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Mom & Dad's Trip Down Memory Lane
Last week ended with Josh Taylor and I purchasing a film scanner for joint use in converting family slides and negatives to digital format for posterity -- meaning you guys.
Of the two of us, I'm more detail oriented, so we (Josh) elected me to be the guinea pig & figure out how to use the blasted thing. Then train him. Bad idea.
I resisted opening the scanner box till yesterday (8/30), when some minor skin surgery kept me away from the never-ending honey-do list. Sounded like a great time for some self-directed learning.
Learning requires subject matter, so I innocently headed to the basement & grabbed a couple of boxes of old slides, planning to use one or two slides.
I doubt that you'd expect it, but I somehow lost sight of the plan to touch the process lightly and then train Josh. I now am proficient at using the scanner, have brushed up on Photoshop, have learned more about color space management than I ever wished to know, have learned way too much about digital graphics resolution, and have pulled together a neat sample of slides from Jan & my earlier years.
She & I have gotten a lot of giggles over the subject matter to which you are about to be subjected. Best of all, the honey-do list remains as it was Wednesday morning.
What is here is by no means complete. Gaps abound and will be filled as we find pictures that trigger memories of our good old days. What is here, however, is too much fun to hold until we fill the gaps.
Here you go! If you want to skip around, here's a list of topics:
U. S. Army
Ever feel like the country was inadequately
defended during the Vietnam era? Fear not, the U. S. Army
Adjutant General's School traveling instruction team was on the job.
Here you have, in order, 1LT Cobb, MAJ John Martin, LTC William A Fickett,
1LT Dale Dodrill, and 1LT Bill Walker, ready for duty, Sir!
The picture was taken in mid-1969 in Vung Tau province of South Vietnam. Vung Tau wasn't exactly a hot-bed of violence. Actually it was a resort town on the coast in the Mekong Delta and was used by both the VC and the US militaries as an in-country R&R (rest & relaxation) center. But you couldn't have convinced us of that. We all breathed a huge sigh of relief when our plane went wheels-up out of Saigon after our two week stay.
Don't feel too sorry for us though. En route to Vung Tau, we spent several weeks spreading our "data processing" religion to the heathen at Ft DeRussy in downtown Honolulu. We stayed on the Hale Koa hotel, which is at the center of Waikiki beach -- on the beach -- next to Ft DeRussy. And since our teaching schedule was sporadic, we were able to get plenty of beach time between teaching shifts. Saturday nights were spent at the Officers' Mess at Tripler Army Medical Center, where they had a weekly all-you-can eat filet & crab feast. Cost was only $8 per head -- for Alaskan king crab (yep, flown in from Alaska especially for the weekly feast), the tenderest filets known to a bunch of hungry young GIs, and copious amounts of liquid refreshments.
Consequently, our Saturdays were spent snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, building up our tans (burns, in my case -- no doubt related to this week's skin surgery) and our appetites.
Putting the story in the family context, Bill was in the U. S. Army between September, 1967 and September, 1969 and was assigned to the Adjutant General's School (Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Lawrence IN) for his entire tour of duty. Dale Dodrill, who was on leave of absence from KSA during his tour of duty, convinced me to join KSA at the conclusion of my tour. Dale left KSA in the late 70's, but we stay in touch; he and Carolyn currently live in Louisville KY. John was about a year old when the picture was taken.
1973
By 1973, I had completed my transition to single life. I lived in Atlanta and John and I were able to get a lot of good time together. I was with KSA, had developed into a pretty good IT consultant, and worked in the Greenville SC area on projects for J. P. Stevens led by Josh Taylor (yep, the one who got me into this mess). Travel was hectic, but it's a way of life in consulting and the project experiences travel afforded helped move my career in the right direction. And my social life was OK with good friends both in Atlanta and in Greenville. Things were finally balanced again.
Dale and Carolyn Dodrill lived on-site in Greenville so the three of us were able to continue our Army relationship; that included prodigious amounts of ice cream and tennis with whatever date I could scrounge up from the local communities. Dale and I even completed an evening course in Auto Mechanics 101 at Enoree Technical school.
I was busy enough with my own life that I lost close contact with the Kingsport family. By choice, I didn't see a lot of Katherine, Lee, Sarah, and Sid between 1969 and 1973 while I was transitioning from happily married to satisfactorily single and building a career at KSA.
However
in 1973, I received an invitation to Lee's wedding and headed back
to Kingsport to witness the proceedings.
Here are the five of us at or around the time of the wedding -- Lee, Kathy (now Katherine), Sid, Bill, and Sally (now Sarah), plus Sid's first wife Danni. The picture was taken at Mom & Dad's home in Kingsport, beside the pool.
The reunion and the wedding were good.
The
picture to the right was taken sometime in '73 in either Prattville or Montgomery,
Alabama on one of my trips
there to take John for a visit with his maternal grandparents, Dave & Omie Wilhelm. They and John were very close, and it was important
to me that he spend as much time with them as possible. They were
a good influence in his life.
When Dave retired from Arnold Engineering in Tullahoma TN, he and Omie moved to Prattville to be close to Maxwell Air Force Base. Dave was a retired reserve army officer, and could take advantage of Maxwell's medical facilities, PX, and commissary. After a few years in Prattville, they moved to close by Montgomery and stayed there until their deaths. Anyhow, in those years, we saw a lot of both Prattville and Montgomery and I cannot remember when they moved from one to the other.
Blind Date
Jan & I met in September of 1974 on a blind date set up by a KSA associate. I was a reluctant participant, having heard stories about really bad blind dates, but agreed to help Lee Ozley even though it meant cutting short a day of good sailing.
Lee and I worked together on a project at Thomaston Mills and double dated a few times before he met Terri at the 1973 Bobbin Show in Philadelphia. They married six months later. Their friend worked with Terri at AAMA, and took over Terri's duties as Assistant to Bud Meredith, President of AAMA, when Terri moved to Atlanta.
The friend in question was coming through Atlanta after a week in Dallas at the Bobbin Show. There were the usual Dallas - Atlanta Friday night flight snafus. When the KSA delegates from Atlanta learned Jan was heading to Atlanta, they took her under their wings & made sure she made it to Atlanta. Needless to say, after a week at a trade show and a hectic flight to Atlanta with a bunch of rowdy consultants, Jan was not really interested in entertaining another consultant Saturday night.
We must've had a good time. I was tired and dehydrated from sailing and Jan was tired from her trade show week so it's blurry, but we stayed up till the wee hours and drained Lee's liquor cabinet of Drambuie. Maybe that's why it was blurry.
Jan called the next day to see if we could get together again before she headed back to Washington. I initially declined due to commitments with John.
She ended up staying an extra day so we could get together. We cooked out Monday night at Lee & Terri's, and then we said our good-byes with casual plans (oh yeah, we've heard this before!) to get together when she came through Atlanta on her way to Hilton Head six weeks hence for an AAMA Board of Directors' meeting.
Washington DC, 1974
Wrong. The following weekend, September 27 - 29, 1974, I visited Jan in Washington. You have all heard the story of this weekend; if you haven't, ask Jan to tell it the next time you see her. She tells it a lot better than I do.
The summary: I was awed by the weekend's fare. It included a black tie evening at the Kennedy Center (WMAL RADIO 63 salutes Felix Grant), helping Lorraine move in the rain Saturday morning (after Jan plied me with too much wine Friday night), an Elvis concert at the University of Maryland field house Saturday night, a Redskins - Cowboys football game Sunday night (the prime pro football rivalry of that era -- both were dominant teams), and lots of sightseeing in between. ... and I'll let you guess. Did we have any Mexican food?
WestPoint Lake Sailing Club Regatta, Fall, 1974
Fortunately, round trip tickets between Atlanta and Washington were reasonable. We used a lot of them -- both ways. Jan may remember the trips, but I've lost track. But through them, our relationship grew stronger as I got to know Jan, the kind of person she is, and then got to know her better through her friends. She, in turn, got to know me and, more importantly, John.
On one of the Atlanta visits, we (by now, "we" meant Jan, John, and me) piled in the car and headed to WestPoint Lake, then known as Lake Harding, for a Snipe regatta. Steve Jones was crewing for me at the time, and he and his future bride B. J. Ridings joined us. The facilities at the Sailing Club are, at best, primitive. But the club's members were hospitable hosts and camping by the lake in the mild fall weather was fun.
At some point during October, Jan and I began to realize that our times together were more than just a way to pass time. Neither of us went into our acquaintance looking for anything lasting; both of us remembered the pain of working out rough spots in our previous marriages. But there was a glimmer of something worth exploring further.
I'm sure that our triangular relationship was troubling for Jan. Getting into a relationship with one person after a failed marriage was challenge enough; a relationship with two -- one young -- must have been downright scary.
While I'm the model for the eternal optimist, my relationship with John's mother left scars and insecurities that had to be talked out before I was ready to do anything more than take a week at a time.
Needless to say, Jan and I had lots of discussions about our past relationships. John's warm personality minimized her fears about his needs without a lot of talk.
Halloween Weekend, 1974
By late October, I was comfortable with where we were, and where we might go. No commitments had been made, but we were both thinking in the same direction. I think. Jan?
Halloween weekend was always a big weekend in John and my lives. In addition to trick or treating, the annual Halloween Regatta took place. We were active members of Atlanta Yacht Club and its Snipe fleet. The fleet hosted a major regatta at AYC each Halloween. Big turnout (100+ boats with an average of 3 people per boat), good racing, big party, lots of fun. It was the Southeast's last Snipe Regatta of the year and an event our fleet prepared for all year (look at the personalized coffee cups in our dish cabinets).
This year, we invited Jan, and fortunately she could fit it into her busy social schedule. Halloween fell on Thursday, and she joined John and me for trick or treating. A welcome addition I might add. See the cup cakes?
Friday we headed to Lake Allatoona for the Halloween Regatta. I haven't the foggiest notion where I finished in the fleet, but Jan's company sure was nice. I think she and I won the party.
Our Decision
Jan and I are discussing when we decided to marry. She thinks I proposed the weekend of the Halloween Regatta; I think it was later.
Whenever it was, Jan & I hiked to the top of Stone Mountain one afternoon, and after some irrelevant banter, I proposed. She was flabbergasted; thought I was demented. She made a few counter-proposals but when all was said and done, said yes.
The Wedding
We scheduled the wedding for January 4, 1975. That would give us a chance to make wedding arrangements and enjoy Christmas with our respective families before the wedding.
Mom & Dad had sold the Kingsport house and moved to Knoxville to be available to assist Mom's parents, Katherine (Mema) and John Card, when the need arose. John and I spent a few days after Christmas with them in Knoxville and then I flew to Washington to help Jan prepare for the wedding; John would follow with Mom & Dad.
The wedding was held in Lorraine Dziedzic's apartment. It was a beautiful beginning for a new family.
Sometime after our wedding, KSA president Jack Ullman sent Bud Meredith a note suggesting that KSA sensed an HR issue in Bud's office and would be happy to send a team of KSA consultants to the AAMA offices to survey the situation and recommend a course of action. Bud's reply was a bit salty; he told Jack that single consultants were no longer welcome in AAMA's offices.
Fast Forward to 1979
Here are some pictures from 1979. Be patient Julie. We're getting to you.
We think this picture was taken in Williamsburg VA; it was with a bunch of
other Williamsburg pictures. Likely on a trip to Rhode Island to
visit Jan's family.
These shots are from a family photo shoot in the living room at Angus Trail. Great pictures; I'm not happy with the colors yet, and am working to clean them up so we can make prints. Each picture is progressively better, so I must be learning something.
Can you find James' ever-present toy car in the first three pictures?
John was active in Scout Troop 232, led by Dr. Louie Carrington, for many years. The troop program included monthly camping trips ten or eleven months a year. John didn't miss many campouts, regardless of weather.
Even the Webelos program, a one year transition program between Cub Scouts
and Boy Scouts, included a Dad / Son campout. I recall huffing &
puffing up the Appalachian Trail between Woody Gap and Neels Gap,
through Jarrard Gap on our way to a great camping spot.
Jan loved the avocado shag carpet in the Angus Trail den. Can we put some in the Old Campus Trail den Jan?