Sunday June 17, 2012

0330 Sunday morning, Nancy said that the terrible pain in her abdomen had not decreased. We got in the car and headed to Emergency at Blodgett. They took Nancy right in and started running tests. Within 30 minutes they had determined that Nancy's pancreas was inflamed. They hooked her up to an IV and were going to take a Cat Scan. They Cat Scan confirmed that she had an inflamed pancreas but the good news was that the gall bladder was ok. At 0800 I bailed out and came home to call Linda Moleski to tell her that the Father's Day Brunch was cancelled. Linda was going to notify the other guests. Nancy was discharged about 0900. Nancy headed straight to bed and I took the 2 prescriptions to be filled at Meijer's. When I got home I also headed to bed. We relaxed until 1630. Nancy had scheduled us to work at the Steve Miller concert at the Gardens. I tried to talk her out of it but was unsuccessful. We reported for duty at 1700. We were assigned the duty of taking tickets. We were really busy because the concert was sold out. We were finished working about 1900. Nancy was really exhausted. When we got home she headed to bed and immediately fell asleep. I watched some TV and was in bed by 2100. On this date 50 years ago, Sunday June 17, 1962, I wrote my mother a letter from Midway Island. We get our fresh water on Midway by catching rain water. When rain hits the hard surfaces of the runway and taxiway it is channeled to a storage facility. It does not rain much between March and October so at times fresh water has to be rationed. That means salt water showers and brushing your teeth with brackish water, yuck. Ice cubes are made with brackish water. At the Officer's Club they had a drink called a B&B. Bourbon and Brackish. The problem was that to avoid the bad taste the B&B was finished too fast. A B&B hangover resulted. In 1962 to solve our problem the Navy seeded the clouds over the Island and we were able to collect 2 million gallons. Next Friday I was heading to Hawaii for a week's vacation. I would be staying at an Army base called Fort DeRussy. It is located on Waikiki Beach. I also told Mom about Kure Island. Kure is located about 50 miles west of Midway. It is much smaller than Midway. It is a Lorain Station. A lorain station sends out signals to all the ships at sea. If you can receive the signal from three stations you can located your position. The US Coast Guard mans the station. I was told there was one tree on the island. They did have a nice beach but it was loaded with bad tempered seals. Every Sunday a plane left Midway for Kure. The plane took supplies and a chaplain. Duty on Kure was much worse than Midway. About the same time in June, 1960 I wrote my Mother from Vermont. I had a summer job working for the Vermont Highway Department. I made $15.95 per day and because I was on a traveling survey party I was paid $8 per day living expenses. In 1960 $15.95 per day was great pay. The party chief was a retired Army Colonel. The two other members of the party were Civil Engineering students at the University of Vermont. I told Mom for the next two week I could be reached at Leon's Knotty Pine Motel in Bennington, VT. I really liked Vermont it is a beautiful state.