About My Parents' Early Years

First, more about my really smart parents.

Both were born in New Orleans in 1926.  

My mother attended the St. Louis Cathedral School in the French Quarter.  A group of Mexican nuns taught at the school.  She attended Holy Angels Academy for high school.  Because New Orleans schools only went through eleven grades, she was 16 when she graduated first in her class with a 98 average.  Next came a significant event in her life.

My mother was awarded at least one scholarship to college.  The family physician, having seen her talent and intelligence, had promised to send her to medical school after she graduated from college.  Unfortunately, on the streetcar ride home from graduation, my grandmother told my mother that she couldn't go to college, that the family needed her to go to work.  The reason this was so significant (I would have been devastated!) comes next.

She sent to work for the family dentist, learning dental hygiene on the job.  She later also worked for an oral surgeon as an assistant.

I need to step aside briefly and tell you about my father.  He was raised Lutheran.  His mother was Lutheran and his father was Catholic, from the Irish Channel area of New Orleans.  My grandfather must have deferred to her in the raising of the children in the Lutheran tradition.

My father started elementary public school a year early, my grandmother having convinced the administration of the school that he was old enough to begin.  He also was talented academically.  I have a scrap of a newspaper account of the city spelling bee where he came in second, misspelling "thievery".  

He went on to attend high school at Jesuit High School in New Orleans.  I fondly remember him telling about being one of the few non-Catholics at the school and that while the Catholic students went to religion class, the non-Catholics received other assignments.  One year, his entire alternative assignment was to memorize and recite the Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge!  I can still hear my father reciting a portion:  

Water, water, every where,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, every where,

Nor any drop to drink.

He went on to study chemical engineering at Louisiana State University, entering at the age of 16, since he had started elementary school early.  This would have been around 1942, in the early years of World War II.

Here's a college portrait of Dad.

Around 1945 or shortly afterwards, at some point, he made the decision to join the Navy.  He went to Midshipmen School (what today would be called Office Candidate School).  Here is a photograph of him in his midshipman's uniform.

Before he went on active duty, his mother insisted that he go the family dentist ("You can't trust those Navy dentists!").  Can you guess that is how he met my mother?  The story goes that he was sitting in the dentist's chair, with the suction tube hanging off his mouth, took one look at the hygienist and said, "Hey, babe!  How about a date?"  (Only he and she knew how much of that story was true.)

So, if she had been allowed to go to college, she would never have met my dad!  She never said she had any regrets, but I can't help but wonder.

Dad had some interesting stories from his active duty years.  Once, they put to sea from Key West to avoid a hurricane, but instead were trapped inside the storm!  In other tale, they were sailing in San Francisco Bay when one of the propellers became fouled on an undersea cable.  He volunteered to dive into the cold water of the bay and free the propeller.  Here is a picture of him with the rest of the crew with his ship.  That's my dad in the officers' row, front and center.

After he satisfied his commitment for active duty, he returned to LSU to complete his degree requirements and, of course, continue to date the dental hygienist from New Orleans.  

Mom tells this story of a party he invited her to in Baton Rouge.  She stayed in a women's dorm and one of the girls going to the party was a pretty girl named Joanne Woodward!  Mom helped her with her dress which apparently needed a stitch or two taken in.  And, in case I've left any doubt, yes, she was THAT Joanne Woodward.

They married shortly after he graduated.  They were both just 22 when they married on August 8, 1948. Their wedding took place in her parents' home, officiated by a Catholic priest.  Her one sister and his one brother were matron of honor and best man.

After the wedding, 

 Their honeymoon involved traveling to Minnesota for a training course in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) Dad had to take as part of his first professional job.  I think this was with a company called Southern Heaters.  It was a long enough course that they remember the winter they spent in Minnesota.  Being from New Orleans, I often wonder how they dealt with the snow!