Memory Monday

“A planet with no mountains, no storms and no earthquakes will create a planet of weak people!” 
― Mehmet Murat ildan

     It is March 27, 1964.  We are happily living in Reno, Nevada; Dick is stationed at Stead Airforce Base and I am finishing up my second round of being a tele-communicator for the America Cancer Society.  All over the airways is news of the disaster which has occurred in Alaska!  A 9.2 force earthquake with its center in Prince William Sound half way between Anchorage and Valdez, has erupted; the largest in the United States and the second largest in the world. (I have linked you to a short youtube presentation if you are interested in seeing how this earthquake changed the scientific study of earthquakes.)

An elementary school in Anchorage

Downtown Anchorage

Turnagain Heights-a housing area overlooking Knik Arm

   Amazingly, only 15 people were killed by the earthquake itself.  It occurred  around 5:30PM and it was Good Friday so many places were closed and school was not in session.  There were 139 deaths total, many from the following Tsunami.

     A few weeks after this disaster Dick comes home with some "exciting" news.  He is being transferred to Elmendorf AFB. Guess where it is located!  Yep...Anchorage, Alaska!  Needless to say that announcement caused great consternation with both of our families.  We, being young and naive, thought it sounded like a great adventure!

      Dick was to report around the first of July I think, although he was still working at Stead.  My little job was over at the end of April so I wouldn't be able to get another job for such a short time.  As I had said earlier, we wouldn't be able to afford the apartment if I wasn't working too, so we made the decision I would go home to live with my parents until we took off for Alaska and Dick would go back to the barracks on base....not a happy solution for we newlyweds! But sometimes you have to just live with the negative side of life too!

      So Dick took a week to drive me home and spend some time with his parents.  Then he went back to Stead and I settled in for a loooong (six weeks) visit with my parents!  I remember going to church with my mom one Sunday after Dick had gone back, and this elderly gentleman, whom I had known all my life but not intimately, came up to me and wanted to know if everything was alright in my life!  It was just not normal for a newlywed to be separated six months after being married!  So I explained to him why I was home (although I was thinking it was really none of his business and wanted to tell him some really wild tale) and he seemed to think that was OK!  When I  exploded to my mom about the nosey old man, she said he was probably just concerned and would have wanted to pray for me if there had been something wrong!  Bless his heart! Ah, small towns.....you gotta love them!!!