We left Ft. Sam in June of 1961. Debbie had nearly recovered from a course of the chicken pox so we spent a few days at Port Aransas, Texas (one of our favorite vacation spots during our Texas years) getting her scars all healed. Of course, Dan broke out while we were in Iowa and proceeded to give them to Aunt Nine's children (note: Nina Mae Bennett, Wanda's sister). He recovered in time for us to proceed to South Carolina to turn the car over at the port and fly to Germany. We landed in Frankfurt and Col. Lukeman met us with two cars. It was not a long drive to the little village of Waldmohr, not too far from Landstuhl, where he had rented several rooms for us in Haus Lesmeister, a German gasthaus, or inn, complete with food. Much easier than the first time we went over. Luke had also made arrangements for a car for us to use until ours arrived, and they also had us over for dinner that night. A couple of weeks later we moved into a first floor, four bedroom apartment in government quarters on the Landstuhl hospital grounds.
This tour was much different than our first one. We had decided there was no way we could travel with five children so the older children should take trips offered for teenagers. The first one was a camping trip to Spain. Doug and Diane were delighted but David refused to go. It was sponsored by PYOC (Protestant Youth of the Chapel) and his best friends were Catholic and not eligible and anyway baseball was starting. Doug and Diane had a great time and David was glad he had stayed home to play baseball. The next trip was a trip to Italy. David said no for the same reasons but I insisted he go. I almost had to push him on the bus the day they left. When they returned he was hooked on travel and was mad I had not made him go on the first trip.
Orville and I made arrangements for one of the civilian workers to stay with the older children while we took Debbie and Dan on trips. I especially remember one to Holland that we enjoyed.
Orville and I had agreed that we wanted to buy a really nice painting while we were in Germany. However, we could not agree on any as he picked out Bavarian scenes and I did not want that. We were ready to come home and had not agreed on one, the packers had already come to measure the packing when the two of us went out for dinner to the Officer's Club. An artist was having a showing and as we walked in we both saw the same picture, at the same time and said, "There is a painting I would like to have." All my family all remembers that one.
During our tour I had a very bad time with migraines, was often in bed for two or three days at a time. All the doctors would say was that I needed to have surgery (a hysterectomy, as my headaches were caused by my hormonal cycles) or continue to take codeine. I took the codeine. When we went to the BOQ before we left to come home after our three years, one hit and I was in bed. On the third day Orville asked the doctor to come over to see me in the BOQ and he hooked me up to IV's and gave me fluids and seconal and demerol. The children were quite shocked when they returned to see me but if I had not been treated in the room they would not have allowed us on the plane when we were supposed to fly out.
The tour in Germany was a very unhappy one for Orville. He had set a timetable for getting out of the army when he was 55 and they called him in one day and told him that since he would turn 53 in September of that year (1964) he would have to retire on that day. I will always remember the look on his face when he came home that noon to tell me. He did not realize that as a reserve officer he could not stay in beyond that age. They wanted to know where he wanted to go for retirement so he could be sent close to that place. He told them San Antonio. We flew back to South Carolina, the car was there and we left immediately for a long, hot drive to Illinois and Iowa for visits, and then San Antonio. There were not many places large enough for us to rent so we took one not too far from Ft. Sam, at 3719 LaSabre Drive, and prepared to enroll the children in school. One day after enrolling Diane we arrived home in the rain. As I ran to the house, the walk was slippery and I fell and broke my wrist. First fracture. I had another a few years later when I was scrubbing a rug on the patio of our new home at 3239 Leyte, and the water made the concrete slippery and I fell again. Second wrist fracture!
We started looking for a permanent house as soon as we were settled and had the children in school. As we looked, we were immediately impressed with the houses that were built by Mr. Kees but he did not have any ready yet, or any that we felt were big enough. We started talking to him, found a house plan that we liked and he told us to take the plans home and pencil in any changes we wanted. We did, and moved the walls out to make it the size we wanted. We gave it back to him and he had his architect redraw them, and when he returned them to us, he had moved the walls back in again. When we complained he said we only slept in the bedrooms, did not need them bigger, and he could not enlarge the house for the same price he had quoted. Orville told him we needed larger bedrooms so the children could study in them and instead that he move the walls back, and quote a price he needed for the size we needed. He asked if we would be willing to make a large down payment and when we said yes he said that he needed capital to start a new one and would build what we wanted for only $750 over the original quote, even though it was 250 square feet larger. We agreed and he started immediately, and we started watching our house go up. We were out there nearly every evening and often Mr. Kees was too, checking that all was being done right. We remember one night when he saw a beam that had a flaw in it and he kicked it out and said the builders knew better than to put a beam like that in one of his houses. He really built quality homes!
