Our New Home In Public Quarters

We had waited a long time for our move into Public
Quarters and were looking forward to it. 

George's brother, Jack, was coming from Garden Grove
to help us move.  He came on a Friday.  By Sunday,
we were moved, and he was on his way home.

The first thing on our agenda was to buy a table and
chairs for our dining area, and a bed for the master
bedroom.

Formica and Chrome tables were the rage at that time.
We found one we liked. The formica table top was a
silver gray color and it came with an extension and six
chrome and yellow chairs.  We found a bed and
dresser, and had it all delivered.  With a place to eat
and sleep, we were feeling much better.

We didn't get anything else done that first week.  George
had duty and couldn't leave the base and it was taking
all of my energy to get settled into my new job at
Solar Air Craft Co.  When I got home late in the
afternoon, it would be time for me to prepare our
dinner.  George was tired when he came home.  We 
didn't feel like doing anything around the house.
We just wanted to eat, relax, and talk about our day.

Some mornings when he left for work, he told me he
would bring our dinner home from the restaurant or
commissary, on base.  I liked it when he did.  It gave
us two or three hours to do a few things before we
went to bed.

I liked my job, but it had been a challenge settling in.  It
was different than any job I had worked previously.  I
worked in the Parts Department as the secretary to the
Department Manager.  I had always worked as a
secretary and stenographer, but this was very different.
My title was officially, Secretary and Statistical
Stenographer.

Everything in the Parts Department was numbers.
When I interviewed for the job, I was hired as the
secretary to the Manager of the department.  His
current secretary was retiring in two weeks.  They
hired me ahead of her retirement and had me working
as a File Clerk for those two weeks.  I was told they
wanted me to get comfortable with numbers and the
filing system.  There were literally hundreds of filling
cabinets.  They filed by category and within the different
categories, they filed by numbers.  The numbers for each
part could have as many as fifteen numerals and four
letters.  For a while, I was completely overwhelmed.  It
didn't take me long to understand why I did nothing
but file for two weeks.

My boss's name was Mr. Peabody. He was in his late 30s.
He was a wonderful man.  He was very professional, but
was kind and soft spoken.  He lived on the beach in
Cardiff By The Sea.  When I told him of my love for,
and fascination with, the ocean and how much I loved
walking on the beach, he told me that he was a surfer
and scuba diver.  After that, he would often share his
ocean experiences with me.    

Dictation wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, with all
of the numbers.  I took dictation in shorthand, except  for
the numbers, those he read to me and I wrote the numbers
down.  That was a relief to me.  I had been wondering how
the numbers were handled during dictation..

I was occasionally needed to take dictation from someone
other than Mr Peabody, and I was often sent to the file
room to pull invoices.  It was a job where I could not afford
to get careless.

I loved the people in the Parts Department.  We were a family.
I made lots of friends.  I had two very close friends, Helen and
Betty.  They were both near my age and were service wives.
We ate lunch together every day and often did something
together on "off" days.  I never disliked going to work.
  .
George and I loved our neighborhood.  It was clean and very
pleasant.  Just a block away was a large grocery store and a
movie theatre.  Even though we shopped and went to movies
on base, it was wonderful to have these opportunities near
us.  Sometimes, we just wanted to be off base away from
the military life, for a short time. 

Our life continued to get better and more exciting.  Toward the
end of 1953, we made  a life changing purchase.  WE BOUGHT
OUR FIRST CAR, a 1953  red and black Nash Rambler  It was
a classy, sporty, little car.  We were over the moon.  We had been
married for over 2-1/2 years without a car.

TO BE CONTINUED. . . . . . .

We Move

We loved living in our beautiful apartment in Hillcrest,
but we were ready to move closer to The Naval Training
Center, in San Diego, where George would be working
for his entire four year tour of duty in the Navy.

When George was told that he would be stationed at the
Naval Training Center for his entire four years, we
decided to put our name on the waiting list for
housing.  There were two ways to go; Navy Housing
and Public Quarters.

Navy Housing was two story barrick style apartments.
They had no yard, but shared a common courtyard for a
designated number of apartments.

Public Quarters were two story four-plexes.  Each
apartment had it's own fenced back yard with grass,
a tree, and some plants.  There was a narrow strip
of shared grass in front of each building.

Navy Housing was cheaper rent and the waiting list was
much shorter, but we did not want it.  We wanted to get
a dog, which was allowed in Public Quarters, and were
hoping to have a baby before George's enlistment was
up.  We chose a two bedroom unit.  When we  put our
name on the waiting list, we were told that they could
not tell us how long we would have to wait.

Our last visitors in Hillcrest were Pete and Delores.
They were married on June 22,1953, and spent several
days of their honeymoon with us.  At the time we didn't
know they would be our last visitors in Hillcrest..

I had been working for Marie Burch, who owned The
World Wide Employment Agency.  She ran it with her
daughter, Lisa, as her only employee. When I was looking
for a job, I went to her agency.  She took an immediate
liking to me, and so did Lisa, who was my age and
engaged to a young man who was in the Air Force,
stationed in Texas.  Marie waved my fee and I became her
secretary and receptionist,which then freed Lisa to be
her full time assistant.  I became Lisa's secretary, also.
It was a wonderful job.  Marie became my surrogate
mother, and it was as if she had two daughters.  Lisa and I
were very good friends.  They made sure I was never
alone when George had duty.  The three of us ate lunch
together every day, unless we had errands to run.

It was a very happy time in my life, but sadly that time
was soon to end.  Shortly after Pete and Delores left to
return home, Marie called Lisa and I into her office.  She
told us she had stage 5 breast cancer.  It was terminal and
had spread to her lungs.  She was given just a few weeks
to live.  Lisa and I were shocked and very sad.  We had
shared with each other the fact that we knew Marie was
sick, but she never admitted it to us, even when she couldn't
function.

She told me she was in the process of finding me a job and
assured me she would try and find me one that was near
the Naval Base and Public Quarters.  She told Lisa she
could choose which family member she wanted to live with,
or she would get her settled in her own place, near family.

It was a sad time,I especially felt sorry for Lisa.  She moved
her wedding date forward and changed it into a small
intimate affair, hoping her mother would be  able to attend..
Marie refused to leave until Lisa was married.  She was
an amazing and strong, woman.

Things worked out wonderfully for me.  She found me a job at
Solar Aircraft Company, which was just three or four miles
from the Naval Base and Public Quarters. It was a long bus ride
for George and I.  He had been doing it the whole time we lived
in Hillcrest, but it was a big adjustment for me.  It was fun, though,
depending on George's schedule, we often rode the same bus.

Fortunately, we didn't have to do this for long.  In answer to our
daily prayers, in the first week of August 1953, our name was
called to move into our lovely home in Public Quarters.

TO BE CONTINUED. . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . .