Living in the Philippines - Part 2 Arrival and First Months

TIA DC-8-63 at Clark AB

We left Overton, Nevada in late May of 1970, just as school was getting out. We flew from Las Vegas to Oakland. Uncle Vince got us from Oakland to Travis AFB (I think we spent the night first.)  Our flight left Travis at around 10pm (2200 - might as well get used to using military time. That is what was used for everything in the Philippine Islands (PI)).  We flew on a Trans International Airlines (TIA - aka Trash In the Air) stretch DC-8-63. The planned route was 5 hours to Hawaii, refuel, 5 hours to Wake Island, refuel, then 5 hours to Clark. The runway at Wake was partially closed for repairs so we could not put on a full load of fuel and ended up making a stop at Anderson AFB in Guam for gas before going on to Clark. Flying in a single class, stretch DC-8 is kind of like traveling in a Christmas wrapping paper tube with windows. We arrived mid-day two days after we left California (after taking in account crossing the International Date Line.) Since we were chasing the sun, all of the flight except the leg from Guam to Clark (about 3 hours) was in the dark. We were in pretty good shape when we landed at Clark in the late morning hours, but we all crashed about mid-afternoon. We spent the first night in a hotel just off base.

Fil

Dad had been in the PI for about 9 months already and had us a house just outside Clarkview gate. At that point we only had one car, the Plymouth Duster that was a bare-bones car. Three-on-the-tree manual transmission, am radio. It did have air conditioning. The house was a three bedroom, two bath house that would have fit comfortably in most suburbs in The States. Only thing that was different was the maids quarters in the back of the house. Many military families hired a local girl to help with cleaning and other chores.  Dad had hired Fil - short for Filipinas, as a temporary until Fil's sister was to become available. We liked Fil so much we kept her the whole time we were in the PI. She kind of became part of the family. In fact we paid her tuition at the University of the Philippines where she got her degree.

But I digress. Living off base did pose a couple of challenges. First, you had to be 18 to drive in the PI, and I was only 16 at the time.  I could drive on base with my Nevada license but not off. So the quarter mile from the house to the gate was a personal barrier.  Second, the car had a standard transmission. Dad had to teach me how to shift and drive before I was allowed to solo in the car. Third, off base water was not considered safe for drinking. It was okay for washing and bathing.  So we had water jugs that we would take to a water filling station just inside the main gate. The hoses looked like those at a gas station, only instead of gas  you got water. Every couple of days we had to go refill the jugs.

The first couple of months were pretty boring.  School was out for the summer, and we didn't know anyone, so we spent a lot of time reading books from the library. We did make a trip to Subic Bay once and about got lost on the way - heading for Bataan instead of Subic. We would go out in town (Angeles City) to eat and started buying some of the local crafts - mainly Narra wood (aka Philippine mahogany) items. I was in pretty good shape from running track at Moapa Valley, but there wasn't any convenient place to run, and it was hot and humid. So I read.

One of the things most people did in the PI was buy really good stereo equipment.  We could get top notch Japanese equipment duty free on base. So most people had a really good receiver, speakers, a turntable, and a reel-to-reel tape deck. (Cassettes had just come out and the sound quality was still kind of marginal on cassettes.)We had the receiver and speakers when I got there (receiver still works, by the way.) We got a tape deck and turntable that summer so we had something to listen to.

Quarters 2057 Clark AB

In late July we were notified that a house on base was available. I won't go into detail about how the housing list is set up other than to say it is based on rank, family size and length of time on the list. If you turn down the house  you are offered you go to the end of the list. UNLESS the house they offer is considered substandard (due to age, no air conditioning, whatever.)  We were offered a house that was built in 1904, substandard wiring, no AC, and we snatched it up in a heartbeat.

HQ 13th Air Force and flags from our front porch

The house was one of the original Fort Stotsenburg officer row houses. Set off the ground on concrete pilings it was on the parade ground right next to the Officers Club pool. The rooms where huge (Mike and I shared a room that was about 20' by 20'.) There was a tall, ventilated attic with corrugated metal roof, a screen porch that ran across the entire front of the house. There were vents along all of the walls at the ceiling and the floor. It had about 10 foot ceilings, There were ceiling fans on the porch and in all the rooms. There were bamboo shades on the screened windows on the front of the house that you could roll down when it rained so you could still sit out on the porch during the tropical downpours. (The shades to the right of the front door in the picture above are rolled down.) Huge Monkey Pod trees shaded the house. If there was any breeze at all, you felt it in the house. The place actually stayed pretty comfortable most of the time. It was within walking distance to the high school. Quarters 2057. This was like the BEST HOUSE EVER!!!

My sister, Sherri on screen porch
Note vents running on wall near the floor

There was one disadvantage of living on the parade ground. Every day at 1700 they would sound retreat, fire the cannon, and then lower the flags. (We had Admiral Boom from Mary Poppins in our front yard 😁) Anyone outside was expected to come to attention and face the flags. With both the US and Philippine national anthems being played, you were going to be standing there for a while!!!

We did get the two bedrooms that were on outside walls setup for window air conditioners - the master bedroom and Mike's and my bedroom.  We had to get plastic sheets to cover all the vents and Civil Engineers had to come install wiring circuits that could handle an air conditioner.  That was free so what the heck. All we had to buy was the window AC units.

We moved in August. You were limited on how much stuff you could ship to the PI from The States, so most of the furniture and the appliances were supplied by the Air Force. We bought some rattan furniture for the porch.  Somehow dad finagled a second fridge for the porch that we stocked with ice cream and toppings and sodas. We got a second car for Mom, and I was checked out on the Duster so now I had wheels! We were ready for school to start!