Wichita Falls

It was late afternoon on September 24, 2013 when we arrived in Wichita Falls, Texas. I have not been back here since 1945! World War II and the US Army Air Corps brought my parents, Ted and Evelyn Heyer, from Brooklyn, NY to Sheppard Field Air Force Base in 1942. They had been married 10 years and had no children. They settled into a home off- base at 1625 Elizabeth Avenue and to a military way of life, seemingly immersing themselves into this community.Ted was an officer; his job was training and intelligence in the Air Corps, as it was known then. Much to his disappointment, however, he was never deployed overseas; he was considered too old at the time - 34 to be exact. Sometime during their stay, my mother found out that she was pregnant They always told me how thrilled they were to be having a child after 11 years of marriage. (I've always chosen to believe that was true.) So, very early in the morning on the 24th of December, 1943, I was born at the base hospital. Unfortunately for my mother the doctor never appeared and the nurse delivered me. (May not have been the most pleasant experience for a woman in 1943.)

Being an officer, my father enjoyed some privileges not available to enlisted men. I had a nurse, Mama Barner, who helped my mother care for me. And my parents belonged to the Wichita Falls Country Club where they enjoyed access to golf, tennis and the pool. The pool was probably a welcome relief to what they had described to me as times of oppressive heat, causing people to sleep on cots in their backyards. No air-conditioning back then!

Well, here I am approaching 70 and returning to a place of which have no recollection, having left at the age of two, and only know from stories told to me by my parents and pictures in an album. I had found that the house on Elizabeth still existed by searching Google Maps.(Cheers to technology!) So that was our first destination - to find the house. It was easy, again using the blessings of GPS. There it was, in front of me, the small stucco bungalow home that I had recalled only in photographs. It was no longer painted white and the neighborhood had obviously taken a turn for the worse. But there it was- the place to where my parents brought their new baby home, the place where my father returned when not on base.

From Elizabeth Avenue, we drove to the Wichita Falls Country Club to ask if they had a public dining room.  I had called on my cell phone to place that inquiry. They did not. So, I told my story about being born there and my parents living there during the war and enjoying the activities of the Country Club. And this led to an exception being made and an invitation to dine there later that evening. At 7:30 Terry and I ate at the renovated version of the Wichita Falls Country Club. We received a warm welcome from Ashley and Keith who told us that the club would be celebrating its hundredth anniversary next year. They were most interested in the copy of the photo I had of the club back in 1942. I promised to look for any more memorabilia at home and send copies.



The last place I wanted to see was the Air Force base which is now known simply as Sheppard AFB. Unfortunately, we could not get on base without a military ID or being related to someone on base. So I had to satisfy myself with a drive-by and a photograph of the entrance.

Later, when I get home, I will find some of the photos I have of this Texas town where I lived and post them on the blog for comparison. For now - having a chance to return to Wichita Falls after so many, many years gives me pause to reflect. Life would have been much different if my parents hadn't gone back to Brooklyn and raised me in Texas. Makes me stop & think of the roads not taken.