F e a t u r e s
Under the Heat of the Texan Sun by Elisabeth Stewart
Whilst overseas tours are now relatively rare, they still do arise – here one lucky lady tells us of her experiences in Texas, and the challenges of settling back into the UK…
M
y husband, Steve, then an instructor pilot at Linton- on-Ouse, rang me at work.
“You will need to pack your suntan cream.” “What?” “Suntan cream. We are going to Texas! We’ve got the posting to Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls. I’m going to instruct out there.”
Five weeks later we flew from Brize Norton to America in a RAF VC10. We faced backwards, made our own entertainment and shared a sandwich. As we approached Dallas I was thrilled to see the tall glass high rises so familiar from the old TV soap. From Dallas we flew in a little prop plane to Wichita Falls. We rented a condominium and everything in it.
It was like living on a film set. The Texan oil men did wear big Stetsons and cowboy boots. The women were beautiful and always wore full make-up, even to a shopping mall. Women wore hose tights to work even when the temp hit 100 degrees which it often did in summer. Thank Goodness for air conditioning.
Wichita Falls was in ‘tornado alley’. This is a strip of land from Texas through Oklahoma and Kansas that the native Americans wisely avoided settling in because they knew the risks. There were sirens on every street. I was in the shower the first time it wailed.
14 Autumn 2010
I grabbed our passports and my jewellery box, and picking up a duvet, headed to the bathroom which had no outside walls, got into the bath under the duvet and waited for the all clear. It was exciting. We met our neighbours later and drank to our lives.
The British wives were given social security numbers so I got a job. I became a day receptionist at a private dining club, the University Club, which was on the 10th floor of a glass tower block. In Wichita Falls where there were only fast food chains and the occasional family-run steak house, the rich paid to eat differently. Members paid $50 for the privilege of walking through the door to be greeted by me, and then they had to pay good money for European type food. I’m sure I got the job because I had an English accent and was a novelty factor although at the end of three years I drawled like a natural born Texan. At the interview they announced that after a year’s work I would get five days paid leave which they called a benefit. Coming from twenty-five days leave and flexitime, I called it a shock.
In July of that first year our beautiful condo was
www.raf-ff.org.uk
flooded out after a spectacular Texan storm. When I walked home thigh deep in water, the second time, we moved to higher ground. The first thing we did was put up an above ground pool and we had some great parties but in retrospect I think it was the English love of the idea of a pool that made us dig the hole and erect the monster. It was a temperamental creature whose chemical balance had to be monitored daily or you had a tub of green slime.
My closest friends were Ro, the wife of another British exchange pilot and Lyn, a nurse, who along with her husband had emigrated to Wichita Falls. The six of us became like family. We girls would meet up after work to play racquet ball before jogging to our local bar for something refreshing. Lyn bought a ski boat
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56