KNAS. So, I am a little fussy on the years here, but I think it was back in the late 1950's that Hutchinson had the Kansas Naval Air Station located South of Hutch. I was in High School and my graduation year was 1959, or at least that is what my class ring said. Sadly, I knew all I needed to know by the middle of my Senior year and I dropped out. I attended my Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior year at Nickerson High School, go Wildcats! Might not have been wildcats, but my memory says it was.
Now you may ask how this has anything to do with the Navy, but if you are patient, I will get there. Now what was housed at the Naval Air Station? Sailors!! Now you must remember that at that juncture of my life I was a nubile teenage girl who had not sampled the forbidden pleasures of life and love. Ah, but I had dreams! And I had dreams because I had finally developed what appeared to be a bosom and I had heard the other girls talking. I was not quite sure exactly what "Married Love" was, but I was pretty sure I wanted to be a beloved wife some day and that some man would sweep me off my feet and take me to paradise where I would live happily ever after.
In the meantime, the sailors who were stationed at KNAS liked to come to our little town and cruise Main Street during our school lunch hour and try to pick up girls. I was scared to death of men, but I gotta tell you those boys/men in those tight, white navy pants with two rows of dark navy blue buttons touched me and warmed the cockels of my heart! The neighbor girls, Delores and Irene, were allowed to date, so they did. Delores ended up marrying one named Smitty and moving back east some where. Irene dated some guy and fell madly in love until he was "shipped out" and she was left crying in the dust.
But the stage for my life was set by those boys in their white uniforms. Army khaki and Air Force Blue meant nothing compared to Navy white. Winter was Navy blue wool and the wool looked pretty itchy to me, so Spring and Fall we were good to go and my heart came to life, but Winter was verboten, which is kin to mauch's nix.
But my minds eye can still see the coupes, which were their chosen vehicle, and the sailors with their white hats cocked just so, cruising Main and hear the cat calls emitting from the vehicles. Of course all the girls tee-heed and me right along with them. Sadly, I knew the sailors were off limits and if I was ready to start dating, I better hope that the one I picked was the geek with the glasses in my History class. And sadder yet, he was my cousin! Since the Beck family had been the precursors to the Haas migration from Germany, most everyone was my cousin. In order to carry on the family line and for Mother to make a decent wage, we had to move to Hutchinson for my Senior year.
That was also about the time that the Kansas Naval Air Station south of Hutchinson closed and the base was deserted. A couple years later I married a guy who had just gotten out of the Army and returned from Germany. Boy was that an exercise in futility. The floors were wood and they had to be paste wax coated which meant I had to rent a buffer every time I cleaned the floor. His Kahki pants had to be starched and the crease sharp and exact! Of course the fact that he was just going to get drunk and spill stuff on them was entirely beside the point. Oh, and the allegiance I held for the Navy must be replaced by the Army. Charlie and Kenneth were both Marines. But guess what! I finally got my sailor!
Anthony was in the Navy on board the USS Proteus, a sub-tender. The motto was Prepared, Productive, Precise. And he reflected that later in life as well. He was stationed in Hawaii. He was in Pearl Harbor, but it was after the bombing. Of course that was many years before I met him. There is a lot to be said for the twilight years, but right now it slips my mind that anything I come up with would be worth repeating.
I saw his white bell bottom pants. Of course they did not fit him any more, but I did get to touch them and for a while I was back on the streets of Nickerson and the sailor boys were "cruising Main". I was still 17 years old with dreams of being a missionary. I still could not look a man in the eye, but I could envision him with dark hair and soft brown eyes dressed in his Summer Whites. I can hold my little sailor boy in my minds eye, but more importantly, in my heart.
And at this point in life, memories and dreams is about all we have, isn't it?
