1959 My Stable

When we returned to the US from Normandy, I was very depressed.  On Friday, I was in my home in Notre Dame de Gravenchon, and on Sunday I was on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean.  I did not adjust well.  

For a couple of weeks, we lived in Chestnut Hill near Boston with my aunt Audrey, uncle Abbey, and cousins Paul and Douglas until we could get settled into our new house in Orono, Maine.  

One day, we all stopped at a Howard Johnson restaurant to eat.   I didn't talk much.  I just didn't really care about much of anything.  I just wanted to go home to Normandy.  Then, at the register, I saw a display with several Breyer horses.  One of them was a black stallion.  I made a comment about it, and the next thing I knew, the horse was mine.  My dear uncle Abbey realized that it was just what I needed.  I took that horse everywhere with me.  I made him a coat and a halter.

When we moved to Maine, I found a nice cardboard box and made him a stable.  There was a stall and a tack room.  I made him a saddle, bridle, and a couple of different colored halters, along with some blankets and coats.  I went out into the fields around our house and cut the tall grass and made him some hay and some hay bales.  I found things to use as buckets for oats and water, etc.  The stable had four walls, a window in the tack room, a door, a floor, and a ceiling so I could close it up when I wasn't playing with it.  I kept it in the barn because I got in trouble when the 'hay' fell all over my bedroom floor, and I played with it outside.  I had set up a spot outside I had made fences and paddocks.  When I took it out and set it up, it was perfect.

Every day I would go to the barn and get the stable and play with my horse.  It turned into quite a project and I was very proud of it.  My mother was pretty impressed, too, in fact, she made curtains for the tack room window.

One day I went out to get my stable and it was gone!  I looked everywhere.  It was nowhere.  I cried all day.  When my dad got home, we asked him if he's seen it.  He got a stricken look on his face and asked me where I kept it.  When I told him, he looked sick.  He said he was going to go fishing that weekend and the day before, he had stopped on his way home and gotten a big batch of nightcrawlers.  "I found a great box out in the barn right by the door," he said, "didn't even have to turn the light on."  

He took me outside and showed me the box of nightcrawlers that he had covered with a tarp.  

My beautiful stable was full of nightcrawlers.  He felt terrible.  He offered to make me a new one out of wood, we would make it together.  But I just didn't have the heart.  My beautiful horse was homeless from then on.

1959 Chess, My First Horse

When we lived in Maine I knew I was going to get a horse, just knew it.  We were renting a house on several acres and there was a barn.  Daddy would park the Country Squire in it and it smelled wonderful, of hay and animals.  I would get home from school and run from the bus to the barn, thinking maybe today was the day my horse will be there, but he never was.  

One fall day I was wandering down the hill on the land and Velvet ran off. I thought he had run into the woods, so I went after him and fell over some branches.  I was caught in a fence, and when I picked myself up, I saw horse hooves.  I was afraid to look up, because I knew there couldn’t possibly be a horse standing there.  But I did look up, and there he was, a chestnut horse with a flaxen man and tail.  And he was real  Right then I named him Chess.  

He was my dream secret horse. I would talk mother into buying lots of carrots and apples and then steal them and feed them to him every day.  Eventually he would follow me around, trying to get them out of my pocket.  I would sit on the ground on a log and he would stand behind me and reach his head over my shoulder.  I would give him an apple and he would chew it and dribble apple juice all over me, in my hair. 

 On the school bus one day, I found out our neighbor was some rich guy who wasn’t around much.  In my mind, I knew that like on National Velvet that horse would someday be mine.  

One day, I decided to try to ride Chess.  I had no saddle, bridle, halter, nothing.  I  coaxed him close to the fence and got on him.  He was so warm, and he was as shocked as I was.  He danced around a little and I prayed he would not just take off with me, but he didn’t, he just walked around.  Pretty soon, it became routine.  I would climb on him and he would graze or wander around the pasture for a while.  After that I did it whenever I could, and I went to visit him every day – he was my horse at last.  

One day during the winter it was freezing with sleet and snow, and I took off my new gray fleece jacket and put it on his back to keep him warm.  Eventually he wandered off into the trees and I never saw the jacket again.  

Because of an incident with Velvet, I was no longer allowed to go see him.  But one day I snuck out to see him and he was gone.  I went back day after day, but he was never there again.  I found out later that his owner had decided he was of no use to him and took him to the auction.  I pray he found a good home and someone who loved him as much as I did.  

Even now, the smell of a warm apple bitten into and juicy brings back memories of Chess, my first horse.  

1959 BoMARC Missile

We lived right outside of Orono, Maine, and we rented a house. It was awesome, on acreage, with a barn. That’s when my dad worked on the BoMARC missile.
The BoMARC missile was huge: each one stood 45 feet tall & weighed 16,000 pounds. More than 40 years after its deployment, it still holds the record for the longest range of any surface-to-air missile ever developed: 440 miles. It also had a maximum speed of nearly Mach 4.

 The BoMARC name was derived directly from its creators. Boeing designed the vehicle in association with the University of Michigan Aeronautical Research Center. Hence, the "Boeing Michigan Aeronautical Research Center" entry into SAM development was born.  Classification: Surface-to-Air Cruise Missile Length: 43 feet, 9 inches Diameter: 2 feet, 11 inches Wingspan: 18 feet, 2 inches Range: 440 miles.  Dow Air Force Base in Bangor was to be one of the main BoMARC deployment sites but it never happened.

1959 Runaway

Once, when we lived in Orono, Maine, I ran away from home.  I didn’t go alone; I took our dog, Velvet.  

It was early afternoon and we set out, Velvet on his leash, and me carrying my hobo pack on a stick.  In it I had some snacks and some food for Velvet.  We walked out of town for what seemed like several hours.  It was starting to get dark and it occurred to me suddenly that I was all alone out there with nowhere to sleep.  Of course, I wasn’t scared because I had Velvet.  

As it was getting dark, a car pulled up beside me and Velvet got excited.  Sure enough, it was my dad.  He asked me where I was going, and I said “Anywhere!”.  He told me that was fine with him, but I was not taking his dog.  He said “You can continue on your trip, but the dog is coming home with me”.  He stopped the car, and got out.  Oddly enough, when he tried to take Velvet’s leash, Velvet came back closer to me.  I think it hurt my dad’s feeling.  

We negotiated for a bit, but finally I gave in and we all climbed into the car and went home.

1959 Penobscot Pony Club

In 1959 when we lived in Orono, Maine, I went riding at the Penobscot Pony Club in Hampden, near Bangor.  Polly Briggs was my teacher. I remember cleaning stalls with her and soaping saddles and bridles when mother was late, sitting in that little room with a heater, smelling the hay and the saddle soap. It was wonderful.

There was a beautiful dark chestnut horse boarded there, 'Moonlight Sonata'. He belonged to a rich young girl who yelled at him and hit him in class. My favorite horse there was my little Star, sweet, black, chunky, with a white star on her forehead, my favorite.  And there was Lollipop, a privately owned horse.  On his stall was a plaque that said, “The more you lick him, the faster he goes“.  He was a black and white paint who always seemed to be wearing his winter coat. I found out later that my parents actually considered buying half of him for me, but I would have to keep him at the Pony Club for his other owner.  

I loved the Pony Club.

1959 The Arab's Farewell to his Steed

When we lived in Maine, there was a shelf in the hallway outside my bedroom door.  This shelf contained a complete copy of The Book of Knowledge.  I would sit on the wood floor for hours and read through the volumes.  But most of the time I read this.

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THE ARAB'S FAREWELL TO HIS STEED

By Caroline Norton (1808-1877)

My Beautiful! My Beautiful! That standest meekly by,

With thy proudly arch'd and glossy neck, and dark and fiery eye,

Fret not to roam the desert now, with all thy winged speed;

I may not mount on thee again,--thou'rt sold, my Arab steed!

Fret not with that impatient hoof,--snuff not the breezy wind

The farther that thou fliest now, so far am I behind:

The stranger hath thy bridle-rein,--thy master hath his gold,

Fleet-limb'd and beautiful, farewell; thou'rt sold, my steed, thou'rt sold.

Farewell! Those free, untired limbs full many a mile must roam

To reach the chill and wintry sky which clouds the stranger's home;

Some other hand, less fond, must now thy corn and bread prepare.

The silky mane I braided once must be another's care!

The morning sun shall dawn again, but never more with thee

Shall I gallop through the desert paths, where we were wont to be;

Evening shall darken on the earth and o'er the sandy plain

Some other steed, with slower step, shall bear me home again.

Yes, thou must go! The wild, free breeze, the brilliant sun and sky,

Thy master's home-from all of these my exiled one must fly;

Thy proud dark eye will grow less proud, thy step become less fleet,

And vainly shalt thou arch thy neck, thy master's hand to meet.

Only in sleep shall I behold that dark eye, glancing bright;

Only in sleep shall hear again that step so firm and light;

And when I raise my dreaming arm to check or cheer thy speed,

Then must I, starting, wake to feel-thou'rt sold, My Arab steed!

Ah! Rudely then, unseen by me, some cruel hand may chide, 

Till foam-wreaths lie, like crested waves, along thy panting side:

And the rich blood that's in thee swells, in thy indignant pain,

Till careless eyes, which rest on thee, may count each started vein.

Will they ill use thee? If I thought-but no, it cannot be-

Thou art so swift, yet easy curb'd, so gentle, yet so free;

And yet, if haply, when thou'rt gone, my lonely heart should yearn,

Can the hand which casts thee from it now command thee to return?

Return! Alas! My Arab steed! What shall thy master do

When thou, who wast his all of joy, hast vanish'd from his view?

When the dim distance cheats mine eye, and through the gathering tears

Thy bright form, for a moment, like a false mirage appears;

Slow and unmounted shall I roam, with weary step alone

Where, with fleet step and joyous bound, thou oft hast borne me on;

And sitting down by that green well, I'll pause and sadly think,

"It was here he bow'd his glossy neck when last I saw him drink!"

When last I saw thee drink!-

Away! The fever'd dream is o'er,--

I could not live a day and know that we should meet no more!

They tempted me, my beautiful!-for hunger's power is strong,--

They tempted me, my beautiful! But I have loved too long.

Who said that I had given thee up? Who said that thou wast sold?

Tis false,--'tis false! My Arab steed! I fling them back their gold!

Thus, thus, I leap upon thy back and scour the distant plains;

Away! Who overtakes us now shall claim thee for his pains!

1960 Weekend Trip to Texas

Right before Christmas in 1959 when we lived in Maine, my dad had to fly to Vernon, Texas.  I don't remember anything except that he said he had to go to Vernon for a few days and asked if I wanted to go with him. Of course I did! To get to see Grandma and Grandpa King, be at the farm, and fly? Of course I did! We left about a week before Christmas I think and we flew from Logan Airport in Boston. There was some snow on the ground, but it was very clear out and the whole way when we would fly over a city, we could see Christmas lights. As we left Boston and again when we approached Dallas, we could see the Christmas lights and decorations. It was just beautiful. I remember we had a really good meal, though I don't remember what it was.

Then we drove from Dallas to Vernon during the night. I went to sleep in the car ,but I remember looking at the back of Grandpa King's neck, and was amazed at how it was so crisscrossed with wrinkles, making a diamond pattern. We were in his Buick of course.

I remember having such a sense of wellbeing. The car was warm, and the motion of the car and the sound of my dad and granddad talking, knowing I was going home to the farm… I was happy.

I went to bed as soon as we got to the farm, but I could hear my dad and grandparents in the kitchen, still talking and talking. Every time I woke up during the night, they were still talking. The next day I spent wandering around the farm while my dad spent the day with his brother Bill.

Then early the next morning, around 3 or 4 am, they woke me up and said it was time to get ready. I still can feel the heat from the gas wall heaters they had, and the smell of coffee, and Grandma King's toast made under the broiler with butter and then covered with grape jelly. The radio was playing, 'KNIN channel 99 - K-9", playing hillbilly music. Then Grandpa King loaded us up in the Buick and drove us to Love Field in Dallas.   I slept most of the time in the back seat.

Once again it was clear, but this time it was daylight. The highlight of the trip was when I looked out the window and saw a jet fighter not too far from us. I was ecstatic! It was higher and faster and was soon gone, but I had never seen anything like it, before or since. We got back to Logan, where my mother and sister were waiting, then we spent the night with my aunt Audrey, uncle Abbey, and cousins Paul and Douglas. Once again, the grownups seemed to talk all night. I found out later that my Uncle Bill had been in some trouble (again) and his parents had begged my dad to come and talk to him and see if he could help him. I don't know how it worked out, it was never talked about.

I missed one day of school after we got back because I was so tired and homesick for Texas. It was very odd to have only been there for one day.