This Ship to Port

I remember when the ship was returning to port the rumors would start to fly! The wives would be on the phone lines and calling over the fences, saying they’d heard the ship would be in on this day or that day. My Dad told my Mom from the very beginning – don’t listen to any of the rumors of when we’ll make port. When you spot us on the horizon, we’re coming in!

There was a reliable network out there that DID let the families know when the ship would be docking and my Mom would prepare us once she had heard the straight skinny.

Greeting the ship was a big affair for the families – usually the ships had been gone at least 8 months if not more than that. Neighborhood activity would become a blur! There was a rush to make sure the house was ship-shape and Bristol-fashion, of course, and good clothes to be laid out and good shoes to be worn down to the dock to greet the incoming sailors.

My Mom always looked awesome in a dress she would have made herself and her high heels. Don’t smile – all the wives dressed up for the ship coming in! We children were all in our Sunday best. It would be so hot sometimes out on the dock – sometimes we waited half a day, even longer, for the ship to steam in, tie up, and have the gangways attached! The sailors would all be lined up on the deck (at least those who weren’t steering and braking, anyway!) I would look and look for Daddy and I could never spot him! Dave would spot him almost right away! He would point him out to me and Mom – she would see him, of course, but to me it was just a sea of faces in whites and khaki!

I remember vividly one time when my Mom just fainted away from the heat. The other wives around us never missed a beat – they picked her up, sat her down on the big telephone poles laying down that lined the dock perimeter – and went back to waiting for their men! Dave, of course, was all set to get a corpsman, but Mom waved him off and told us both she was fine – just warm. I have to laugh when I think about it – even then my Mom was drama-free!