School was in walking distance. There were no such thing as snow days. Our parents equipped us with snow boots, hats, scarves, and gloves to endure the wintry elements. I recall walking over a foot bridge that spanned a small creek. This was the half point between school and home.
We crossed the major road into Schilling and across which the school stood under the watchful eye of a Saline County Sherrif's deputy. To me, it was reassuring to see a strong male presence watching over us. There just were not a lot of adult men around Schilling. We got to know them by face, the friendly ones and and the stern ones. Nevertheless, they were always a welcome sight.
Having attended Catholic schools up to then, it was a real treat to attend school that had a gym with basketball hoops, volley ball courts, and plenty of athletic equipment. I recall being introduced to tether ball, soccer, volley ball, and softball during recess which always encompassed athletic activities.
There was plenty of educational media to accompany our books. We must have watched educational film strips several times a week. Once a week, an art teacher came in as well as a music teacher who pushed in her portable piano.
I have to say that these were my happiest days of attending school. Very little peer pressure, great teachers, abundant resources. I could not wait to get to school in those days to be greeted by the warm and friendly smile of our teacher as we entered class.
Such idyllic surroundings made it easy to forget that our fathers were in far away places, some in greater proximity to harm's way than others. That was until we would head home and occassionally see an official military vehicle parked in front of a home. The assumption was that the officials who arrived in that vehicle had bad news to convey. Most of us would just keep walking quickly past the vehicle. I recall that I actually had a classmate whose father did not return alive from Viet Nam. She did not finish the school year with us.
On occasion, I would come home to find my mother somewhat preoccupied. Eventually, I came to realize that this preoccupation was the result of hearing that Tan San Knut had been the target of another rocket attack and that U.S. casualities had been incurred.
Tomorrow, more on how the "waiting wives" supported each other.
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Very interesting that your school had all those resources, I'm very happy for you! Mine did not, I wonder if we went to completely different schools, or if it was due to us being there at different times? I was in the 6th grade at the time, we were among some of the first families to move in to Schilling "Manor."
ReplyDeleteI need to say a very large and heartfelt "THANK YOU!" for your blogs on this!
I was at school when bad news came to our street. My brother was home. All of it took a toll on mom.
ReplyDeleteI lived on Taylor Court from 1968 until sometime in 1970. My dad was an Army Sergeant who was assigned to the 1st AirCav in Vietnam. Military bases are segregated by rank, and all of the houses had a sign with the last name and rank of the military person whose family lived there. I don't remember anybody noticing or caring about rank, but most of my friends were enlisted kids because that is what made up my neighborhood. 12 months was the normal stay at Schilling Manor and by the time I left, all of my original friends had already moved on. There were a handful of long time residents whose dads were listed as missing in action. I never worried about my dad and the homecoming of my friends dads was a sad occasion for me because it changed the whole dynamic and meant that they would be leaving soon. Other than the housing area, Schilling had a sad, deserted look to it because of all the abandoned buildings that kind of made it feel like a ghost town. By modern standards, there wasn't much to do in those days but we were always occupied doing something. I remember being excited when I turned 13 and could join the Teen Club. They had Bingo, a juke box and some ping pong tables as well as organized events like pool parties. We spent hours skating to songs like "Itchycoo Park","Indian Reservation" and "Wipe Out" every Friday at the skating rink in Salina. There was also a department store (Well's?) in Salina where you could get the latest 45's and View Master reels. We watched "Land of the Giants" and "Star Trek" every week on one of the 3 or 4 TV channels. We always watched the evening news hoping to see our dads being interviewed in one of the reports from South Vietnam. The summer was sweet, humid and warm filled with baseball practice, sugary kool-aid, beautiful sunsets and the electric sounds of cicadas. Songs by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Steppenwolf,Tommy Roe and Johnny Cash could be heard on the radio as neighbors sat on open lawns and talked. There were no fences around the yards.The Youth For Christ always had fun events like retreats and horseback riding, many of which were held miles away from Schilling. I would save the money I made by mowing lawns and take the shuttle bus to Fort Riley. There was a huge PX there, making Fort Riley seem like the big city in comparison to tiny Schilling Manor. My friends and I would spend the entire day and all of our money on records, pinball and food at the Fort Riley snack bar. Other days we would ride our bikes all over the base looking for girls to impress. Sometimes we would ride to the airport tarmac and watch the sun go down amid the glow of emerging fireflies as the searchlight beacon slowly arced across the sky. I remember the terror of the tornado in 1969 and still consider it a miracle that no houses were seriously damaged. There was severe damage inflicted on the airport that was less than a mile down the road. I spent the most of the following day trying to extract our destroyed TV antenna from the roof. I expected the tornado to be reported on CBS evening news, but was disappointed when Walter Cronkite didn't mention a word about it. We spent several afternoons at the base theater watching everything from "The Green Slime" to "A Man for All Seasons". Those of us who lived at Schilling Manor experienced a unique sub-culture that very few others are even aware of.
ReplyDeleteI think we must have lived there at the same time. I remember a tornado hitting the base too as we huddled in our bathroom I knew we lived there around 1970 so perhaps we arrived in 69. Other than that I had good memories of living there.
DeleteI was there for that tornado! Scary! We drove around the next day and saw lots of damage. We would swim at the pool and we lived across the street from that creek where we would catch frogs . I liked it there.
Deletei remember a time when a tornado hit Schilling. I lived on the first street on the school side of Schilling at 156 Arkansas. The name of the street has been changed now. I remember waking up to find my mom walking down the hall and the lights were out. There must have been at thunderstorm that night as well with the flashes of light at the blinds at the window. That was the same night that the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang played at the post theater. In the morning, I believe our swing set was damaged because of the tornado and some planes were damaged at the airport
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