A remembered day...

After the funeral of my Mother Ann in April of 1962 I didn't immediately return to Keesler, instead I rode back to Selma with Harold and Mamacita (Hazel) to stay a few days and perhaps bring my great green Mercury back with me. I had only been in the Air Force since November and was about to graduate and be shipped out to somewhere in the US I thought. Having the car would make the adventure just that much bigger and more in my control instead of the USAF's. Little had changed since I had left in November, I had no active girlfriend when I left so that was a dead end road to interesting times there. I scouted out a few of my Reedley College buddies and visited Jay Bulls as he was the one who took me to the recruiter's office in Fresno that day. I found talking with him was just not as it used to be, somehow these last months had changed my mind and my direction in life and now we seemed not so sympatico. That first evening I drove alone to Fresno to visit DiCicco's Pizzeria on Blackstone Avenue and wound up like many other times there boxing pizzas and bullshiting with the guys and Maria who had been a dear friend as I grew through high school. The next day I walked around Selma reviewing the town after having been made familiar with Biloxi just outside Keesler AFB. Biloxi was truly "southern" in all that that meant, racial divides were common and the public fountain downtown had "Colored Only" signs on the public restroom nearby, it sure wasn't tired old Selma. I walked past the now closed theatre where I used to spend my Saturday afternoons at the movies paying 25 cents for the privilege. Popcorn was 10 cents and a coke was 15 so with 50 cents I could have a complete movie going experience. I walked to Selma Drug Store where I had worked for a while under Pat Patterson the owner. I walked inside and took a look but there was no one I knew so I left a few minutes later. I went across the street to the Toy store and visited with the owner Ros Bagdesarian the brother of the man who made The Chipmunks voices and tunes. He drove a huge Rolls Royce Sedan that always fascinated me. He asked me many questions and I gave him polite answers and soon I left to visit Kenneth Chow who was a long time friend and whose family owned the grocery store downtown. We chatted a while and took a short ride to the Foster's Freeze for an ice cream and I told him the story of my going into the AF out of sheer boredom.

Automobiles, Cars and Piles of Junk Cont'd

The next chapter in my exploits as a car owner happened when my mother died in the spring of 1963. The Red Cross paid my way to her funeral in San Diego and I accompanied my grandmother and Harold back to Selma afterwards. I bought the Mercury from a used car lot in Selma. She was a shiny low mileage used 1956 Mercury 2 Dr. Hardtop in two-toned green, dark below light on top. Quite a nice ride she was and in top notch condition. I was determined to take her back to Keesler with me so I could explore Mississippi and Louisiana more easily on the weekends. They sent me on my way with a couple of ham sandwiches and some blankets to let me sleep in the car on my way to Keesler if I needed too. I drove down the 99 and headed out into the desert towards the old Route 66 that I was going to take east to my destination a couple of thousand miles away. I got as far as half way to Blythe across the icy cold desert when the Merc coughed and quit. I sat by the side of the road for a long while and finally signalled a car who stopped and gave me a ride to the nearest town where I called Harold for advice on the car. He told me to hold tight and he drove the 150 miles to fix it (blocked fuel filter) and take me to the Greyhound station in Selma the next afternoon to renew my trip back to the base. The Merc remained in Selma for a while. When I got my permanent duty assignment at Beale AFB I returned via air to Fresno, Harold picked me up in the newly waxed and cleaned spotless Mercury which I soon drove north to Beale AFB outside of Marysville. I got it licensed for use on the base and used it going back and forth to visit my parents and girl friends in Selma on weekends that I was able to. It got about 15 mpg and was fairly reliable as well, it looked nice and my dates appreciated that it got us to the skating rink and home again without either running out of gas or go due to crappy mechanicals like the old Ford often did. I put many thousands of miles parading that car all over northern California until one day on the way back to the base from Selma it died and Harold came the 60 miles to rescue me again. It was adios to the Merc, sold for parts now in the 8th year of it's existance. I bused my way back to the base on Sunday and bought a new car about a month later. The verdict: Another piece of junk.