Tampa, Florida

Tampa, Florida, McDill Air Force Base

During the summer of 1962 Daddy was transferred from Las Vegas, Nevada to Tampa, Florida. Daddy always put in to go to Alaska and our friends the Zamora’s always wanted to go to Florida. Military fate dictated that we would go to Florida and they would go to Alaska.
I was eleven and would be twelve in just a couple of months after we got there. Sarah would be six, and starting kindergarten and Janice was four. Since we would be going so far away from our grandparents we took time to stop to see them on the drive from Vegas to Tampa. First to Cortez, CO to see Daddy’s parents, sisters, and brothers, and all my cousins up to that date. As Daddy was from such a large family I could never keep up with all my cousins. Vicky was older than me by only a couple of weeks and since she always lived near Grandma and Grandpa I spent most of my time with her when we visited. Near as I can remember at that time I had about twelve cousins then. There would be lots more as time went on and there are several I have never even met.
From Cortez we went to Albuquerque and visited with several people including Grandma Kay Bischoff, Maude Green, and Mother’s cousin, Rex Green. Gram and Granddad Green had taken in Granddad’s brother’s five children, when he, Uncle Herb was sent to prison for a year for accidentally killing his second wife when they were drunk and she was going to shoot someone and he was trying to stop her. Or so the story went. There were three boys, William, Rex and Johnny, and two girls Jaunice and Lillian. They became sort of like adopted brothers and sisters to my mom and her sisters. Johnny was Mothers age and the two of them were always together, but when Gram and Granddad moved to Silver City, NM the children went back to live with their dad who was out of prison by then. I believe that Rex may have moved with them but I could be wrong about that. I do know that Rex did wind up in Albuquerque after WW11 where he met and married Aunt Billy who’s real name was Wilma. They had Terry who was a couple of years older than me, and Kelly who was a couple of months younger than me. Kelly and I played together as little kids and years later went to high school together. I actually knew Kelly better than all of my first cousins.
From Albuquerque we went to Pampa, Texas and visited with Gram and Papa for a week or so, and then it was off to Tampa, Fl a place we had never been to before.
When we were in Nevada Daddy had bought a green GMC Suburban. Sort of like a SUV now. It was before the days of seatbelts, and my parents would fold down the back seat, place several thicknesses’ of blankets on it to make a bed. Sarah and I would ride back there so that we had more room and could lay down to sleep if we wanted to. Janice usually rode in the front between my parents sitting on Mother’s overnight case. It was a hard case unlike the new soft ones. Jan was prone to car sickness and did better in front. Mother always kept a plastic trashcan handy for her to throw up in. Yuck! By riding in the back on the bed Sarah and I could easily get to the snacks and drinks in the back. I spent many an hour riding down the road that way watching the scenery go by or reading a book. Many times after I had read a book a couple of times I would read it out loud to every one else. It was to entertain my sisters but I think Mother and Daddy enjoyed them to.
It was a long drive, three days at the 50 miles per hour that Daddy drove, across Texas, south across Louisiana and the Mississippi River. Across Mississippi, where the constant green, flat country was almost nightmare-ish to us desert rats. There were tall trees with green vines all in them and Spanish moss hanging from them. None of us had ever seen anything like it. And there were bugs. Mosquitoes, chiggers, gnats, and flies. On across Alabama where we saw so many little shacks with dozens of colored children (African American now). I had been friends with Theresa and there were always black people in the military where we lived. Daddy worked with them and some even went to church with us, but this was so different. We had never seen people living in such poverty. I remember being afraid we would be living like the people I was seeing.
On into Florida and finally to Tampa. We spent about a week in a hotel before a place became available on base. It turned out that the base housing on McDill was not near as good as what we had at Nellis. To get any kind of a place Daddy had excepted a small, two bedroom, upstairs apartment. He had hoped that we could move to some place larger later but either one never became available or else he decided it would be too much trouble to move as he kept hoping that he could transfer to some other place.
We hated having to go up and down the two flights of stairs every time we wanted to go in or out of the apartment. I don’t think either of my parents had ever lived in an upstairs apartment before and didn’t realize what a pain it would be. Also, we didn’t have a dryer so we had to haul wet clothes downstairs to hang on the community clothes lines and then had to bring them upstairs. That’s a lot of baskets of clothes for five people. If the weather was bad we hung the clothes in the house, most on a collapsible clothes rack that usually sat in the bathtub unless someone was taking a bath. In that day and age and with my parents upbringing it was usually one bath or shower a week. How horrid now to think of only taking a bath once a week. How did we stand each other? Especially in all that hot, humidity that we were not used to at all after the hotter, but dry heat of the desert.
The housing area was like a circle of apartment buildings around a central playground and the clothes lines. Each building had eight apartments, most of them small, two bedroom apartments like ours. There were about ten of these apartment buildings which would be about 80 families living there. That’s a lot of people and a lot of kids playing on the playground. Of course fights broke out among the kids. I don’t think there was anything to serious while we were there and it seems most of the kids were babies up to about 14 or so. I don’t remember there being any older teenagers. Maybe they were just smart enough to stay away from such a group of brats. Thankfully I don’t remember many times when all the kids were out at once. Usually only a few when we went out to play. My best friend at that time was a girl my age who was named Joy, or as she renamed herself Glenda.
There was a plus side to living upstairs. Our building faced west directly out over Tampa Bay. Daddy said it was about a football length from the door to the Bay. All of it grass except for one huge, ancient tree. From a fairly large window in the living room we could watch the dolphins playing in the water, and watch the pelicans flying and diving down into the bay to catch fish. There were several different kinds of wading birds as well as a few seagulls. They didn’t come in the huge flocks that you can see some places but enough of them to make bird watching a favorite pastime considering we didn’t have a private yard any more. One of the main residents of the bay was what was locally called a saltwater alligator. I think it was just an alligator that decided he liked living on the edge of the Bay. He never bothered anyone and we leaned to just make a wide circle around him if he was spotted up on the grass near the buildings. I saw him a couple of times when I had to leave for school. Never real close and I didn’t want to see him close. I knew he could be really dangerous if I tried to. We weren’t scared of him, just respectful. At that time I don’t think we realized just how really dangerous he could have been if he had been antagonized or hungry. Now a gator would not be allowed to live so close to so many people if it could be caught and moved out to where a gator belonged. It was rumored that he was at least six feet long; a pretty good sized gator. Sometimes we wouldn’t see him for several weeks and then he would appear again. No one knew where he hid out during those times.
It was the job of the men who lived in the complex to keep the grass mowed. They took turns at it. And when they did or any time we had to go out we had to watch for snakes. I guess Florida has always been full of snakes. Daddy told tales of the water moccasins that got onto the jet and plane runways that they had to remove so that the snakes didn’t get up into the wheels of the planes and be hidden from the mechanics that were working on the planes. He told of one water moccasin that when someone ran it over to kill it, there were a whole bunch of baby water moccasins that ran out of her, as these snakes do a sort of live birth (so do rattlesnakes) and she was just ready to have them when killed. So Daddy and several other men ran around on the runway trying to kill all of the baby snakes.
There was one of the guard shacks only about a quarter of a mile down the road from where we lived. It was our most frequent way on or off the base when going to town. The guard shack had military police on duty there all the time to allow the proper vehicles on to the base. We heard that one night one of the guards was bit by a water moccasin. As close as the ambulance and clinic was to the base entrance the man died before he could receive medical help. It made us more conscience of watching out for snakes but I don’t remember ever seeing one except at some of the snake and gator exhibits that were scattered all over the state.
Our first year in Florida I was in the 6th grade. It was my last year to go to school on base. The bases had grade school on them but for junior high and high school we were bussed off base to the local city schools. There was a swamp behind the grade school that was supposed to have snakes and gators in it. We were told never to go out into it but some of the kids did. I just peaked over the fence at the puddles and trees.
This was the year that the Bay of Pigs Incidence or the Cuban Missile Crisis was going on, while Kennedy was president, and the United States was having problems with Cuba. Since Cuba was so close to Florida all the military bases in Florida were on ‘standby’ in case Cuba actually attached the United States. Daddy had a suitcase packed and sitting by the front door ready if he had to leave in a hurry. I don’t think I really understood what was going on, and I still don’t understand why there have to be wars. I just knew that Daddy might have to go off to a war with Cuba at any time. And we were confined to the base. Only those kids that went to school off base were allowed off along with some of the women who had jobs off base and I don’t think there were very many of them. Most of the women who were married to military men were housewives.
In school we were taught to hide under our desks if we heard the base air raid sirens go off indicating either a drill or that we were actually being attacked and bombed. Now I wonder what the teachers and other thought that those desks could actually do if we were bombed. We certainly wouldn’t have been any safer under a desk than we would have been sitting at one. It was really kind of dumb to even have us do it for drills.
We also knew that if we heard the sirens go off even for a drill, and there were lots of drills, we were to go into the nearest building and wait until the sirens stopped screeching. We did it but it all seemed kind of redundant and unreal to us kids. Or at least it did to me.
Daddy had said he would take us to the Everglades as Mother really wanted to go, and we had made plans to go one weekend and had to cancel because we were confined to base. We never did get to go.
Another important event for world history while we lived in Tampa was the shooting and death of President John Kennedy. As I write this there was the announcement on the news that President Kennedy’s brother Ted had just died. His sister Eunice died just a few weeks ago. President Kennedy’s death was the first death of a really important person during my life and probably one of the most important deaths in the history of the United States during the twentieth contrary. I will never forget the day in my 7th grade in school when the loudspeaker came on during my music history class that was a very boring class and seemed to be mostly a study hall to classical music. We were all expecting some kind of interesting announcement as it was at an unusual time for one. As with the rest of the world the sound of a pin dropping would have been as loud as a bomb after the school principal came on an solemnly announced that our US President had been shot and killed while in Texas just a few minutes before. My teacher put his head on his desk and started crying which caused several students to cry as well. None of knew what to do other than to look at each other. No one said anything, but I think a lot of us wondered if it would be the end of the United States. Would our country be taken over by Cuba or the Russians?
http://www.fiftiesweb.com/kennedy/kennedy-assassination.htm


When I got home I remember asking Mother what would happen now and she reassured me that the vice president, Lynden Johnson, would now be the president until the next election. She said it was a horrible thing to happen but the United States wouldn’t change that much. I still wasn’t that sure. Knowing that my dad had suitcases packed and was ready to go off to war at any moment didn’t help. But Daddy didn’t seem that concerned about President Kennedy’s death. He hadn’t voted for him. I do remember we watched all the news on TV about how it happened and even saw the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby.
We watched all of the news shows about the Presidents death, the swearing in of Lyndon Johnson, and the funeral of President Kennedy. One thing that impressed me was the riderless horse for the funeral. I had never heard of the tradition at that time. Of how a horse, usually black, is lead during a funeral with the boots of the dead person set backwards into the stirrups. The horse used during President Kennedy’s funeral was a black horse named Black Jack. He was special trained for use in the funerals of Presidents and famous government people. He was used at the funeral of Hoover and Johnson, General MacArthur, and lots of others. http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/blackjack.htm At the time of Kennedy’s death I could never have thought that one day I would have a black horse and would name him BlackJack.
We did go to lots of the closer tourist places around Tampa. Bush Gardens where we toured the Anhizer Bush Beer Brewery. At that time it didn’t have all the rides, and the tour though the African Wildlife area. I believe that the African wildlife area was just being thought about at the time we were there. Cypress Gardens where we watched girls in old fashioned southern belle type dresses that wondered the grounds looking pretty. We tried to make similar dresses for our dolls. There were all kinds of wild birds as well as a bird show with trained parrots. Silver Springs where you could watch a water show with water skiers, and take a ride on a glass bottomed boat so you could see the fish in the water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypress_Gardens

We really liked Weeki Wachee Springs where the show included real ‘mermaids’ that were well trained girls swimming in mermaid tails under water using air hoses. Our Suzzette dolls had to have mermaid costumes after seeing Weeki Wachee.

http://weekiwachee.com/main/
Clear Water Beach where we went to play in the ocean as we didn’t swim very well. Once it had little dead fish in the water and really grossed us out. http://www.clearwaterbeach.com/

Ringling Brothers Museum in Saratoga Florida http://www.sarasotacircushistory.com/articles/
The museum was the winter quarters for the circus and where they practiced the tricks, stunts, and other things for the circus for the next summer tour. We were able to meet a little woman who was a midget that preformed for the circus but was almost retired when we met her. I wish I remembered her name. I was enchanted by the huge, orient wagon that was at the museum. A large team of Clydesdale horses was used to pull the wagon. I remember they said that when Ringling actually used the wagon he had twice as many horses pulling it as was actually needed just for show.
It was at the Florida state fair that we got to see the Budweiser Clydesdale team. We didn’t get to see them perform but we did see them eating in a large tent. A farrier was shoeing one of them, and I pushed my way up close to watch. He was working on a back hoof and I was amazed at the size of that hoof. The horseshoer started to put a nail in that big hoof and it bent and I guess was going crooked. He pulled it back out and dropped it on the ground. Mother poked me in the back. “Ask if you can have that nail?” For once I conquered my shyness and asked. The man glanced up at me. Smiled, picked up the nail and handed it to me. I still have it in my jewelry box. To me it is more valuable than most of my jewelry.

Other things I remember about Tampa were drives along Bay Shore Boulevard from Tampa to St. Petersburg that were frequent as then we would go shopping. Picnics on the Hillsboro River where the water was stained the color of tea by the tannic acid in the river bed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsborough_River_(Florida)
Tarpon Springs where we visited a Greek Church, and sampled Greek food, saw a sponge diver in the old diver equipment with the air hose and big glass-bowl-like face hood, and went to the zoo there. http://www.cardcow.com/14086/st-nicholas-greek-orthodox-church-tarpon-springs-florida-tarpon-springs/
http://gothere.com/Florida/TarponSprings/index.htm

http://www.divingheritage.com/keywestkern.htm
http://circusnospin.blogspot.com/2008/11/tarpon-springs-zoo-revisited.html this blog had an interesting bit on the Tarpon Springs Zoo. I remember at the time when we went there in about 1962 or 63 that it was a holding zoo for animals being brought in from their native country before they were sold to the bigger zoos in the US. I remember watching several tapers, lots of spider monkeys and some otters and there was movie film of them.


We were able to stay at our apartment for the Gasparilla Days Parade which was mostly a huge old pirate ship that had supposedly invaded Tampa Bay in the early 1900’s. The ship would go up the bay and by the base apartments and we would watch it through the binoculars and then on down by Bay Shore Boulevard. Seems like one time we saw it from the Boulevard while it was going under one of the drawbridges that are all over Tampa and several across the Bay. http://www.travbuddy.com/travel-blogs/48988/Gasparillathe-pirate-invasion-begins-Tampa-1
While we were in Tampa there was one of those rare ocean occurrences called a red tide. I am still not sure what causes it, and it wasn’t very pretty to see. Something causes the smaller fish in the ocean to die. Some sort of algae is thought to be responsible for the red tides that seem to occur in the Tampa area on a regular basis. We just happened to be there when one happened.
There was a bad hurricane named Betsy in 1965 and must have been the one that left an excessive amount of water in Tampa Bay while we were there if I remember right. Either Betsy in 1965 or Dora in 1964 or another hurricane caused a lot of rain on a Saturday night. I remember when we got up to go to church there was water up on the road that ran along the bay which was unusual. My parents didn’t make much of it as we drove though the water, off the base and on to church. I do remember talk about that we might be better off to be living upstairs if there was a hurricane. I am glad I thought so then although now I know it might not have been a good place to be as those old apartment houses were ‘condemned’ buildings when we were living in them and probably not very safe if there was any kind of disaster like a hurricane, or a fire. http://www.floridamemory.com/photographiccollection/photo_exhibits/hurricanes.cfm

It was while we were seeing all of these tourist places that my parents got the movie camera. Jan has it now and all the movie film and the projector. We took quite a bit of movie film but it seemed that there was always an argument between my parents about how to use it and what to take. Daddy insisted Mother do it, but criticized the way she did, which was always wrong in his opinion but he wasn’t about to do it himself. That always seemed like a common thing in our lives. I am not sure why Mother put up with it, or why Daddy wouldn’t do things for himself like the camera. I don’t know that he ever took any photos until he went on some hunting trips into the Gila Wilderness after he retired.
In Vegas I had a bit of an interest in taking photos but it increased when we were in Tampa. Of course Daddy would only let us have black and white film. Mother would let me use her old Brownie still camera but Daddy would always complain about how many pictures I took even when it was only one photo. As much as Mother’s family always loved photos I don’t think Daddy and his family had much use for them. He couldn’t seem to understand my interest and even worse was when I wanted to go to a photography school in Idaho after high school.
While in Tampa we continued in Girl Scouts. I can’t remember anything special that happened in Scouts while we were there. We did have meetings in an old barracks that reminded me of the one I had school in for 2nd grade. Plus we were on a Girl Scout Troop outing when we went to Tarpon Springs and saw the sponge diver, Greek Church and zoo.