Mornin', everybody ! Happy Tuesday !
Have a cup while you Freep !
Many of you have already heard about Maggie Malone's Year in South Dakota, but I shall give an overview of The Highlights for our newer occupants of Finest space - MEG33 and Calpernia and Donaeus come to mind.
My 6 and 7 year old sons and I joined my husband, assigned to Ellworth AFB, on Christmas Eve 1961.
We departed Rapid City the night after Christmas 1962.
Crammed in between were the following events:
- January 1962 - became 'with child'
- June - moved to a larger house
- September until end of year - had a psycho trying to attack women in my block, knowing when whose husbands were at work and certain women unprotected who did not have husbands. Despite the police having at all times cars within easy reach of the neighborhood, determined to catch him before he harmed one of us, he used the hill behind us to elude them week after week.
My husband bowowed a .45 and taught me how to field strip it blindfolded, and I would not have hesitated had he entered my house to make sure he never bothered anyone again. NO WAY was he going to get to my boys or me, and I had an Early Warning System of two dogs; one with a distinctive bark when "X" was outside and a glimpse of him seen fleeing.
The police put a detective inside with the girl above me who was his initial target, and the dude managed to cut the screen on the porch door and turn the doorknob going into the kitchen, leaving it ajar.
The K-9 with the cop never heard or smelled him or alerted!!
I made it a habit to 'cover' with the .45 the single gal across the driveway from me when she came home from work, from my screened entryway.
One night the dude messed up, my husband home and watching TV with me in the living room. Suddenly, we heard him at the screen on the bedroom window, and Shadow alerted! Running out, Bernie could see just his back as he faded into the hill...very sobering, because I was then within a few weeks of our baby's birth, and thought I would not be the sicko's target...
The police doubled their effort, other women's screens being tried - the dude getting bolder and challenging the police. We held a meeting at my house, and the police asked if after the baby were born, I would be a decoy of sorts for him, with their assistance.
My daughter was born 30 September 1962, with the first snow flurries of the season as we drove 10 miles out to the base hospital.
- The Cuban Missile Crisis began mere days later, and in security guarding our B-52's based at Ellsworth, my husband was on duty 12 on - 12 off for a month before it was resolved.
The gal next door whose husband worked with him and I alternated keeping our respective station wagons fully loaded, ready to flee town with our children and dogs.
That area, with our missile silos within a radius of 100 miles, was acknowledged by the government to be the # TWO TARGET should missiles fly from Russia and Cuba.
(Offutt in Nebraska, the Intelligence Center, was # One - not D.C.)
That ended, and I went out to the base 5 weeks after Jennifer's birth for a routine follow-up checkup.
Returning home and pulling to a stop at the back door, my neighbor and good friend, Susan, came running out, yelling the base was on the phone telling Bernie he was being sent to ALASKA!
- We thus headed out the night after Christmas - two adults, boys 7 & 8, 2-month old baby in bassinet, and two dogs, driving the Alaska Highway to Fairbanks in the dead of winter!
To return to the topic, though, it was a glorious year in that beautiful country. Black Hills is a misnomer since they are indeed mountains. Mt. Rushmore is awesome, and coming back down, you get a glimpse in the far distance of the plains, stretching endlessly.
The state places historical markers everywhere, and it is so fascinating....we had 'adventures' on just about every break when the boys were not in school, heading in a direction of someone's choice and exploring. Took along picnics, or food to grill at parks where grills and neatly chopped wood were provided.
We did the Custer State Park thing, driving literally through 'hugh' herds of buffalo, Wind Cave National Park, the beginning of the Crazy Horse Monument, towns of Lead and Deadwood, etc.
The most fun, though, was someone saying, "Turn HERE!" and off we'd go through the woods with no road, safe with granite base as opposed to Florida sand. Often we came across old abandoned cabins, so the boys had a closeup of how it REALY was, without amenities, and very small and lonely. The ultmate history lessons, including one day visiting a preserved fort where the settlers were allowed to stay after a treaty Custer made with the Indians for their safety in return for an agreement to stop future settlers from coming. Custer was a dirty word there, breaking the treaty as the gold fever spread and settlers poured in.
Does anyone wonder why the Indians hated us so??
No doubt in my mind, Lori, that we destroyed a whole cuture and civilization in the name of greed.
Other than the weather, I loved South Dakota and the beautiful Rocky Mountains!
P.S.- the psycho was caught after we left, trying to get into Susan's bathroom window..:)) Her collie held onto his leg until the police arrived!
