Milford chronicle., 1955-07-29
I'm THE AIR FORCE"
BY Eloins townsend Dicksrson

quite surprised at my sudden trip
and seemed to allow for my poor
bridge playing and my bad man.
ners when / left the luncheon table
before dessert was served. / was
in National Airport Terminal in
ID. c. by four o'clock that after
noon, and by 4:30 took my place
over the wing of Eastern Airlines'
twine engine Silver Falcon. BY
that time the butterflies in my
stomach were really doing a dance.
When we left Washington the
steward offered me a luscious look
ing dinner, but ] turned 1t down
and had coffee and cookies instead
We landed at Columbia, S. c.. for
just a little while and that was
long enough for me to get my feet
on terra firma again. AS / walked
out of the plane | saw familiar
face and yelled, "Ginny" and sure
enough ii was Virginia Smith from
Asbury Park, N. j., on her way
down to see her husband in Or
lando, too. We had missed seeing
each other in Washington when
we got on the capacity loaded
plane.
We kept each other company
from South Carolina on south and
consoled each other about the
wasted time to us. when we landed
Vile, Florida. At nine o'clock
Florida time our plane rolled down
the run way of the Orlando, Flor
ida, airport, and we could see Ken
and Hayes from our airplane win
dow.
Thirty wives arrived that after
noon, that evening and the follow.
ing morning from states all across
the United States. One girl came
from New Mexico, another from
Michigan, another from West vir-
ginia, several came from Topeka
(having bought homes of their own
there at our home basel. Gene
Shirley drove down from Alabama
where she had been visiting her in
laws and had kindly offered Hayes
their car to meet my plane. Hayes
had reservations at lovely mo-
tel i'm Winter Park, just outside OF
Orlando, replete with air condi-
tioning. large swimming pool. just
the "woiks."
Friday morning we all converged
upon the downtown shopping sec
ton of Orlando, and 1t was 80
much fun seeing all the Forbes Air
Force Base crowd again. That at
ternoon we cwam in our motel pool
and that evening as every other
evening we ate at Morrison's. III
you've ever been in the south you
are already acquainted with their
restaurants and you just can't bet
ter their food no matter where you
eat and their prices are unbeliev-
ably reasonable. Saturday we rent
ed a car (the last one in the lot
lovely new blue Chevie-the boys
had quickly emptied the lott and
drove over to Daytona, never hav-
ing seen the beach before even
though we had long heard about
the cars driving on the sand by
the ocean. BY late morning we
were back in Orlando again and
met many of our friends in town
Lieutenant Colonel Shirley was all
smiles when he walked up to us
and told Hayes and the rest of the
fellows that their time had been
extended and they wouldn't be able
to leave until Sunday at midnight.
The weekend of sightseeing, drool-
ling over gifts from abroad, swim
ming in the pool, eating wonderful
food. dancing at local hotels, shop
ping for Florida sport clothes, and
being with our husbands again in
such a lovely southern city makes
me feel now that my weekend trip
was all a dream.
Coming back Monday In the day
time on a Super Constellation |
was able to eat my meal on the air
line and Ginny Smith and ! talked
every single second of the flight
back about our unexpected, unbe-
lievable weekend in Florida.
Always.
Elaine Townsend Dickerson