The Future Homemakers of America

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The Future Homemakers of America Page 11

by Laurie Graham


  She said, ‘She just holds it better than she used to. She ever gets this baby we keep hearing about, he's not gonna want formula. He's gonna be looking for pints of Jack Daniel's.’

  Like Pearl said, it might be a good thing for the free world, our boys being willing to risk their necks, but it sure was hard on family life. ‘Thing is, Peg,’ she said, ‘if they didn't convince themselves they're indestructible, they'd never fly another mission. Things they get up to in those tin cans, they have to believe they're gods. It's no wonder they have a hard time of it when they come home, have to mix with mortals. Get asked to drag out the garbage once in a while. You ever been around when one of them buys the farm? You ever listened to them? We were at Castle, California, and one of Walt's squadron didn't make it, had a loose connector on his oxygen hose or something, nose-dived into the desert. You shoulda heard them. This guy, used to be their big buddy, one of the indestructibles. All of a sudden he's some kinda idiot, didn't check his hose-connector. You know? Aviator doesn't stay on the ball, doesn't notice he's getting a little light-headed ‘cause his oxygen's leaking, he has it coming. I tell you. They think they're too darned superior to just luck out and get sent home in a box. I'm just resigned to it. Every time Walt flies a sortie and comes home safe, I count it as a bonus.’

  That was pretty much my outlook on life. I was kinda hanging on in there, thinking Vern might quit. His sinus trouble was getting worse, on account of the B-47s doing real steep climbs. And though we weren't exactly love's young dream, still, I didn't want to be left a widow. What he'd do if he quit, though, that was the big question. Unless he could find somebody to pay him to go fishing.

  It was our day for the movies. Gayle was minding Sandie and Kirk, taking them out to a petting zoo near Watson Park so Sandie could feed the ducks. Me, Ida, Pearl and Lois drove into town, but African Queen was showing again and I was in a minority of One willing to watch it a third time. So we got burgers and root beer and just moseyed around the stores. Lo wanted a sweater, like the one she'd seen Marilyn Monroe wearing on the front of Moviegoer magazine, but the way the old biddy looked at us in Drew's Drapers, I got the impression the real tight-fitting look hadn't arrived yet in Wichita.

  Pearl said, ‘Lo, why don't you just hot-wash one you already have? Never fails.’

  We seen the smoke as we crossed the Gypsum River. Nobody said anything, but Ida drove a little faster. By the time we got to the base we could smell burned rubber, and fuel and other things too. Everything was quiet though. The crash trucks had already gone down, and military don't gather in the street, waiting on bad news. They stay home, stand by their telephone.

  Ours had been ringing out. It stopped just as I come through the door. I tried Betty. Her line was busy. I tried Gayle, she wasn't home yet. It was nearly time to pick up Crystal from school, but I wasn't really thinking of that. I wasn't thinking anything much. All I knew was, I wanted to keep on the move. If there was bad news on the way, I didn't want to be an easy target.

  I was nearly out the door when the phone w'tot again. It was Betty. She sounded real tense.

  ‘Where were you?’

  ‘In town. You heard anything?’

  ‘Nothing. I don't like it. Why don't you call the squadron office?

  Wives did not call the squadron office.

  I said, ‘Betty, you want that call made, you do it.’

  ‘I'm not allowed,’ she said. ‘I ever called around, checking up on him, Ed'd kill me.’

  I said, ‘Tell you what. Why don't we both get off the line? Give Ed and Vern the chance to call home personally and put us out of our misery?’

  I paced around some, then I ignored my own advice and called Pearl.

  ‘You hear anything yet?’

  She missed a beat. ‘Well …’ she said, ‘the word down here is, it's a crew from 96th. But, honey, don't take my word.’

  I sat down.

  ‘Peg?’ she said. ‘Want me to pick up Crystal? I have to get Ritchie anyhow. Peg?’

  I didn't wanna stay indoors. If somebody said they thought it was 96th, then it was 96th The odds against Vern Dewey coming home safe had shortened. That's when I started trying to cut a deal with God.

  Betty had heard the same rumour. She was mopping her floors when I got over there. She stopped to pour iced tea, but neither of us touched it. We didn't even talk. I was just going over things in my mind, see if there had been any omens. Trying to remember the last thing Vern had said to me. And Betty kept mopping, mopping. When her phone rang, we both jumped a mile. Then Betty just froze.

  ‘You get it,’ she said.

  I got it.

  Lois said, ‘Peg? Is that you? I could have swore I dialled Betty's number.’

  Lo had been out looking for Gayle and failed to find her, but she'd seen Dewitt Haas, meant to be on a rest day but he was on his way down to the pad, and he'd heard it was a B-47, no survivors. That meant three men.

  He'd also heard, not confirmed, it was a major, a first LT and a non-com. It was tight inside a Stratojet, I knew. Just the pilot and co-pilot, one behind the other, and the navigator in the nose section.

  ‘I'm coming over,’ Lois said. ‘Might as well go out of our minds together.’

  I went out on to the front yard to wait for her, and Betty come as far as the doorstep, and then there was Lo, striding across the street, and Gayle cruising along in her old Ford, waving and tooting, not even realising an incident had occurred, and coming the other way, two faces nobody ever wanted to see. Chaplain Major Lawrence Conyers. And Mrs Lieutenant Colonel Shelby Munt, Friend of Widows and Orphans.

  34

  Landing a B-47 was a finely judged thing. This was a well-known fact. The undercarriage was dropped, to act like a air brake, so the plane would lose altitude fast, but the flaps weren't lowered until the final approach. First problem was keeping its speed down somewhere in between stalling and running outta tarmac and that depended on how light she was, coming in from a sortie, low on fuel. Then, once you had her down, there was the problem of keeping her down. The main wheels were mounted in tandem and if they didn't touch down together, she'd bounce right back up o'ff the runway. If that happened, main thing was to avoid trying for a go-around, because you probably didn't have the acceleration to succeed. She was fitted with a extra drogue, so they could maintain power and still come to a halt, kinda having your cake and eating it, but even so. That day the senior officer was bringing her in, not so used to handling her skittish ways as his co-pilot. He deployed the drag chute, bounced her, one wing dipped, he used too much rudder and over she went, 6,000 gallons of fuel inside her and three good men.

  Captain John Deacon. First Lieutenant Carl ‘Okey’ Jackson. Warrant Officer Lyle Clark.

  35

  We took turns sitting with her. When you held her in your arms, she felt like a little bird. I got home from one of my sessions, Vern had bust the bathroom mirror with his fist.

  I said, ‘You all right?’

  ‘I am now,’ he said.

  I never seen him cry, but there was plenty going on inside.

  Ida loaned Gayle a black coat. I went to Drew's Drapers for black chiffon scarves. Okey's dad come up from Boomer, but his mom couldn't face it. She was prone to sinking spells. All Gayle's mom had said, when she heard, was, ‘I'm sorry for your loss, but don't think you can just come back here. Your bed's took.’

  Vern and Ed and Herb were honorary pall-bearers. I sat up front with Gayle, Lo the other side of her, then Betty. Her hands were froze, even though it was a sunny day. The chapel door was open so we heard the escort being called to attention. Then the band started ‘Rock of Ages’ and I didn't know if I could hold myself together, sitting up there where everybody could see me. I wished Audrey was there in my place. She'd was good at that kinda thing.

  Then they carried him in, and our boys were all chewing up the inside of their cheeks, screwing up their eyes, taking it like men.

  The chaplain said it was a humbling thing, to hono
ur the patriotic sacrifice of Carl Jackson and bring the message of hope to his young widow that God so loved the world he gave his beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins and give us life everlasting.

  They fixed the casket back on the caisson while the band played ‘Eternal Father, Strong to Save’, and then we got in the first car, Gayle, Mr Jackson, Lois and me.

  Gayle smelled of liquor, but I ain't criticising. The escort was brought to order.

  She said, ‘They never let me see him.’

  Her voice was like a little bird squeak.

  There was a fly-over, of course, in formation, one position empty. That was when Vern nearly lost it. I was watching him. Okey was like a kid brother to him. When he first joined 96th, Vern used to play jokes on him, send him for a gallon of propwash, or a dozen skyhooks. But he soon stopped, when he saw what kind of aviator Okey was.

  The body-bearers brought the casket to the grave while the escort presented arms and then they lifted the flag over him and held it there while the padre said his piece, earth to earth and all that. Then the firing squad fired three volleys and the bugler sounded Taps.

  Fades the light, and afar goeth day.

  Cometh night

  And a star leadeth all to their rest.

  Me and Lo were just about holding hex up by then. Darned if I know who was holding us up.

  The CO presented Gayle with the flag, but she gave it to Mr Jackson.

  ‘I always knew this'd happen,’ she said. ‘I knew right from the start.’

  Later on, Betty said, ‘Best thing now would be if she found out she was in the family way after all.’

  ‘No, Betty,’ Lois said. ‘Best thing'd be if you kept those kinda dumb ideas to yourself.’

  36

  ‘See,’ Vern said, ‘Okey would have handled it. Used the flaps and been sparing with the rudder. He'd have brought her in all right. He was a natural.’

  Vern was already rearranging the facts, blaming events on the pilot, a man he never did rate, nothing but a chairborne-ranger, etcetera, lost his nerve and took two good men with him.

  I didn't argue with him. I could see, if Vern was gonna get outta bed next day and do what he had to do, we better not start on all the ways that underpowered top-heavy bitch of a B-47 could find to kill you, even if you were a natural-born aviator.

  Crystal said, ‘What house'll Auntie Gayle live in now?’

  We'd been over there, helping her to pack. She'd gotten three weeks to quit.

  I said, ‘She's going back to North Carolina, see her mommy.’

  Crystal was sitting on Vern, squashing his face up with her little hands. ‘But why didn't she just stay with her mommy and daddy anyway? That's what I'm going to do,’ she said. ‘I'm never going away. I'm gonna stay here for ever and ever, amen. Daddy? Uncle Okey got all burned up. Sherry and Deana told me. Why did he?’

  ‘Because he was defending us from the threat and cancer of Communism, and I want you to remember that. What was he defending us from?’

  ‘From the threat,’ she said. ‘Can I go play out with Ritchie?’

  Gayle took the Greyhound back to where she'd come from. There was a rollaway bed and a job packing cigarettes waiting for her in Winston-Salem, thanks to Okey's sister.

  I drove her to the bus. Lois and Betty come along too.

  ‘Well,’ she said, ‘I guess this is goodbye.’

  I don't know what kinda fairweather friends she took us for.

  ‘That poor child,’ Betty said, after we'd waved her out of sight. ‘I don't care to think what lies ahead of her.’

  ‘Put it like that,’ Lois said, ‘I don't care to think what lies ahead for any of us. Tell you what. Gayle's young. She ain't got brats to feed. And she's still got her looks. All up, I'd say her chances were pretty good.’

  ‘Well I wouldn't trade places with her,’ Betty said. ‘I'm so glad I have my Ed.

  ‘’Sure,’ Lo said, ‘we're all glad too. Keeps him off the streets. If you didn't have him, there's no telling.’

  THE TIMES WEDNESDAY JUNE 3 1953

  THE CROWNING OF QUEEN ELIZABETH II

  The impresive Scene in the Abbey as the Archbishop of Canterbury boids aloft St. Edward’s Crown before plaring it upon the head Of Queen Elizabeth II. Het Majesty, seated in King Edward’s Chair, has received the Orh, the King, the seeptre with the cross, and the Road with the Dove. On the extreme right is the Duke of Edinburgh, and on the left the Archbishop of york. In front of the Royal Gallery are the Mistress of the Robes, the Dowager Dueheas of Devonshire, and the Minids of Honour.

  The Queen Seated in her hand of Istate in the Abbey. In the Royal Gallery(left to right) are: Princess Aleaandra the Durshes of king the Princess Royal, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Princess Marqates, and the Duchess, of Gloueester with has two sons.

  The Duke in Edinburgh Lneeling on the steps of the ‘I, Phillip, Duchess written do become your liece man of life and limb, and of earthly worship…

  37

  On May thirty-first, 1953, Betty washed all her drapes, made a double quantity of Five-Can Casserole and pressed, Ed's blues before she gave in and admitted she had had a few pains. At 6 p.m. on June second she produced another 10lb girl, just as Queen Elizabeth the Second was arriving at Westminster Abbey to get crowned. Betty wanted to name her Elizabeth Regina in honour of the coincidence, but Ed said it had to be Carla, in memory of Okey Jackson.

  Audrey wrote me from England. She was expecting herself by this time.

  ‘Well,’ she wrote, ‘Another girl! I guess It's back to the laboratory with the baking-powder theory. I hope Ed's taking it on the chin.’

  ‘It'll be Betty taking it on the chin, if Carla starts robbing Ed of his beauty-sleep. You heard it here’ Lois was reading over my shoulder.

  I'm sending Yardley's lavender water for the new mom. I figure baby Carla already has coatees in every shade of pink.

  The Coronation was so beautiful. Crown jewels, velvet robes, marching bands. This is some country. Betty would have adored it. Tell her I'm sending pictures from the magazines. We watched it on TV at the Officers’ Club. It rained, naturally, but there were people had slept out all night, including Kath, to see the Queen go by in the gold carriage. I invited Kath and John to come and watch with us, but Kath had already arranged to go with her friend May. I get the feeling that flood washed away more than Kath's poor old house. She's not such a shrinking violet any more, specially now she has electricity and all the latest appliances, but John is in quite a bad way with his nerves so I guess she's just had to take over.

  I wrote Gayle at the address you sent me but I didn't hear anything. Sometimes it's better to let these things go, you know? Once a girl's out of the military, you don't have anything in common any more. I've seen it happen.

  Love to the gang,

  Aud

  38

  Next I heard, Kath had gotten herself a regular job.

  ‘I wish you could see us,’ she wrote. They had been housed in a kind of duplex. It was called a maisonette.

  I've decorated all through, nice bit of wallpaper and gloss paint, and I'm buying a green settee on weekly terms. If I ever can get John Pharaoh to shift his carcass I could stretch right out on it. Give me a box of soft-centres and I shall be like Lady Docker. I've gone part-time, at the laundry, eight till one, and they're a smashing crowd. We do have a laugh and that's a lovely smell, suds and nice clean sheets. Better than them old eel traps any day. Better than them beet sheds.

  Time hangs a bit heavy for John without the fishing, and he can't manage the traps any more. He can't sit at it like he used to, with his nerves. But when we get the telly, he'll be right as rain.

  Audrey is in the family way; I suppose you know. She runs round, always got some affair coming off at the base. She's always got flowers to arrange or her hair to get pinned up. But she never forgets me. She drives out here sometimes on a Sunday, and she always brings John a bar of chocolate.

  Annie Howgego passed over. Y
ou didn't really know her, but I haven't got that much news. That place of hers never dried out properly, but she Wouldn't leave. She could have had a flatlet, but she wouldn't even go and have a look at it. You've got to move with the times, that's what I say.

  I sent a sympathy card to little Gayle, but Audrey says she probably, never got it. She'll be moving around, trying to pick up the pieces. I shall always think of him, at your lovely party, looking at that barley eel John had brought. I told John about what happened, but I don't know if he remembered who Okey was. All the best to your hubby and your Crystal. I don't suppose I'd know her now, they grow so fast.

  Yours sincerely,

  Kath

  Audrey was back Stateside by the fall of ‘53, but we didn't have the pleasure of her company on base for a while. She was in Chicago giving birth to twin boys, Lance Jnr and Mikey. Then they had a big affair up there for the christening. Six godparents for each boy, including a rear admiral and a congressman.

  When Lois saw Audrey's letter she said, ‘Uh-oh. Brigadier general the best they could come up with from the army? This list of godparents seem a little lightweight to you, Peggy?’

  Still, we all agreed, twins were neat. A whole family in one go.

  They got bigger quarters than us, on Delaware Row, and Audrey kept everything so neat and nice I wondered how she managed it, with two peevish brats to see to as well. Then when Herb Moon made captain and him and Lois moved up, just opposite the Rudmans, I found out the secret of Audrey's success. She had some enlisted DW going in, three mornings a week, mopping her floors and folding her laundry.

  This freed Aud to become a serious brass-polisher, what with Lance bucking for major and everything. When Herb got his promotion I warned Lois she'd have Audrey on her case, trying to get her involved at the Wives’ Club.

 

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