The 1968 Story
In the 28 years that have elapsed since this series of do-it-yourself cards began, many things have happened. Wars have come and gone. We have moved around the country, living in 5 different states: New Jersey, Florida, California, Missouri and Texas. All three boys have grown up. So far, there's been a new picture every year. It seems that we look about the same every time now except for the animals, but the photograph actually is slightly different. Time leaves its marks. This year it was truly a do-it-yourself nightmare. With no neighbor handy to press the shutter, it had to be done by remote push-button. Ed had a raging toothache from an emerging wisdom tooth. Zeke, one of the white cats, couldn't be found till the picture was taken. Les and Ed had to take care of mechanical details. There were all sorts of distractions. All in all, this year's picture couldn't be considered a prize in photojournalism.
Les had a lot of travel this year, starting off early in January with work to do in New Orleans and Miami, enroute to Venezuela via Aruba. A lot of territory was covered there, including a strictly tourist side trip to the little-known Gran Sabana in the southeast. Trips like this
are an education in geography. It was early March before he came back to the States via Colombia and Panama. During late January, he snapped a delightful picture of a little girl
washing her clothes beside a small river in eastern Venezuela. It was so nice that a long-time family friend in New Jersey painted a big 24" x 36" copy in oils from the color print. Now the painting hangs beside Les' desk, a prized decoration for his office, and the envy of all who see it.
The perpetual report writing chores were hardly finished before April brought a series of technical meetings on the West Coast, and just about this time more foreign travel was scheduled. It was May before the arrangements could be completed, and then Les headed for Buenos Aires, stopping over in Lima, Peru. As he found out, that is a long, long airplane ride, but the scenery flying over the Andes was magnificent. On the return, he took pictures from the flight deck most of the way. In Argentina the meat is excellent and cheap, a regular paradise for a steak lover. Returning, Les had a short assignment in Jamaica, but it wasn't the island in the sun he hoped for. Just about then a long drought ended with plenty of rainfall. For Jamaica, you'd like less work to do, more time to do it, and beautiful weather. It didn't work out that way!
Back in San Antonio, HemisFair '68 kept all of us busy. Dan and Polly got to the opening celebration in April, and in June the radio amateurs held a national convention here which kept Les on the run as a member of the host club. The hams operated a radio station at the Fair ... WSSC... and every weekend Les was there helping out. Except on the MARS military circuits, his own call WASGOQ didn't get used much, except at some sports car races where the hams provided communications.
Ed came down for one of the races to help as a track official. Les covered the country by plane, bouncing back and forth, here and there during the last half of the year, on various projects. One interesting study was related to Navy's underseas program and concerned fire protection inside chambers operating at up to 700# pressure. The problem is peculiar, to put it mildly.
As a senior at Texas A&l, Dan had himself a year of glory. He got into local party politics, was President of the Math Club, member Student Council, selected to the Honorary History fraternity, member of the band and of the Music fraternities. They used to call this being a BMOC (Big Man On Campus). Maybe it is described differently now, but the idea is the same. For recreation, he and Polly took a camping trip to Big Bend Park at Easter. That's a really beautiful spot. In May, sheepskin in hand and a 3.2 scholastic record to be happy about, he began work on a second BA degree, teaching History during the summer as a Graduate Assistant taking courses as he could. It kept him plenty busy, but still he managed to participate in campus productions of "Oklahoma" and "My Fair Lady. " As the summer waned, he was approached by Brackenridge HS, of San Antonio, to teach Math, his major subject. He agreed, and after sweating out a deferment from his Draft Board, reported at the start of school. Suddenly the picture changed, so he found himself teaching 3rd year English. They say the world is full of surprises, and this illustrates it. It pays to be literate! Naturally Dan needed wheels to get back and forth, so he bought himself a tomato-can red Renault 10. It looks like an automobile, is almost as big, and is said to go miles on just the smell of gasoline. It squeezes into pint-sized parking spaces, and we still can't figure how Dan can get his long legs inside, yet have room left to squeeze more passengers. It reminds us of getting a dozen or so college students inside a phone booth.
As you might guess, Polly wasn't able to indulge her wanderlust and go on a long motor trip this summer. There were just too many of our friends and relatives planning to visit here during HemisFair, and so instead of leading a gypsy life during the summer, she stayed home. More accurately, she didn't get far from San Antonio, and many, many of her days were spent at the Fair touring the exhibits with our visitors. All those admissions were no problem, for we stocked up on tickets beforehand in the advance sales. Besides, Les had a gate pass because of his work at W5SC. It was a relief though when the Fair closed in October. Then Polly returned to her normal routine of piano pupils, playing accompaniments in a vocal studio, cello in the Trinity orchestra on Monday nights, and working with the children's' Symphony programs, being a part of the advance effort in the schools and garden club.
Larry started the year up at Ft. Dix where he's been stationed for a number of years. He got himself promoted from Specialist, 4th Class to Staff Sergeant, and now he's a real honest to goodness noncom in rank as well as pay. Larry has been working in Medical Supply, and recently began to look around for possible overseas assignments to round out his military experiences. Pretty much out of a clear sky, he found himself ordered to three months temporary duty in Okinawa to help clear up a supply problem. That was good news. Once before, he'd hoped to be ordered there. It is one of the better overseas stations. So off he went, and upon arrival bought a small motorcycle to explore the island. Just before October 31st, when he was due to return, in fact almost on the airplane, the tour was extended two more months. So right now, Larry is way way out in the Pacific, with return to be an end of the year proposition. Hopefully, he will visit San Antonio for the first time since 1962.
All through the year, Ed has been plugging away at Ling-Temco-Vought near Dallas in test work to make their A-7 fighter plane a better bird. It is already in service in southeast Asia. He has had his share of adventure in a foot loose, fancy free bachelor life. For example, a little old lady got him in trouble. She was 86 years old, as wide as she was high, and she came driving down the opposite side of a dual highway. Then she decided to make a left turn, and Ed just couldn't manage to get his Comet out of the way quickly enough. There is a limit to how fast
you can dodge! Thanks to a seat belt, he wasn't hurt, but the car had to be towed away, and now he's driving a sporty new Ford Torino. As any young man can tell you, women can be a real hazard, though you don't expect them to wreck your car for you. Along in the Fall, both Ed and Dan had to sweat out Draft Board actions. Dan managed to get a deferment, but since Ed has had occupational deferments since his graduation from Texas A&M in 1966, and also, since he is approaching 26, the end of his draft liability, his local board bas him worrying a bit, awaiting word on what they propose to do, one way or the other, As a highly skilled engineer, he is important to LTV. As a warm body, he is draft material. There is always the possibility that next spring or summer Ed might wind up in the military service, but right now the picture is still pretty vague. Who can guess the future? In the meantime, Ed does his job, carries on, and enjoys the fact that over half of the U. S. population is female. You are only young once.
Well, that's about it. It was a good year, all 52 weeks or 12 months of it, as you please, lived one day at a time. You get up in the morning and go to bed at night. You do what has to be done on the job, and then at the end of the year you discover when you look back that while many days were just routine, enough of them weren't routine so that the highlights read pretty well.
230 Montpelier Drive
San Antonio, Texas 78228
