By Doris
New Orleans, 1973. Here we were, the second time around. It was the same in many ways; the same Navy, different assignment, same development, different house, same schools, but now the schools were integrated. The student body and the staff were integrated.
Jennifer was now in junior high, which had a large number of students from “the projects,” a totally new socioeconomic group. This was integration “up close and personal.” At least one student coveted Jennifer’s lunch and would manage to steal it. We considered putting hot pepper in the peanut butter sandwich to catch the culprit, but then thought better of it. Jennifer made some new friends, one of whom was a Jehovah’s Witness. The most unusual aspect of their faith to us was that they didn’t celebrate birthdays or holidays in their family. There are Bible-based reasons for their beliefs which are respected. Their friendship expanded our horizons.
In elementary school Kent’s third grade teacher was Mrs. Walker, a wonderful black teacher. She took it in stride when Kent corrected her concerning the land bridge that at one time existed between Russia and Alaska. After all, who would know this better than an eight year old boy born in the Aleutian Islands? Upon meeting Mrs. Walker for the first time at an open house, she greeted me with “I have REALLY been wanting to meet you!”
Our good relationship proceeded from there. She was an excellent teacher and sensitive to the needs of each child. She once said the old folks had a saying “that one walked this way before,” with a knowing glance in talking about Kent. We benefited greatly from knowing her. Another part of my cultural enlightenment.
A girl from Mississippi moved in down at the end of our block, another Jennifer, who was Jennifer’s age. She had beautiful blond curls and spoke with with a thick Southern drawl. I was shocked when I met her mother, who had no accent at all. Turned out Jennifer “from the block” was born in Mississippi and lived there until they moved to New Orleans. Her folks were from middle America and her dad’s job took them to Mississippi and then to New Orleans. Brings to mind the “nature vs. nurture” discussion, in this case outside influences vs. the home environment.
Kent had a new friend, Robby, who noticed that I was “directionally challenged!” The Harlem Globetrotters came to town. They were a talented black basketball team who could do all kinds of impossible tricks with a basketball in their very entertaining version of a basketball game. Because Don had to fly at the last minute, we invited Robby to join us. This involved me driving across the big Mississippi River bridge to the arena in downtown New Orleans. We made it there and had a lot of fun at the game. And then it was time to drive home, and I could not find the way to the Mississippi River bridge! As I mentioned, this is a very BIG bridge, hard to miss!. In my efforts to get there I went around in circles for awhile. Robby’s voice came to me from the back seat, “Mrs. Lidke, we passed that gas station before!” Finally the bridge loomed up ahead and we made it back across the mighty Mississippi.
The best way to learn about a school is to volunteer in it, so I helped out in the office. One day the principal asked if I could do an emergency subbing job in a first grade classroom. Undaunted, I said yes, after all, I once led a brownie troop. The teacher had left some work, which the kids finished in quick order, and then I lost control. It was bedlam, kids needing to go to the bathroom, running around, one little boy who was on crutches using them as a weapon, and then the lights went out! I turned around and one little guy, who was the culprit, says “that “bees” what Miss Brown do when we “bees” bad! It was time to call for help, the principal to the rescue! My teaching days were over.
In September our second New Orleans hurricane adventure began. Jennifer had a slumber party for her birthday on a Friday night, and for added excitement, we were keeping an eye on the approaching hurricane. By Saturday morning I had made my decision --we were leaving before its arrival. Don had already evacuated with a plane, so I packed up Jennifer, Kent, Chris, the family photos, and the insurance policies, and we were off, across the mighty Mississippi River bridge again. My plan was to go west to Baton Rouge, when the radio announced that the hurricane was veering in that direction. The decision was made for me, we would go north instead to Hattiesburg, MS, a good choice. Unfortunately, many other people chose it too and there were no available motel rooms. So now it was on to Jackson MS, with a stop to eat. We tied Chris to a tree while we went into the restaurant to eat. He expressed his displeasure loudly!
At one point during this odyssey, Jennifer announces excitedly “We’re having an adventure just like the Bobbsey twins!” Yes, we were indeed, and so was Mom, who had never driven a car by herself further than 25 miles around towns where we lived! We found a room in Jackson, made contact with Don who was very happy to hear Chris bark and learn we were okay. The hurricane missed us and we returned safely the next day, encountering only a huge bug hatch that covered the windshield. A great ending, but there was an even greater longer lasting effect; I now felt empowered to drive anywhere. To quote the Helen Reddy song “I am woman hear me roar, in voices too loud to ignore, no one’s ever gonna keep me down again!”
One day a newspaper ad caught my attention. H&R Block was offering an income tax course, with possible employment during the upcoming tax season. It seemed like a good idea to enroll; looking to the future and the possibility of having a business of our own, I signed up. It was a detailed course and I was offered a position at its conclusion. I was now going to be a working mother, wearing two hats!
Clients would bring their records to our office and we would do their return as they sat at our desk. We worked using adding machines; there were no computers. After three days I concluded this was not for me, but then they offered me the job of receptionist. It was a perfect fit and I loved it. It involved interviewing the client and taking down all of their personal information! What could be better, everyone was a story and you learned their marital status, their income, how many dependents they had, and where they lived. Best of all I then passed them along to a tax preparer to do the hard work. It would have been a perfect job for a young single girl! It was a good experience in returning to work and it only lasted through tax season. I learned that Women’s Lib and this working mom thing needed more study. Job sharing at home would be a necessity for this new concept to advance!
During our stays in New Orleans we were pretty healthy. We had one bout with the Hong Kong flu over Christmas break. Jennifer and Kent didn’t leave the house for ten days and Don had a fever that had him hallucinating and seeing things on the ceiling. Grandma Mary and Grandpa Rudy had come for a Christmas visit and were not sick, at least until after they left for Florida. We think perhaps Grandma was a carrier, so in family lore she became Typhoid Mary!
We had three hospitalizations for Jennifer and Kent at the Public Health Hospital, the place for tonsillectomies for military families. New Orleans was a strep belt and we traded strep infections up and down the block. Strep throat was the disease du jour, so both Jennifer and Kent had their tonsils removed at different times. Jennifer was first and told Kent about a really BIG needle they used. We had a hard time holding Kent down when his turn came!
While we were in Adak I noticed that one of Jennifer’s eyes seemed to wander when she was tired. Upon returning to the lower 48, doctors watched it and in New Orleans it was decided to do corrective surgery to tighten the muscle that was the cause; apparently both eyes needed treatment. Jennifer had a friend, Dawn, who lived on our street, another Navy child who needed the identical surgery! They were hospital mates at the same time! Many years later when Jennifer needed surgery for cornea replacement because she had kerataconus (where the cornea tries to go cone shaped) she was an old hand at it.
Also while there Kent was tested for allergies, which resulted in weekly allergy shots. I would administer them but I didn’t have the right touch. He always wanted to go to the doctor’s office and have Bertha do them! Upon moving to Breckenridge we were able to discontinue the shots. I guess he wasn’t allergic to pine trees, just grass!
To end on a note of a fun trip, when Grandma and Grandpa Lidke visited we went on a Mississippi River trip on an old fashioned paddle wheeler to a Louisiana plantation home. It was a Fourth of July picnic on the grounds of an old plantation, with a beautiful home in the process of being restored. The event was a benefit for the plantation and we enjoyed a box lunch of fried chicken. It was a taste of history and a step back in time.
Our Navy days were coming to a close in New Orleans, and we would be moving from a house below sea level, protected by a levee, to Breckenridge in the Colorado mountains at 9600 feet, surrounded by snow capped peaks towering over us at 14,000 feet!