By Doris
Because of the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962 many apartments were available to rent when Jennifer and I arrived. We found one that took dogs that we rented for two months. In the open area between buildings, the residents would gather and we were instantly part of a community of friendly working people. While Seattle can be very gloomy and rainy much of the year, the months we were there were perfect. Everything we needed was available at nearby Northgate Shopping Center, including a gynecologist, which was a necessity as I was several months pregnant. This was yet another new experience for me — at age 28 I had never lived on my own! Jennifer and I had a great two months, seeing the space needle, swimming in the pool and having occasional meals with the very friendly community.
Housing in Adak became available and it was time to leave. The next hurdle was to get Chris into the crate provided by the airline. The creative solution was to throw his ball into it, and he cooperatively chased after it. Problem solved! We were off to Adak and our new home, anxious to be together again.
The Aleutian Islands were a special place to me. During World War II, my older cousin Freddie (the son of my father’s cousin Fred) was stationed there with the Seabees. The Seabees were responsible for building runways with Marston matting and support facilities. In 1943 when I was seven, I wrote to Freddie at Christmas. He responded, telling me that he was working near Santa’s workshop, and assured me that Santa would be bringing me many toys. Here I was 20 years later living near Santa’s workshop!
Our military quarters were very nice and well maintained. Adak would be the only time we would live on a military base, and it was a great experience. We were very happy to be together as a family. Don built Jennifer an igloo, not an easy task as it meant accumulating snow, which blew in sideways, courtesy of the ever present wind. They also went fishing at Lake Andrew, home of some very big fish, especially if you were three years old!
Our family was about to grow by one. Kent Steven Lidke was born at 3:33 on January 3, 1965, a month past his expected due date. December was a very long month but we had a wonderful Christmas with Jennifer. The base hospital was staffed with doctors, nurses, and hospital corpsmen. The hospital corpsman assisting with Kent’s delivery was experiencing his first birth and I think he was more excited than I was! To our surprise, Kent was born with a full head of red hair! We had to reach back three generations to find Aunt Kate, Grandma Louise’s sister, to find red hair.
Jennifer now had a new baby brother who she happily showed off to her nursery school friends. We dubbed them the Lavender Hill mob. Some days were nice and the kids could play outdoors. One day they decided to pay a call on the commanding officer’s wife and just appeared at her door. She graciously received them. Another Saturday morning they went to visit their nursery school teacher, Miss Sue, a Navy wife, who was surprised to see them on her day off. There was also a television show put on by Miss Marie, the wife of Larry Philips, who flew with Don through an area of extreme turbulence which Don has written about.
Wally Baloo with the News
The adults did not lack for entertainment, as a group put on a show called Aleutian Antics. Don was “Wally Baloo” and our good friend Bill King from Bermuda was the MC. He and his wife Phyllis had recently arrived on Adak. It’s a small Navy at times. Bill was the ultimate showman in his white suit. I was recruited to do makeup because I once did it for a little theatre group in Meridian. Bill claimed I made him look like Charlie Chan. A series of skits depicting life on Adak began, from potholes swallowing volkswagens to the supply ship arriving without lettuce but cases of sauerkraut juice. The commissary officer would roll cans of sauerkraut juice down the aisle in the commissary to get rid of them to unsuspecting shoppers. A chorus line of wives showing their legs performed, along with one set of hairy legs belonging to Larry Philips!
And then there were the earthquakes. We learned to always take a robe into the shower in case a quick exit was necessary. Weather in the winter was mostly gray, with high winds blowing sideways. At 3 pm the school bus would drive down the street with headlights on. In the summer it was light until 10pm, not sunny, just light. I decided to order a baby carriage so Kent could enjoy some fresh air. It arrived from Montgomery Ward but it didn’t last long as a baby carriage, as a williwaw came up one day and started to carry the carriage down the street, with Kent in it. Mr. Toad’s wild ride! After that it was used to haul groceries.
The quarters were all drab gray, as were the dumpsters beside them. One night an enterprising group decided to paint one in bright colors. It was such a hit people adopted their own dumpsters and decorated them. It turned dumpster world into a garden of color and creativity.
When Don was promoted to LCDR we had a “wetting down” party in our quarters for a standing room only crowd of our many friends…it’s a great Navy tradition.
The Navy offered R and R trips to the mainland (rest and recuperation) and so began my very first camping trip with an almost four year old and a seven month old active baby. We rented a cab over camper and were on our way. We made a playpen area in the back for Kent in the back (pre-car seat and seat belt days) hard to believe now, and Don, Jennifer and I rode in front. As we were traveling along, I looked back to check on Kent to find him standing up for the first time! It was a wonderful trip in a very beautiful state, but not a whole lot of R and R! Once when I wanted to take a picture of a reindeer I handed Kent to a complete stranger. Anything for a picture, it became a mantra for my picture taking through the years.
Our Adak adventure came to an end and it was on to California and more culture shock, as we moved to Oakland, near Berkeley, a center of everything new that was happening in the 1960s, the decade that changed the country.