Chapter Twenty-Three The Land of the Round Doorknobs

Chapter Twenty-Three
The Land of the Round Doorknobs

As I said earlier my mother developed lung cancer and I made two trips back home from Germany. They granted me an Emergency Leave in both instances. The first time after I had been home for about a week my mother’s cancer went into remission and things were looking better. She was bedridden and on oxygen but it did look better; so, I returned to Germany. A few months later she took a turn for the worse and once again I left for home on an Emergency Leave. This time she was in the hospital and being on leave I had the time to spend at the hospital. She was heavily sedated and therefore their wasn’t much conversation. She finally lost her battle with the cancer and I, along with other family members were in the room when she died. I happened to linger a little longer than the others and unexpectedly she made a sound and I thought maybe she hadn’t died. However, one of the nurses assured me that what I heard was the final breath of air being exhaled from her lungs. That was back in about 1957 and time has softened the memories of the occasion and I hope to see my mother in the resurrection.

In making the two trips back from Germany I had a couple of interesting experiences. I don’t remember if I was flying a commercial airline or a military lift. But our route took us to Rejkovic, Iceland and I had to stay overnight at the air base there. I don’t remember too much about Iceland except I didn’t see any trees but a lot of snow and ice. We left out of a civilian airport and I remember seeing a tourism poster encouraging vacationing in Iceland which seemed to be a little bazaar. I understand though that they do have pretty good tourism business.

The other experience involved catching military rides to make it back home. One such ride was out of Omaha, Nebraska in a B25. For those of you that may not be aware of what a B25 aircraft is, it a World War II light bomber. It was not designed for passenger accommodations; so, I rode in what would have been one of the side gunners’ seat. It was an exhilarating experience. I remember when we were at the end of the runway preparing for take-off, the pilot revved the engine and the back portion of the plane where I was located started dancing all about. The B25 has a nose wheel so the back portion of the plane is suspended off the ground. My part of the plane continued to dance all about all the way down the runway but once we left the ground it was smooth flying. It was great to have that experience.

After my mother died my Aunt Mary, the one that got me a job as a Page in the Kansas Senate, started doing her thing to get me a Compassionate Discharge. She contended that my dad would need my assistance in raising Ginger. Ginger would have been about eleven or twelve at the time. The air force didn’t go for the discharge, but they did reassign me to Forbes Air Force Base which was located on the outskirts of Topeka. In fact my dad had a job there as the supervisor of the paint shop responsible for building maintenance at the base. I don’t remember exactly, but I think I would ride to work with him since I was allowed to live off base at home. One thing that Ginger reminds me of from time to time is that on occasions she would come home from school to find me in costume and make-up as an Italian waiter or French something or other. I’ve always been a ham.

My assignment at Forbes was on the staff at the Airmen’s Club. As I recall we had a civilian director and there was a staff of maybe three or four airmen. A side note – I don’t remember ever working any where in the air force with women in the military. I do remember that in basic training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio there was a section for the women recruits. Back to the Airmen’s Club; our duties were really pretty easy. We checked out pool and ping pong equipment. Ran the weekly bingo night. We also would supervise a detail of three or four prisoners from the base stockade. The AP’s would drop them off and picked them up later, but we were responsible for them while they were working for us. They would wax and buff the floors and other maintenance chores. We got to know most of them pretty well and they were never any trouble.

Another event that I was personally responsible for was a talent shows & contests. I remember for the shows I would arrange for local civilian talent to perform and called upon some of my former schoolmates. But in the Talent Contest in 1959 I entered as a Master of Ceremonies contestant. I think there were three of us entered in that category and I won 1st Place. I kind of wonder about a “Conflict of Interest”, but nevertheless it won me a trip to an airbase outside of Columbus, Ohio for a regional talent contest. I didn’t win at that level, but I did get an Oscar like statuette trophy for the win at the local level and I still display it on my computer desk.

Another experience I remember from my days at Forbes AFB was working as a night club manager. Another airmen that I got to know at Forbes decided to rent upstairs facilities downtown Topeka to operate a night club. In Kansas at that time you could not sell mixed drinks. So, what the entertainment clubs would do is sell the mixers and soft drinks and the guests could bring their own bottle of alcohol and leave it at the bar picking up their left-overs when they would leave the club. My job was to hire some local waitresses and see that everything went smoothly. We had live music and dancing. It went pretty well but didn't last too long. I think one reason my friend wanted me to be the manager was that he was African-American and need someone of the local variety out front. We had a good relationship and as I said it went smoothly.

I was honorably discharged from the USAF in July of 1959 and I was set to go to the Pasadena Playhouse that fall. Next chapter we “head West, young man!”