SUNDAY MEMORIES
Judy Wills
Christmas memories……..so many……all good. I remember, as a child, waking up to Christmas morning and rushing into the living room to see what Santa had brought. And then to opening all the presents from Mom, Dad, Granny and Aunt Jessie. I suppose my brother had gotten me something as well, but I just dont remember that.
I remember Daddy sitting us down and reading the Christmas story from the Bible. He and Mom always made sure that we knew the true meaning of Christmas – why we celebrated the season and all the gifts that came with it. And why we gave gifts to each other and to those who didn’t have all we had.
I remember one Christmas that we were traveling to San Antonio from Albuquerque to spend the holiday with Granny and Aunt Jessie before they moved to Albuquerque. We had a car wreck along the way and Aunt Jessie came to pick us up and take us to her home. We still had Christmas! We didn’t have a workable car any more, and Bill had a broken arm……….but we still had Christmas!
I remember the last Christmas my Daddy was on this earth. He’d had a very unfortunate accident in the hospital and was really banged up. Fred and I flew in from California, and Bill and DiVoran, with their two children, flew in from Florida, to celebrate that time together. I remember the children tearing into their presents under the tree that morning, and DiVoran stepping out of the way to urge Bill to get in the best position to get some good pictures of that. And there was Daddy, with that black eye, just enjoying his grandchildren and children around him. It was a time to treasure.
I remember traveling from the Florida Panhandle to Titusville to have Christmas with my brother and his family, and then across the peninsula to Clearwater to have another celebration with Fred’s parents. Being with family at this time of celebration is so very precious, and we cherish each memory.
And now I remember a recent time with the family in Titusville and the significant others that have joined the extended family. I wouldn’t trade it for anything – no amount of non-Christian beliefs and just the time for partying is nearly as satisfying and delicious as being with family, in the Spirit of God’s blessings.
Nope………Christmas Memories and just too precious.
companion B-24, “Diamond Lil”, were to be featured, along with a varity of other WWII Warbirds. I had seen static B-24 and B-29 displays at museums, but this would be a special treat to see these famous WWII Warbirds fly. Then after that experience, I planned to complete an 11-day, 2660-mile circuit of aviation museums and other attractions in Central/West Texas and New Mexico.
he and his wife kept taking things out of his hat; like her watch and hair comb, and his glasses and billfold. Now I knew cowboys used their hats on the trail, to give their horses a drink of water, but I never thought about how convenient those big hats would be to carry things in! Then I arrived at the Dallas airport, many of the people were dressed in their western clothes and boots, and I saw this 10-gallon hat display used as a window decoration for a restaurant. The next thing I noticed, after obtaining my rental car was the Geico billboard sign, with the Gecko wearing a 10-gallon hat. Yep, I was in Texas for sure!
Crater. It was a long drive, and we stopped several times along the way just to take in the island beauty. We saw lots of sugar cane fields, and a few pineapple fields, as well.
quite cool. We were glad to have our sweaters and jackets! Silver Sword plants were quite abundant there. Inside the pavilion was a legend telling about “The Life of a Volcano.” Interesting.
postcards of what we would have seen at sunrise. A very impressive sight, to be sure. Since we are known for being directionally challenged – we totally missed Kula, so we drove on down to Kahului for lunch. On our way after that, we stopped and took some gorgeous pictures of Molokai in the near distance. Really a beautiful island.
extended on station, the Navy had to come up with a way to transport me back to the states. So, I received orders to be flown from Japan to Treasure Island Naval Station in California for separation. With everything I owned in my duffle bag, my first attempt to get to an airport was a four-hour hot and bumpy school bus ride, on some of the roughest roads I had ever traveled, to Itazuke AFB. Since I was enlisted, which is as low as it gets in the military, when it comes to travel authorization, several officers bumped me off that flight, and I had to endure another 4-hour bus ride back to the ship.
accounted for. Once they got the doors closed, we taxied to the end of the runway, the pilot did his pre-flight engine checks, and we headed down the runway at full power. Well, full power didn’t last long, as at least one of the engines started backfiring and the pilot aborted the takeoff. We stopped at the end of the runway, and the pilot did more engine checks. Since there still was no wind from any direction, the pilot turned back on the runway, and headed off at full power again. This time an engine caught on fire, and thank God the pilot had time to abort the takeoff. We all hurriedly deplaned, dripping wet, on shaky legs, and walked back to the terminal, leaving the flight crew and fire department to deal with the smoking engine. That episode didn’t give me a lot of confidence in any C-124 being able to get me safely back to the states.
was only bumped off one flight there, before I was given a seat on a TWA Super “G” Constellation flight headed for San Francisco. The flight consisted of three, very long 8-hour, over water flight legs, with stops at Wake Island, then at Honolulu, Hawaii and finally to San Francisco International Airport. Even though that flight was luxurious, compared to what the C-124 flight on MATS would have been, I was still mighty glad to be on the ground, and at the end of that trip.
Naval Reserve, to finish my 6-year tour of duty I had signed up for. I spent most of my free time visiting many of the tourist spots San Francisco is best known for, such as “Alcatraz Island”, Coit Tower, the Planetarium at Golden Gate Park, and of course, Fisherman’s Wharf, where I enjoyed some of their world famous seafood more than once.
Next, we went into Lahaina proper to see the city and all it holds. One of the most interesting sights is a huge banyan tree. It was planted in 1873, and has grown so that it’s limbs cover the entire city center. Many of the limbs need to have supports so they don’t drag the ground. It is over 60′ high, and covers more than 2/3 of an acre. It was planted to mark 50 years of Protestant missionary work in Lahaina.
That sight gave me a very uncomfortable feeling at the time, knowing I was eating lunch that close to Communist China. Another part of the tour was to the amazing Tiger Balm Gardens. The gardens consist of acres of Chinese figures cut into a hillside, and painted some of the most vivid colors you can imagine. Overall, the trip to Hong Kong was really great, and a one-of-a-lifetime experience. I would like to go back some day to see how it has changed over the years, as modern pictures show a very modern city compared to what I remember.
Japan. I can’t remember just what the occasion was for our visit, but the day after we got there the ship hosted an “Open House” for the Japanese people. We had the ship roped off so the visitors would walk in a line, in one direction, through only certain areas. We had a solid stream of people, walking through the ship all day long, and I didn’t notice until it was all over, but all those wooden shoes the Japanese women wear had chipped the paint right off the decks, everywhere the tour went on the ship.
places I visited while there, was the “Ground Zero Museum.” The museum houses many graphic artifacts from the ruins of the city, and photographs of what was left of the city after the Atomic Bomb (Fat Man) was exploded 1540 feet above the city on August 9, 1945.
Old Things R New 