while we were in Danville, I had to take them both during summer school in Tokyo.

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

JUDYJudy 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.
She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Tags: ,

Fred Remembers~Part 10

28 Oct

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

 

 

In Biloxi, I remember having my first soft ice cream from an ice cream stand called Frosty Fred’s.

I remember that, while we were in Biloxi, I used to go fishing from a public pier, with a cane pole, using dead shrimp as bait, out in the Gulf [of Mexico] itself, and also in the bay behind the base. (Keesler AFB)

 

 

I used to catch a lot of croaker, some spade fish,

Atlantic Spadefish – credit Google Search and Wikipedia

and occasionally what we called sea trout, which is what my Dad called weak fish, which is what it was called up in New Jersey.

 

Sea Trout – credit Google Search and By No machine-readable author provided. Wolfgang Striewski assumed (based on copyright claims).

Anyway, I used to catch a bunch of fish, take it home and clean it, and eat it myself. I shared it with the rest of the family, too, of course.

I remember while we were in Biloxi, I went to one of the schools there.  I was in the 5thgrade.  As I recall, I think I was the only boy who’s voice had changed, so in music class I had to sing baritone by myself – and was very embarrassed about it. The other boys were singing something called Cambiata, which was a strange mixture for boys who’s voice is in the process of changing.  I also played the harmonica.  That was at Howard Elementary School.

Fred – 1950-1951 – Howard Elementary School

Fred – 1951 – with Keesler AFB Chaplain

1951 – of course by this time the Korean War had started, and Keesler had gone from a few thousand to, I think, over 30,000 troops almost overnight.

Dad said:   During that year, my mother took the train down to visit us and was with us for a month. Everyone was very nice to Mama, and she thoroughly enjoyed her stay with us.  I remember that shortly before she came down, the Korean War broke out, and our base went from 13,000 to 33,000 almost over night.  As a result, our chapels were filled with new airmen.  My mother had wanted me to get out of the service, and return to a civilian pastorate.  I took her to the chapel one morning, and placed her on the first pew so that she could see for herself the ministry I was in.  Soon she was enveloped by hundreds of young airmen.  She found the chapel full of airmen, some were standing along the sides of the building, some were seated on the chancel in front of the chapel, and there were even some looking in the windows from outside the chapel. After that, there was no more talk about my getting out of the service.

But they also needed some other training bases, and one of them happened to be Tyndall AFB over in Panama City, Florida, and Dad was transferred over there in 1951.  So we piled in the car and, by this time I believe, Dad had traded in his Oldsmobile for a 1950 Buick, which was considerably bigger and roomier and had four doors, which for six of us was a much more comfortable car.

 

Photo credit WJHG.com
 Credit Google search

We drove over to Panama City.  For a while, we lived in a place called Victory Circle, if I remember right, which was right downtown, right near the harbor in Panama City.  As I recall, it was either a four-unit or six-plex, and it was very old and crumbly.  Eventually we bought a new house at 107 Cove Lane.  I think it cost about $7,000 for a three-bedroom, one-car garage, and one bathroom house.  There was no yard to speak of, only some grass in the front yard, and weeds in the back. One day I saw rain in the front of the house, while it was dry in the back.

While living on Cove Lane, I had a friend who had a paper route. While he was gone, he would let me do it for him.  When it came time to collect for the delivery, I found that I had the most difficult time collecting from the Major of Panama City.  Sometimes dogs would harass and chase me as I delivered the papers. I loaded a squirt gun with ammonia and would squirt them in the face.  No more harassment.

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

JUDYJudy 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.
She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Tags:

Fred Remembers-Part 9

21 Oct

  SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

 

 In late 1949, my Dad was given the opportunity to switch over to the Air Force from the Army.  It wasn’t a requirement, but he said, “Well, wherever you want me , I’ll go.”  So they cut orders to transfer him over to the Air Force.

Charles (Dad) wrote: 

During1949 the Adjutant General of the Army put out a request to all Army chaplains holding Regular Commissions to indicate whether or not they would accept transfer to the new Chaplain Service of the Air Force.  I had tried for seven years to get into military aviation so I replied that I had been happy in the Army but would accept such a transfer.  Shortly before we left Trieste I received notice that I was one of 186 chaplains to form the cadre of the Air Force……When we reached Fort Hamilton in New York, I processed through the Air Force personnel section and began a new kind of military service.

 We began our Air Force career.

So, when it was time for the three-year tour to be up, we left Italy, but this time, on a ship (the Elden H. Johnson) – down through the Adriatic, up through the Strait of Messina, across the northern Mediterranean, out through the Strait of Gibraltar.

 

Credit Google search and ibiblio

 

 

I was on the deck of the ship as we were approaching Gibraltar.

 

Credit Google Search and Financial Times

I could see Europe on the right side, and Africa on the left.  I remember between Gibraltar and the Azores, we went through the tail end of a hurricane.  Our little ship was only about 12,000 tons, so it was a small ship. It was pitching, I think they said, at least 30 degrees – so the decks were “awash.”  When the ship pitched forward, the screws were out of the water, and the entire ship shook like it was going to come apart.  Most of us stayed in our staterooms most of the time. I never got seasick because I didn’t eat much, but a lot of people did.

We ended up docking in New York after a 12-day trip.  As we entered New York harbor, we could see the Statue of Liberty, and Staten Island. 

 

Credit Google Search and National Park Service

We went to visit Dad’s family – at least his Mom, in Ocean View, New Jersey.  I remember that, sometime while he was there, Dad went to Millville, which is not too far away, and he came back with a demonstrator 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket 88. One of the distinctive things about it was, that for some reason, since it had been a demonstrator, it did not have wheel skirts for the back wheels.  Other than that, it was a good car, and I think it was his first ever V-8.

 

The Wills Family, Biloxi, MS

We ended up driving it down to Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi.  After staying a few days in the Palm Hotel, which was right on the beach in Biloxi, we were eventually put up in an old, left-over, World War II barracks on the base. It was a fairly uncomfortable place, because there was no air conditioning.  There was one big fan at end of the building, which drew some air through it – moving through it, but it wasn’t too good.  Fortunately, it was just a few months until they put us in some new housing which had been built.  That was much nicer.

 

Fred – 1949-1950 school picture – – Howard Elementary School, Biloxi, MS

 

Dad’s Kodak Retina camera was stolen while we were in the Palm Hotel in Biloxi.

 

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

 

JUDYJudy 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.
She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Tags:

Fred Remember~Part 8

14 Oct

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

 

From Lucerne, we put the car on a train, and rode in one of the passenger cars in 2ndclass coach of the same train.  We went though a 12-mile tunnel that made several complete spiral turns as we changed elevation (St. Gotthard Tunnel).

 

Gotthard tunnel: World’s longest and deepest rail tunnel – credit Google Search and BBC News

 

The train started in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, and exited in the Italian-speaking area, near Lugano.  I was amazed to see palm trees growing in Switzerland (all over Lugano)!

In the summer of 1948, I attended a summer camp (Yank-in-Switzerland), while my Dad was assigned to Trieste, Italy.  It was a two-week camp in the mountains at Lenk, and two weeks on the lake at Oberageri.  It was organized and run by former U.S. military men.  I took a train from Trieste to somewhere near Venice.  I met up with others going to the camp, and went on to Switzerland.  After two weeks in Lenk, we stopped at a fair in Thun, then on to Oberageri, Canton Zug. There was a Lake Oberageri, where we went swimming.  They had a boat from the camp that “led” us out, then we swam back to camp.  In the nearby town of Altdorf, I remember the presentation of the William Tell pageant.  The actor playing William Tell actually shot an apple off the head of a child actor with a crossbow and arrow.  I also remember getting ice cream cones for 3¢, and getting apfelsaft (apple juice).

 

 

This little log house/bank was a prize I got during the camp.

 

 

 

The beanie/cap and this pennant are from my time in the summer camp.

Most of the time while we were living in Trieste, we lived in downtown – or near downtown – on via Carducci Street, number 2.  Our apartment was on the “mezzanine,” and it looked out over the main street, via Carducci, which began just a block or so away from there.

 

They lived “under the arches” of this building

 

On one side was the piazza Oberdon, which we could see through our den window. Our apartment had eleven rooms, which I think had been an office complex at one time.  As I recall, it did have two bathrooms and a real long room, which functioned as a kitchen.  I think it had at least four or five bedrooms, so each of us kids had our own room, plus the den.

 

Living Room quarters, Trieste

 

I remember getting very well acquainted with one of the men there who was sort-of a building manager or care-taker.  I think his name was Mario.  I even went out fishing with this guy a couple of times.  He was a really nice guy, and spoke pretty good English.  By this time, I spoke pretty good Italian, since a lot of my friends were Italian.

Right around the corner from our apartment [in Trieste] there was a shop that, among other things, sold used postage stamps.  By this time I had gotten interested in stamp collecting.  I remember going there frequently to buy stamps fairly inexpensively.  But I remember walking pretty much just all over the town – and this was a city of 350,000 people.  So it was pretty big.

When we arrived in Trieste, I was eight years old, and when we left, I was 10.  I used to walk the mile from our apartment to downtown, which was probably eight or ten blocks to the port area.  I also walked a couple of blocks away, and there was a funicular, or cable car [actually it was a cog-train] that went up the side of the mountain to a place called Opicina, which was sort-of a suburb of Trieste, but it was about 1,000 feet above, with a steep escarpment.  I had such fun riding up there, not knowing that the last five or six months we were in Trieste we actually would move up to Opicina and live in a villa – a 16-room villa!  It had a wall around it, that was 15-feet tall – and it had six bedrooms and five baths, actually servants quarters – the whole works, and my Dad was only a Captain!  My how things have changed!

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

JUDYJudy 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.
She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Tags: ,

Fred Remembers~Part 7

7 Oct

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

 

 Sometime later, we drove down through Belgium.  I honestly don’t remember where we stopped. But just on the other side of the French/Belgium border, we stopped at a French restaurant.  I think it was part of a fancy hotel there.  Dad had talked to the Maitre d’ there, and they set us up at one of the real fancy dining tables, and brought out a huge tray of filet mignon, and huge heaping trays of french fries.  I’m sure we had other things, but those were the only things that I remember.  I remember the filet mignon was so tender, you could cut it with a fork.

From there, we went to Paris and we stayed in a hotel, the Hotel de la Paix.

 

 

We did take a tour out to Versailles,  and I remember being very impressed with the Hall of Mirrors;

 

Versailles – Credit Google Search and By G CHP, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72739008

 

Hall of Mirrors – Credit Google Search and By Photo: Myrabella / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15781169

 

 

Later we rode one of the elevators up the Eiffel Tower.

 

A much later picture – Judy, Karen and Janet – 1981

 

I remember being surprised that it was a two-stop trip.  Partway up on one big elevator we stopped, then we got on a smaller one that went the rest of the way.  I just remember it was a beautiful view from the top.  We also walked around the Arc de Triomphe –

 

In the setting sun – 1981

 

and at the time we were there, there weren’t too many cars around on the Champs Elysees.  We also toured the Louvre.

 

The Louvre and small arch – 1981

 

From Paris, the next stop was Neuchatel, Switzerland, on Lake Neuchatel, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland.

 

Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland.Martouf – Credit Google Search

 

Sometime between Paris and Neuchatel, I had come down with a rash, and when we got there, and got settled in the hotel, they called a Swiss doctor, and he diagnosed me with German measles.  The first thing the doctor did was close the curtains in the room to make the room dark.  That cooped me up in that room, and the doctor said, “You’re stuck in the bed for the day.”  While I stayed in bed, the others went out to see the sights.  Because I stayed in bed, the spots were gone in a day-and-a-half, and I was able to continue my tour.

After we left Neuchatel, we went on to Lucerne, and Emily came down with the measles.  Emily, being a little bit more rambunctious than I was, decided she didn’t want to be cooped up in bed, so she insisted in going with us everywhere.  As I recall, it took her a week to get over the measles, where it took me a day-and-a-half to get over it.

I remember being very impressed with Lucerne – it’s still one of my favorite cities.  We walked across the old covered wooden bridge, which is still there.

 

Covered bridge on Lake Lucerne – credit Google Search

 I remember going to an unusual place – I guess it was out of the way – it was in kind of a base relief in large rocks.  I remember some lions and some other animals in there. It had been dedicated to the Swiss guards that guarded one of the popes.  Wikipedia states:

The Lion Monument, or the Lion of Lucerne, is a rock relief in Lucerne, Switzerland, designed by Bertel Thorvaldsen and hewn in 1820–21 by Lukas Ahorn. It commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris.

 

 Credit Google Search

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

 

JUDYJudy 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.
She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

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Fred Remembers~Part 6

30 Sep

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

The Heidelberg Schloss tour guide was an older man with a very white beard.  He guided us both inside and outside.  He looked to me like he was in his 80’s, but he may not have been that old.  He told a story that, back during the 1500’s, they were under siege, I think by the French, and they ran out of wine.  One of the men, in all his life, had nothing to drink but wine, so when they ran out of wine, he drank some water.  He died the next day.  I’m not sure what all that means, but anyway, it was an interesting story. We saw the turrets, ledges, and the house where Sigmund Romberg wroteThe Student Prince.  The house was across the Neckar River from the schloss.

The Schloss from the Neckar River

While in Heidelberg, as we had gone through the grounds around the Schloss, I remember this young lady who was with us was English, and there was an archway [gate] in the grounds outside the castle that was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth.  And she wanted to have her picture taken underneath the Elizabethan Arch.  So we did that for her.  I can’t find any picture of her in my archives, so we probably took the picture with her camera.

The Elizabeth Gate – Credit Google Search

From Heidelberg we went up to Cologne [Köln], Germany, and in Cologne we stayed in a hotel.  As I recall, our room was on the second or third floor, and on about the fourth or fifth floor above us, they were still shoveling debris out.  So that hotel we stayed in was actually still semi-damaged from World War II.  I also remember driving around the famous cathedral in Cologne, and buildings all around it were totally demolished, but there was very little damage to the cathedral itself.  I think that was because the U.S. decided to try not to damage the cathedral.

The Cologne Cathedral – credit Google Search and Andre M. Hunseler/MSH

 

From Germany we went to Holland.  I remember one of the places we stopped was in a little town called Scherpenzeel.  I was really taken aback while we were there – not only there but other places in Holland, just in driving around, we would see many, many women out in front of their house or the place where they worked, actually scrubbing the outsideof their building – to keep it clean!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen that any place else where I’ve lived.  We stayed in a little inn there, which was called the DeWitte Holevoet, and I think, as I recall, we even ate there.

Hotel DeWitte in Scherpenzeel – 1948

 

From there we went into Amsterdam, and toured around there.  I think we even took a boat on some of the canals in Amsterdam, and went up to the Zuiderzee

Wikipedia states:   The Zuiderzee Works (Dutch: Zuiderzeewerken) is a man-made system of dams and dikes, land reclamation and water drainage work, in total the largest hydraulic engineering project undertaken by the Netherlands during the twentieth century. The project involved the damming of the Zuiderzee, a large, shallow inlet of the North Sea, and the reclamation of land in the newly enclosed water using polders. Its main purposes are to improve flood protection and create additional land for agriculture.

 

 

The Zuiderzee Works in the Netherlands turned the dangerous Zuiderzee, a shallow inlet of the North Sea, into the tame IJsselmeer, and created 1650 km² of land. Credit Google Search.

The American Society of Civil Engineers declared these works, together with the Delta Works in the South-West of the Netherlands, as among the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

One of the bridges that went into the city was Vollendam and was still damaged from World War II.  While there, we learned that Vollendam was known as the place where many people married their first cousin.

I remember seeing many people, especially out in the fields, wearing wooden shoes.  While visiting the city of Delft, we visited a shop where they made wooden shoes. Some of the shoes were painted, probably for tourists.  My parents purchased a pair for me and another pair for my sister, Emily.  I still have mine.

 

Taken on our 2015 Viking River Cruise – Kinderdijk, Holland

 

Some place in Holland we took a tour through a cheese factory, and had free samples of Gouda cheese.

Gouda Cheese – credit Google Search and GourmetSleuth

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

  Link to current day Hotel DeWitte https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g1602352-d2162180-Reviews-De_Witte_Holevoet-Scherpenzeel_Gelderland_Province.html      

 

 

 

JUDYJudy 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.
She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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Fred Remembers~Part 5

23 Sep

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

I also remember there was a pier that came out of the castle Miramare.  Occasionally there would be sailboats tied up there, maybe some other boats. Occasionally people would be out there fishing off it.  I didn’t have a rod and reel, I just had a line with a hook on it, which was a hand line. One of the Italian guys told me that, if you use a chunk of shrimp, you could catch some fish, and sure enough, it worked. The castle Miramare also had a nice, Italian restaurant, where we frequently had Sunday lunch. I also remember one Easter, we had dual services out in the grounds (terraced gardens) at the Castle Miramare.  In the middle of this big field, we had the local band – the military band.  On one side of them, and probably far enough away that you couldn’t hear too much, would be the Protestant service, and on the other side was the Catholic service. One thing I remember was that four of us boys, dressed in our jackets and shorts – for some reason…I guess it was warm enough for shorts, and we were a quartet – we sang as part of the Easter Sunrise Service out there. As mentioned in my previous post, we enjoyed both summer and winter times in Cortina.  Here’s a picture of me golfing, during one of our summer trips to Cortina.
Here’s a picture of the family while in Cortina.
And here is one of me getting ready to ski on a winter trip to Cortina.
And here is one of my parents and myself ready to ski!
One of the highlights for the older Wills – that’s Emily, myself, and Mom and Dad – I think it was the summer of either 1948 or 1949 (I honestly don’t remember which year), we took a car tour.
The twins (Sally and Larry) stayed in Trieste with someone.  We actually borrowed a car from one of the persons that worked with Dad.  Both he and one of the ladies (who was British) that was on sort-of the administrative staff in Dad’s office, and the four of us Wills, drove up through Northern Italy, across the Brenner Pass, through Innsbruck, into Garmisch-Partenkirchen.  I remember one of the places we stayed was Garmisch.  While we were in Garmisch, we actually stayed in the Eibsee Hotel on Lake Eibsee which, at that time, was the Special Forces Hotel.
Lake Eibsee – credit Wikipedia On the 10thof May – as we looked out on the lake – it snowed!  While we were there, we also took a cable-car up to the Zugspitze, which was nice.
From Garmisch we went further up into Germany, and one of the places we stayed – which I still remember a little bit – was in Heidelberg.  We toured through the Schloss (castle) there and downtown Heidelberg.  I remember they also took us to a lot of places that I never saw when we (Judy and I) actually lived in Heidelberg.  I guess they don’t take tourists there anymore.
8

Fred in the Heidelberg Castle courtyard

I distinctly remember going through the wine cellar.  They also took us up on top of one huge wine keg, which I think they said would hold like 50,000 liters of wine.  It was so huge that it actually had a dance floor up on the top of it (it was laying on its side).  I remember the young soldier and the young lady who were with us on the trip, actually danced on the dance floor.

                       ~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

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Fred Remembers~Part 4

16 Sep

SUNDAY MEMORIES
Judy Wills

 

As I recall, sometime, probably in the late Spring or early Summer of 1947, we moved from our quarters in Caserta up to the area near Pisa, Italy.

 

June 1970 – Judy and the Leaning Tower

There was a town up there called either Viareggio or Livorno. It was near camp Darby, which Judy and I have visited. We were there for about two weeks, and then we drove on over to Trieste.

Trieste at the time was a U.S. protectorate – actually a U.S. and British protectorate. It was a free territory administered by the U.S. and British. As I recall, it was four miles wide and 19 miles long from North to South and had about 1,000 U.S. troops and another 700 British troops there. The overall name was the Trieste United States Troops, which was abbreviated TRUST. I believe it stayed as a free territory until 1956, when it was finally divided up between Italy, which got the city and the port, and the rest went to Yugoslavia.

One of the nice things we enjoyed to do for sort-of-a-vacation time while we lived in Trieste, was to drive up into the Dolomite mountains in northern Italy, to the city of Cortina d’Ampezzo, which is where they had the 1956 Olympics, which, of course was some years after we were there.

 

1948 – Dolomites – Cortina – Tofane
From Charles Wills’ albums

 

The unit had a Special Forces hotel there which was right on a golf course, with a little lake, and we used to go up there both in the summer for a summer resort, and in the winter time and do some skiing. It was a beautiful resort area, and we enjoyed it.

Some good memory that I have about living in Trieste was that a little bit north of town, outside the city limits was a castle called Miramare, which is where the U.S. had some of their administrative offices that may have been their headquarters for a while for the U.S. Forces in it. It was left over from Emperor Maximilian, and it was right on the coast, which was real rocky there.

 

Trieste – via Carducci #2 – where the Wills lived in the 1940’s after WW2
They lived in the “Mezzanine” – just under the arches her

 

 

 

I remember the Corps of Engineers manufactured a beach – they brought in some sand from some place and had a little beach area there where people could get a little sun tan on the beach. But the basic swimming area there was really rocky, however it was a fairly sharp drop-off. You could go out 20 or 30 feet and it was already 10 or 15 feet deep.

 

1948 – June – Miramare Castle gardens and beach, Trieste, Italy
From Charles Wills’ albums

 

I remember there was a large rock, roughly 20-foot square, that we could swim out to, and then jump off that into the water. They eventually put up about a 10×10-foot raft out there that was anchored so that we had another thing we could jump onto and off of.

 

1948 – Miramare Castle pier – The Wills family

I remember swimming down probably 8 or 10 feet, maybe deeper, and swimming through the grass, and noticing the fish. I was able to do this with my eyes open, even though I didn’t have a mask or goggles on. I think the water was not as salty as the ocean.

~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

JUDYJudy 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.

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