Vignettes - Life's Tales Book One

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William Baker. Vignettes - Life's Tales Book One

INTRODUCTION

VIGNETTE NO. I. Tale of the Model T. Oakland and Alameda, California

VIGNETTE NO. II. Tale of Gus’s Mom’s Preserves. Oakland, California

VIGNETTE NO. III. Where are those kids going? Oakland, California

VIGNETTE NO. IV. A Trip to Oregon with Bert and Gus. Oakland, California

VIGNETTE NO. V. The US Navy in Ely, Nevada. Oakland, California

VIGNETTE NO. VI. Baptism in the Potato Patch. USS RANDALL APA 224

VIGNETTE NO. VII. A “Bogey” at Iwo Jima. USS RANDALL APA 224

VIGNETTE NO VIII. Kamikaze Attack at Buckner Bay. USS RANDALL APA 224

VIGNETTE NO. 1X. A Dip in Kwajalein Lagoon. USS RANDALL APA 224

VIGNETTE X. Beach Party at Bikini Atoll……..almost! USS RANDALL APA 224

VIGNETTE NO. XI. Trying out for the “Boats”!! USS RANDALL APA 224

VIGNETTE NO. XII. Escorting Air Force World War II Dead. Barksdale Air Force Base, LA

VIGNETTE NO. XIII. Fishing with Grandpa O’Connell. Moving from Offutt AFB, Nebraska to Maxwell AFB, Alabama

VIGNETTE NO. XIV. My First Child. Barksdale AFB. LA

VIGNETTE NO. XV. Why I remember Airman Aspinall. Pentagon, USAF

VIGNETTE NO. XVI. Working for Air Chief Marshall Sir Basil Embry. Fontainebleau, France. Headquarters, Allied Air Forces Central Europe (AAFCE)

VIGNETTE NO. XVII. Hornets and Horses. Plasse’s Resort, Silver Lake, California

VIGNETTE NO. XVIII. Show and Tell in Mexico. Toluca, Mexico

VIGNETTE NO. XIX. Mistaken Identity in Iran. On Banafshe Avenue, Tehran, Iran

VIGNETTE NO. XX. Getting to be old. Sutter Creek, California

VIGNETTE NO. XXI. How not to graduate from High School. Oakland, California

VIGNETTE NO. XXII. Carrying the Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California

PROFILE OF THE AUTHOR

Отрывок из книги

This booklet of Vignettes

contains random stories

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By the afternoon of our 6th day, Thursday, April 29, we had made it to Santa Fe, New Mexico and had come to the stark realization that we were nearly out of money. We needed to do something, something desperate! We decided on telegraphing my mother for sixteen dollars. Why sixteen dollars? Well, we had four days to go and at $4.00 a day we should make it. Our surprise came when we went to the Telegraph Office on the city square and were told that we could not send a collect telegram asking for money. We would have to pay for our telegram! We counted out the amount needed which left us with a few coins. The telegram was sent and we went back to the city square to wait for the response. Our request for money was not an assured thing, in fact, it was very questionable. We’d wait for an hour, then check. Then a half hour, then another half hour and as the time clicked by and the closing hour came closer our anxiety increased. It not only increased from not knowing if the money was coming, but for the reason of where we were.

The city square had a seat-high stucco wall around it and inside the wall was a grassy area on which a number of men clad in Mexican clothing lay with sombreros on their chests. Others sat on the wall and to us it seemed that all of them were plotting something that involved us. We moved and their eyes followed. We went to the telegraph office only to be told we couldn’t wait there. We had sent the telegram to my mother’s place of work and were now beginning to think that may have been a mistake. We waited, then checked, then waited, moved, moved again, waited some more until finally, the clerk opened the door and waved a piece of paper in the air. We ran for the office. Twenty dollars had arrived!! We headed for the outskirts of Santa Fe and away from those conceived threats.

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