Sweetwater Reporter, Thursday September25, 1986 Page4A
he general's pants
abloidpage3
phoning, I reported that Landry
d Wood had arrived ("the lucky
ople,"saidKaddy) and what do we
next?
"Most of the new class are arriving
:s afternoon and will stay in town,"
me anofficial voiceover the phone.
"he cattle wagon will be in
,morrow topickyou up."
Not wanting to display my ignor-
ace I didn't ask what a cattle wagon
7s. Itsounded bothodorous andodi-
.s to me.
That shows what they think of
.y observed. "Cattle are we!
,oout andseethetown."
weetwater is a town of about
000 and it didn't take us long to
verwhatsocial and cultural oppor-
Cities it seemed to offer. We started
the Blue Bonnet Drugstore and
sed at the Blue Bonnet Drugstore.
here we met more girls who were
-waded for Avenger. Everone was
tting very gay and comparing
5 pries and playing "Do You Know?"
L ou find out where someone went
school or where they are from and
en say, "Oh, you're from the Uni-
-'sityofIllinois! Ihaveafriend who
askickedoutof therein'37!"
Chances are she will have had a
_ mate who once spilled a bowl of
soupinthelapofyourfriend, and you
are off to acozy companionship.
My previous work as a German
translator and as a Link instructor
seemeddullbesidetheoccupationsof
some of these girls. Little Verna
Turnerhad been a professional para-
chute jumper. Anna Kivimaki had
first soloed in the 1920's in one of the
old Flying Jennys. One of the Wasps-
to-be had been a powers' model,
anotheramoviestarlet.AHollywood
stunt girl and a radio commentator
were comparing the number of hours
theyhad. There was a goodly number
of schoolteachers, married women
and debutantes, but we all had one
thing in common.
As Rusty McLean put it, "I've just
got to get through this training and
I'mscaredtodeathIwon't!"
Rusty was redheaded and stocky.
With that bulldog chin of hers and her
eight hundred hours of flying, I was
willing to bet that she would get
through if all the rest of us fell by the
wayside.
All afternoon we got acquainted as
more and more girls entered town.
The Blue Bonnet was deluged with
blondes, brunettes and redheads
from Oklahoma, Montana and Geo-
rgia. From high school and college,
job holders and leisured ladies, by
train, car, bus andplane-they all con-
verged on Sweetwater.
"God Lord," said Kaddy, "I've
never seen so many women in one
place in my whole life; I'm gonna get
awful sick of seeing nothing but
females."
Far into the night the halls of the
hotel were filled with flying forms.
From one room to another the
Happy
graduation - WASPs "fly-up" and celebrate after receivingtheirwings.
maelstrom of conversationwhirled.
"How many hours do you have? I
have thiry-five in my log book but
confidentially I can't remember
being in the air more than twenty-
five."
"Someone told me we don't get off
the field for two weeks. Quarantine!
Nowwhatdotheythink we'regoingto
bringin? The Black Plague?"
"What will we fly first? Does any-
oneknow?"
Three o'clock and no let up. I fell
asleep with Kaddy describing a bad
case of buck fever in the woods of
Michigan. One thing was sure-no one
would ever be bored around these
people.
The cattle wagon, which turned out
to be a long G.I. trailer, picked us up
next morning at eight sharp and roll-
ed the three miles out to Avenger
Please see
Tabloid page 5
SALAD
BAR
ALL YOU CAN EAT
For
2.9
SALAD WITH MEAL S199
TryThe Mexican or Bar-B-Q
DinnersAt
UNION 76
TRUCK STOP
1-20 & Hopkins Rd.
235-5662
Restauran
-~ 1
THE
SHAIMROCK
LIQUOR
WELCOMES
FIFINELLA
JUNE & LARRY PANZER
PH. 915/235-1464
1710 LAMAR
SWEETWATER, TEXAS 79556
t
r
