Chandler, AZ

Chandler, AZ summer of 1969
I don’t remember a lot about Phoenix, except that it was summer time and hot. Hot! Hot! I would never live there again. My parents wanted me to make up my mind what I wanted to do with my life and I just wanted some time to make up my mind without having them pushing me into something that I didn’t really want to do. Daddy wanted me to go to a business school in Phoenix but that was the last thing I wanted to do. I wanted to get a job for a few months to think about things but Daddy didn’t want me to do that. I felt like he was telling me I had to go to a school or get a job and get out of his house. I felt like I was being kicked out of the only home and family I had ever known. I am not sure now if that is the way it was but that’s how I felt.
I did try to get a job thinking that if I could find one he would let me live there for a while as it was a big house with plenty of room. But I couldn’t find a job. I wasn’t even sure how to find one. I walked up and down the streets of the small town of Chandler which was on the outskirts of Phoenix but couldn’t find a job. I applied at lots of different stores but lack of experience and shyness kept me from getting one.
In desperation I called the Air Force recruiter for that area. It seemed they weren’t taking any women at that time, or were filled up for the next few months or something. Not wanting to wait I went to the Navy recruiter and the Navy took me right away. In September of 1969 I left Phoenix, for my first plane ride since I had been six years old, for Navy Boot Camp in Bainbridge, Maryland.
I was leaving Home.