Happiness Is: Memories

Retirement, a whole'nother ball game

Maryland
My last assignment was my second office job. Provided administrative support for oceanographers. A new experience that quickly became routine.

More Alaska at Sea
On a different ship with a different mission. More new experiences.

First they sent us back for refresher training
and to have an official photo taken I guess in case
we were lost at sea.

This was the assignment when I began losing teeth,
my hair turned gray and I even went temporarily blind
in one eye due to lack of sleep and a torn retina.
But I lived to tell about it.

Maryland 1986-88
Worked on an interagency committee. Wrote specifications for aeronautical charting.

Tennessee 1987

American Gothic Grant Wood
Mat and I thought we would
pose like this but all we really
got right were his forehead
and my bib overalls.

Mat and Marcy, American Gothic re-enactors
November 1987
Don't know why they called me Marcy there but they did.
I let it go since it was only for two weeks.

The fall colors in the Appalachian Mountains were beautiful.

More Alaska Flying 1984-85

Lots of hours in the Twin Otter. This was low and slow flying either too close to the terrain or too close to the open ocean or to the pack ice. Plenty of new experiences, that's for sure.

The flying was in aid of critter counting.

Staff College 1984

I learned how to drink beer in several languages including Australian, British, Korean and two kinds of German.

Socializing with members of the other services was part of our duty while at Staff College. Really!

The highlight for me was when Jim came to graduation. The highlight for Jim was a drive up the DelMarVa peninsula where we ate delicious sausage for breakfast at a roadside diner. Also this was the trip when Jim flew home with some of the sourdough starter I had adopted from one of my fellow aviators. We had a lot of fun over the years with our yeast pets.

England and Scotland with Jon

Washington, D.C. 1979-1984

I enjoyed the camaraderie with my fellow aviators and work during these years was particularly satisfying. Also I learned to play golf on bad weather days. Although our home base was at Dulles International Airport, we flew missions in all the contiguous states, Alaska, and the Virgin Islands.

Marcella, Terry, Tom, Bob, Pat and Dave.
Pat's wife Ruthie and I became good friends.

Pilots and photographers

The right stuff?

It was very cold at the airport that day.

My agency's de Havilland Buffalo and
North American Rockwell Turbo Commander (before its new paint job.)

I logged hundreds of hours in the Turbo Commander, but less than an hour in the Buffalo. One afternoon soon after I earned my wings, just before the Buffalo was decommissioned, the chief of flight ops took me to fly a few takeoffs and landings in the Buffalo. I was thrilled. But it was in the nature of a test flight and after a few successful take-offs and landings the old Buffalo failed. (It was NOT my fault!) On my last landing the spoilers deployed just fine, but refused to retract. I later flew a de Havilland Twin Otter which is another very cool airplane.

Alaska

Plaid shirts and khakis were not our uniform,
merely a coincidence that Pat and I dressed alike
on this particular day.

The tall fellow on the left was one of our aerial photographers. We "aimed" the camera mounted in the bottom of our airplane by navigating carefully along predetermined flight lines at specified altitudes. Our photographers did the rest.

San Francisco International Airport

Jan and Marcella at SFO
circa 1978

Jo Ann and Jan and Marcella
Another visit in transit at San Francisco International Airport

Hawaii with Jannette

Marcella and Jannette in the sugar cane field.
Who knew it was so tall? It's really just grass after all.

A very windy place on Oahu

Marcella and Jannette at Hanauma
(Hanauma means curved bay, so "Hanauma Bay" is redundant.)

See that little cutout on the tummy of Jannette's bathing suit? The little fish in the bay were very curious about it and gave her little fishy kisses on her tummy!

Jannette and Marcella and some pretty boys we met
on a day-sail from Maui to Lanai where we body surfed
the day away. On the sail boat motoring back
at the end of the day they served us mai tais.
What were they thinking?

Have guitar, will travel

"No photos, please. Hold your applause."

California Visit

Grandad with Yvonne, Marcella, and Jannette
Grandad planted corn every year, that is what is growing behind us.

Yvonne cropped this version, it looks clearer too.

Maryland

Maryland, 1980
The Admiral was attaching my newly earned wings.

The Admiral had already attached my wings to the pocket flap of my uniform when my boss pointed out wings were properly worn above the pocket flap not on it. The Admiral looked me in the eye and said "I'm goin' in deeper!" I promised not to make any sudden moves. We both were blushing like crazy while he managed to attach them properly. Whew!

Maryland, 1979
Documenting my new stripe for Mama.

My first mortgage.
Maryland 1979

Florida Trail

April 1978 On the Florida Trail with Jon
The water tasted like sulphur, bleah!
...but if one is thirsty enough, and has some Tang in one's backpack...

My third field party was all mine. We worked in New Jersey in the summers and in Florida in the winters. Towing our office trailer over the big bridge into Savannah was an exciting experience to say the least. We hauled it around with a bright orange 2 1/2 ton Harvester International truck. I can honestly say I got darned good at backing the office trailer and our boat trailers into tight spots. Lots of practice. And good guys on my crew offering lots of advice of course.

Maryland

One spring we got an assignment in Maryland. Too close to headquarters. The public affairs office sent out a reporter and a photographer. On the one hand we got some nice photos of the field party. On the other hand I learned a lesson about answering last minute questions from sneaky reporters.

I'd gotten a genuine manicure in anticipation of an actual date that evening.
Doubtless that gave the reporter the wrong impression.
At least with advanced warning I appeared in uniform that day.

New Jersey

Bob, Jon, Shorty, Dave and Marcella
Delaware River, Bordentown, New Jersey
1978

Florida

Jon, Marcella, Shorty, and John
on the steps of our office trailer

John, Hilda, Shorty and me
Near Fernandina Beach, Florida 1978

Hilda was Shorty's wife and she gave me the recipe for pig pickin' cake.

Shorty's real name was Lloyd Clinton but he preferred to be called Shorty. I was his first female boss and he thought he'd call me "honey" or "baby" who knows why. On the advice of my friend Craig who knew Shorty of old I would respond to each endearment with a smile and "Yes, Lloyd Clinton?" He quickly learned to use my name so I would stop using his.

My Second Field Party

This field party operated a high speed launch also, and they were waiting for a more senior officer to take over, but the bosses put me in charge for a few months.

I loved my crews like they were my own sons.

We worked in Pamlico Sound and docked at the Coast Guard station on an island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. One day when the seas were too rough for our launch to go out I was given a familiarization ride on one of the Coast Guard's boats. They had to go out in all kinds of seas to maintain buoys and this particular boat was capable of righting itself even if it were completely capsized. Imagine rolling 360 degrees! We all wore flotation jackets and were attached to the boat with lines and it was quite an exciting ride as we recovered and repositioned a buoy that had drifted from the channel into the surf. I was happy and only a little disappointed when we returned to port without actually having capsized.

My First Field Party

I was the junior officer (of two) assigned to this high speed launch. It had twin diesel engines and could really make waves. These black and white photos were taken by a local newspaper. A surprise to the rest of the crew but evidently not to our boss.

"Look at the engine," the boss said. So I looked
at the engine, and that was the only posed shot.
They took the other two as we were docking
at day's end. I'd have at least pulled down
the legs of my shorts had I known.
What the heck, we were on the Gulf coast of Florida.
Those were my work clothes, flip-flops and all.

This was when I began taking flying lessons in the evenings. I took more lessons while I was with my third field party, at different airports up and down the east coast. I even took a lesson at Kahalui Airport on Maui while I was there on leave with Jannette.

Near the end of my field party assignments I was able to ace the FAA tests and earned my private pilot's license.

Florida

I learned how to fly during my first shore assignment, beginning when I was assigned to my first field party. I earned my private pilot's license on my own time at my own expense. Training for my commercial, multi-engine, and instrument ratings was funded by my service after I was selected for the aviation program.

My first solo flight was in this trusty Cessna 150.
There were clouds in the sky but
I wasn't allowed to leave the landing pattern anyhow.

Dale my flight instructor

According to my big brother Jim there is a tradition at some airfields of "cutting the tail feathers" of a student pilot after their first solo flight (which is to say cutting off their shirt tails with a big pair of scissors.) My brother having forewarned me, on the day I wore an old khaki shirt I wouldn't've minded having ruined. Jim also warned that bras had been accidentally cut in the past. So I wore an undershirt instead that day! Turned out there was no such tradition of cutting people's shirt tails at my airport. Big brothers do like to tease. Hence my unattractive outfit that day. No matter, I still was cleared to solo!

I let the flight instructors know what Jim had told me, and they decided I needed this picture to make my big brother jealous.

Alaska

Snoopy the dog was a comfort.

Commissioned officers of our ship
Kodiak, Alaska
1976

The Lieutenant Commander and the Ensign
on the bow of our ship leaving port in Alaska
1976

Concert in the Oceanography Lab one evening
on our ship in the Gulf of Alaska

The band included one steward on the fiddle, two deck hands on string bass and harmonica, one engineer on percussion (spoons), and a survey tech and an ensign with funny socks on guitars.

Douglas and sea ice in the Bering Sea

Somewhere in the Gulf of Alaska
Not one of our ship's worst rolls by a long shot.

Marcella at work in the Gulf of Alaska 1976
Mom and Dad sent me those gloves.
They were fur-lined and I loved them!

Commissioned officers of our ship
Gulf of Alaska, 1975

Mendenhall Glacier near Juneau, Alaska
1975

Glacier ice is really just that blue to look at, evidently a result of how hard the ice crystals are packed together by the mass of the glacier.

California visit

Nada and Marcella at the old college
March 1975
I came home on leave after training before my first sea assignment.
On the way back to the airport for my return flight east
Mom and Dad dropped me at the college for a mini-reunion with my old dorm buddy.

New York

My friend Craig from another class taught me a song to the melody of Streets of Laredo "I see by your outfit that you are an ensign. I see by my outfit that I am one too. We see by our outfits that we are both ensigns, if you get an outfit you can be an ensign too." :-)

Basic Officer Training Class
New York 1975

Marcella at firefighting school, 1975

Remember my buddy Ron from California? My future fellow aviator? He thought he ought to document my survival in guise as the creature from the black lagoon. The trick was to keep breathing. Then we got to do it without the masks, breathing what oxygen comes through with the water in the line. It works, and also one gets nice and wet.

A motley crew of college grads reporting for training.

The three fellows on the right are Ron, Dane (with the big mustache), and Ken. Ron was a fellow Californian and we both became aviators. Dane and Ken were already veterans-- Dane from the Coast Guard, and Ken from the Air Force. We were lucky to have them in our class. Mary was the other woman in our class. Her father was a Navy captain. One of the training officers got us mixed up and when I mentioned my Dad had served in the Navy he told me in an impressed voice he knew my dad had been a captain. Dad never talked to me much about being in the Seabees in Okinawa, so it was news to me. Dad laughed when I asked him about it. He said, "Yes, I was captain of the clothesline!"

College

Northern California 1973
The residents of the Ecology Special Interest Dormitory
A nice group of ~~boys and girls~~ of men and women I mean.
We were in college after all!

We only look like a big bunch of hippie girls and surfer dudes. Really!

It turned out the tall dark-haired fellow in the left back corner was my Secret Santa.

There was a Catholic priest called Father Tom who had a little cabin and sometimes invited our group to visit. Talking and music were our primary activities at the cabin. And taking long walks which naturally involved more talking. Probably we solved the riddles of life, the universe and everything, but nobody was taking notes.

Wally, Marcella and Jeanie

Lynn was my college boyfriend. Everybody had long hair then,
but Lynn added sideburns and a Fu Manchu mustache.
He was studying Geology and I thought he was Neato!

Tom was my friend from the College/Community Chorus
who later became a fisherman.
We corresponded for years until he married.
I hope he and his wife are living happily ever after.

High School (coming soon!)

My first encounter with buffalo
in Golden Gate Park
Summer Vacation 1964

Practice-casting on the front lawn

1963

Aunt Marcella with Janice and Chuck

Summer 1962

Back to school

September 1961

This was my first solo catch.
"Now what do I do? Where's Dad?"

Summer 1961

Posing for Yvonne 1959

Christma
1959

My dog Chrissy
The best dog in the world!

Summer vacation again
1958

Kindergarten school picture

1957

The deer in Yosemite were pesky that summer.
This doe had walked right up and nudged Dad in the hip pocket
to see what he might have that was good to eat.

Yvonne and I offered her Wonder Bread I think.

Summer 1956