A Trip to Sequoia

In the summer of ’62 we learned we’d be moving to California. That was the way of it usually. You’d learn of a new posting in the summer and be gone without being able to say farewell to all of your friends. Some that lived on base with you or in the off base neighborhood you lived in with a few other ‘military families’ would let the others know the obvious when school started the next fall, you’d moved. Those that had different posting cycles than you disappeared this way and we all accepted it as normal.
We were in Millington Tennessee, just north of Memphis, where Dad was teaching at the “A” School on base. I’ve no idea what an “A’ School was but I do know there was a “B” School there also because Dad had attended that school at an earlier posting to NAS Millington. We’d lived in Millington three different times. This trip was to be our first West Coast posting. After Maine, Florida, Kansas and Tennessee California sounded promising. Ocean, sunshine, no snow, no tornado's, no hurricanes just one threat --- Earth Quakes! Not a bad trade really.
As we came over the mountains expecting to see sunshine, orange groves and an ocean vista our eyes began burning, tears were flowing, the other trade off came home – Smog. It was something that we became used to and truthfully there were many sunny days but our first few weeks were spent in a brown overcast haze. The base we were moving to was NAS Point Mugu. Yes there was a sign at the base entrance that read “Oh Magoo You’ve Done it Again! With a picture of the cartoon character on it.
We were going to have to wait for six weeks before base housing was available so we were put in a two bedroom hotel room in Oxnard. Then they immediately shipped dad to Long Island N.Y. The new plane, E2A Hawkeye, that he’d be helping to shake down for the last three years of his twenty year career, was at the Grumman factory there. They were supposed to fly it back to California a month later after a shake down cruise but the shake down took three months. The Hawkeye is the little plane with the pancake on top that you see on aircraft carriers in the news.
By the time Dad returned we were settled in Base Housing. Our house backed up to the fence that separated Base Housing from Base Runway. We were at the very east end of the runway. If the Fantom 4F’s, never just one, took off from our end their departure was proceeded by 30 minutes of oscillating blasts of their engines leading up to a final 5 minutes of earth rattling, ear splitting noise before screaming down the runway and into the sky over the ocean. If, on the other hand, the wind direction required they take off from the other end you were spared the 30 minute assault, but were still aware of their activity (it wasn’t that far off) only to have to live at the bottom of there departure. Heading east, into mountains and over residential areas, required they reach certain altitudes quickly. They always chose immediately, strait up, with after burners roaring. It was loud and violent enough to shake you as hard as any tremor did. But it was “in defense of the country” and therefore acceptable.
The house had three bedrooms and two baths. What luxury! These Californians’ knew how to live. Mom & Dad got a room of course and that left a room for my two sisters and a room for me and three brothers. The me and three brothers thing wasn’t working. Dad came up with a solution that like most of his solutions was joined to another solution. Another part of the equation to these solutions was money. Of course it was. He had six children and was in the Navy, even with part time jobs off base it was tight money wise.
His solution. He bought a small camping trailer and parked it in the back yard. My older brother Ray and I used it for a bedroom. We ran an extension cord to the trailer for lights but just threw extra blankets on in the winter. Wait you say this is solution at expense and your right but ---- We could now vacation, why in the Sequoia’s if we wished, and since the trailer sleeps six and two can sleep in the back of the station wagon why there’ll be no tent fee and if need be we can just pull off the road and get a nights sleep without paying for a motel and……Well as you can see it was a very sound economic decision.
At the first chance Dad has for some time off Ray and I have to clear out of the trailer so Mom can stock the trailer for a trip --- to Sequoia National Forrest. Dad has decided that traveling in California really requires air conditioning and has the Ford wagon equipped. Pulling a trailer through the mountains will definitely over tax the cooling system of the car so there’s a bonus to the original solution. The trailer being towed has a large water tank in it for drinking and washing. He taps the tank with a copper line that goes all the way to the front of the car and has small holes in it that spray water onto the radiator. He then taps the tank and brings the line into the rear of the wagon and attaches a bicycle pump. By pumping air into the tank it forces water through the line and onto the overheating cooling system. A beautiful system and a testament to how I think. Certain things were overlooked in the plan, also a part of my genetically formed problem solving process. There was no pressure gauge to let us know when we’d reached a safe amount of pressure in the tank. Actually over pressurizing the tank never entered his mind. Wouldn’t have mine. How much pressure could some kids develop with a bicycle pump anyway? Another overlooked sum in the equation was the weight of that much water but that weight would diminish, it being pumped onto the radiator to offset the weight of the water to…., as we climbed the mountains – all would balance out. Bout half way up with Dad hollering “Pump Harder it’s still overheating” we blew the tank. After the initial roadside investigation, the tank would no longer hold water and the Air Conditioner was just unused weight for the rest of the vacation, we proceeded, with only a few more stops to let the radiator cool, to our vacation amongst some of the oldest living organisms on the planet. Trees that you could, and some did, carve a whole house and stable out of! Looking at the stars at night makes my insignificance apparent, but looking up one of these trees and knowing its age brought home a different humbleness. Saw the Redwood with the road through it, closed to traffic in an a inspired act of conservation, saw a Park Ranger hold a blow torch to a piece of Redwood Bark to exhibit its fire retardant abilities. Always wondered why those attributes aren’t utilized by firemen.
Returning home with one day for Mom to clean out the trailer and it became our bedroom again.