I spent the first five years of my life living in River Oaks. If you don't know, River Oaks is next door neighbors with what used to be Carswell Air Force Base. Carswell AFB was next door neighbors to what was then called Convair, also known as the bomber factory. Carswell and Convair got along so well as neigbbors they shared landing strips. Bombers would take off for tests of the bomber itself for Convair and Carswell would have bombers take off to test the flight crews. They probably had cookouts too but we never got invited to them.
I loved hearing and watching all the big planes, and some fighter jets, taking off every day and into the night. The spookiest sound from those big bruisers was the B36. The B36 had a mournful sound that vibrated all the way to the soul. The windows would rattle, the floors would shake, and some small children would scream in terror.....okay, I only screamed once when one went over our house late at night. I would have stayed scared had my dad not explained that it was just the sound of freedom. After that I loved to see and hear them. I guess if there is ever a trivia test in heaven and the question of "What was your favorite airplane during your childhood?", I will readily answer, "The B36".
My dad and my uncle OC (his parents were tired of naming children I guess) both worked at Convair. OC was my cousin, Mike's, dad. Mike was my best friend. I've talked about him before. Go back and read earlier stories. Mike knew a lot more about Convair than I did. OC was more involved in the day to day of the place and my dad was just learning how to be an electrician and electrical installer on the bombers. We were both proud of our dads. OC had several years more seniority than my dad because my dad had to go off and fight Koreans shortly after returning from fighting the Japanese. My dad didn't have anything against the people of Asia. He just made the mistake of staying in the Army Reserve after the war was over and uncle OC didn't. He was finally able to settle down to a factory job and ply his electrical skills...which were limited until he was trained.
Mike and I talked about bombers, fighters, and the mighty men who flew them all the time. Mike wound up working for Convair, aka General Dynamics, aka Lockheed his entire career. He was smarter than me then and still is. He got busy getting two degrees, one in math and the second in engineering. I got busy going to junior college and dating every pretty girl I came in contact with. I came out of it with an associate degree in mid-management, experience as an excellent Spades player, and wonderful memories. I didn't get busy with education until later in life. I still got my bachelor's degree in business early enough to make good money most of my career but that late start made a lot of difference in life.
I got off track...I do that occasionally. I think its due to....wait a minute, I'm getting off track again. As I said earlier Mike and I talked about our dads' jobs real often. Sometimes though we discussed other things...things like, how to build a better stink bomb by using doodle bugs as part of the recipe, who was the best TV cowboy, or who got more spankings by our dads the previous week. My dad was tough but I think Mike won that contest. I did complain that I couldn't figure out how my dad knew everything I did while he was at work. He got onto me all the time about climbing on the mailbox post. How did he know??!! Once while he was replacing another broken post I watched closely to see if he had installed some kind of device to monitor my actions. I never found a thing the next time I climbed up there to get the mail. I mentioned this to Mike once when we were comparing notes. He told he knew how our dad's knew everything because his dad had told him. It was evidently a common fact that Convair had a giant telescope where dads could spy on their little miscreants. Poor old uncle OC must have spent most of his workday on that telescope because he had three little boys and my dad just had two. I have to say two of OC's boys made Mike, my brother Glenn, and me look like saints most of the time but we still got our share of spankings.
Once when I was spending the night with Mike we were playing on his swing set. I was trying for a new height record on the swing and didn't notice Mike had vanished. I realized it finally and started looking for him. Then I heard a whisper from under some bushes, "If you don't want to watch me get a whupping you better get under here with me. Daddy's home!" I don't have any idea what Mike had done that day but he did indeed get that whupping. I was scared til bedtime uncle OC was going to get me next.
I miss those simple days.
