Page 55 - Winterling's Chasing the Wind

From New Orleans, I hitchhiked through Baton Rouge and at 2 AM was let out at a fork
in the road because my driver was headed a different way. A half-hour later, a man
driving a brand new 1951 Studebaker picked me up. He said that he was very tired and
he wanted to grab an hour or two of sleep. He asked me to drive, and even though I had
no drivers license, I welcomed the opportunity to drive this nice car all the way to
Shreveport. From Shreveport, I caught a ride to Dallas, and from Dallas, I caught a ride
all the way to Stillwater.

In 1951, my brother, Richard, also joined the Air Force. Being station at Henley Field
near Dallas, he visited me in Stillwater and we had a good time catching up on each
other’s lives. Being two years younger than me, he often had a different group of
friends. He also wound up being assigned to the opposite side of the globe, Germany,
when I finally had duty in Alaska and the Aleutians. This was before computers and
e-mails, and phoning long distance was expensive, so most of our communication was
in detailed letters. Fortunately, I still have a few letters to remind me of things in our
lives that I had been long forgotten. It was around this time that I finally wrote a “Dear
John” letter to my former girlfriend, June, in Jacksonville. Like many high school
romances, life’s circumstances led us in different directions and we were only having a
relationship that consisted of fading memories.

I never saw a tornado during my 8 months in Oklahoma. When I first arrived, I was told
that a big hailstorm had shattered many of the roof tiles a few years earlier. At
Stillwater, I gave my first blood donation and appeared on the radio for the first time
pledging my support for the Red Cross appeal. Each morning when Reveille sounded
in Bennett Hall, we jumped into our fatigues. It was often very breezy as we headed out
the door and lined up for roll call. The most unusual thing was the temperature and
wind were different almost every day. One day was very cold with a north wind, and
other days it was quite mild with a south wind. I could see why weather was such a big
thing there.

On the first floor of Bennett Hall was a serving line for our meals, and there was a
lounge area for relaxing and reading. In the corner, there was a place to watch TV. That
provided me with a unique experience to see weather broadcasts for the first time. The
station was Channel 4, WKY TV. The news was broadcast by John Cameron Swayze.
My first experience of watching television was when I visited my Uncle Clinton
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