Monthly Archives: November 2017
Nursing offers a large number of career paths, the biggest difficulty is choosing the one you want. After graduation, I started work in a small hospital in a farming town in California. This hospital provided the experience I needed to know what I wanted and what I found is that I did not want to work here forever. I became restless with life in a small town, I was not ready to settle down with a family yet so I started looking at options. I picked up some brochures from different places but the one that really caught my attention was the one from the Navy Nurse Corps. I saw travel, excitement and a world I could only imagine. I was hooked.
Growing up my uncle had been in the Navy during and after World War 2. He kept my attention with stories from far away places and sent me a beautiful silk kimono from Japan and a hula skirt from Hawaii. I was the envy of every girl in school. Reverie over, with my heart beating wildly, I went to the Navy recruiter to ask questions and he said I had to see the Nurse recruiter in San Francisco. On my day off, I powered up my 1957 VW with max speed of 55 MPH and stick shift and drove from my home in Woodland, CA to San Francisco for more information. I found the recruiting office downtown and a parking place and strolled casually into the office like I was not a bit concerned. The recruiter was a very attractive, polished, dignified individual with a nice sense of humor. Perfect at her job. Before I left, I had most of the paperwork done for joining the Navy, including an eye exam and an appointment for a physical. It did not take a whole lot to get me interested. The paperwork was as complete as it could get before the physical. I even got to choose where I wanted to go and had a basic training class lined up in Newport, Rhode Island in October. Wow! I was excited. I had never been out of California, I had never seen snow fall, I had never been away from home except when I went to nursing school – in Sacramento. This would be a big step and I was excited. In about a week, I went back for the physical, passed it without problem and went back to see the recruiter. She swore me in and I was a very proud Navy Nurse before I ever saw a uniform, could not wait for October to come. It was late June of 1961.
The Summer dragged. I kept working but my heart was elsewhere. I bored my friends with Navy talk. They were ready for me to leave. When late September finally arrived, I had my car serviced, packed all of my earthly belongings, which fit with room to spare into the 1957 VW, and started my adventure across the United States by myself. I was too excited to be scared. Five miles from home, my car stopped running. I pushed it into the nearest station and the guy tweaked something to make it go again and I had no more problems with it. I got onto interstate 80 and headed east.
It took me five days to get across country. The west was easy, straight roads, not much traffic and easy sailing with clearly marked off ramps, visibility for miles and little construction. When I got to Chicago, things changed. Interstate 80 became a turnpike (toll road). It was like driving into a vortex. The speed increased, traffic increased, as did construction. Visibility was in car lengths rather than miles and construction became a way of life. Luckily, I stayed the night just out of Chicago so I was fresh for the drive because I drove for 24 hours through Indiana, Ohio and on to New York with out stopping except for gas and food. It sounds silly now but I was afraid to get off of the Turnpike. I did not see any motels from the road. One place, in New York that I stopped for gasoline, 4 large young men came up to the car and tried to pick it up and only succeeded in bouncing it around. I sat in there scared to death. The guy pumped the gasoline and I was out of there. I finally stopped in Providence, Rhode Island. I was very tired, hungry, and looked awful. Went to my room and discovered that the guy had given me a dirty room. I went back to the desk, yelled at the clerk something to the effect that I had driven a long way and I was in no mood for nonsense. He gave me a different room and free dinner. I went to bed and slept for hours.
It was a short run to Newport the next day. The country side was beautiful, lots of water, and bridges with the quaintness that the west does not have. A lot of traffic. It took me a few tries to get to Newport, It was a case of – I could see it but could not find the right road/bridge. I found the base, and settled into a motel for the last night of freedom. Navy basic would start in a few days.