The year was1951. The 22nd Amendment limiting a president to a maximum of two terms was passed by Congress, movie audiences were enjoying “The African Queen” with Humphrey Bogart and Kathryn Hepburn, “The King and I”opened on Broadway, and popular songs were “Getting to Know You,” “Come On-a My House,”and “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine.”Also, that year electric power was first produced from atomic energy, color television was first introduced in the United States, and the TV show “I Love Lucy”began its long run.
In April of1951, Don, now being eighteen, was returned to B Company, First Motor Transport Battalion, in Korea. We were not in a war when Mom and Dad signed the consent for Don to go into the Marines. There was still no war as far as our government was concerned, only a “police action.” But the bullets being fired were still lethal, and for a second time Mom and Dad went through the anxiety of having a son in a “shooting war.” Don remembers his time in Korea as being relatively uneventful, but still an impressive period in his life. He returned home just before Christmas.
It was this year that Mary and Roy and their children visited Mom and Dad on their farm; they were on their way to Roy’s assignment at an airbase near Topeka. Mary remembers they had trouble finding them out in the country. It had rained and there were large puddles of water, almost a small flood. They were almost there when they saw ahead of them a little Ford with two young boys driving. in a manner that teenage boys have driven since the vehicle was invented. The little Ford almost turned over when it turned the corner. When Mary and Roy got to the folks’ place, they discovered the two boys in the Ford were Clifford’s and Helen’s sons Clyde and Darrel.
After Mary and Roy unloaded. their car, the two boys took Mary’s children on a tour of the place. None of the Plog children had been on a farm much, and they were intrigued with the chickens, the horses and the barn. Janice was then five years old and was particularly pleased to find an egg in a nest. All the eggs she’d seen before had come from the grocery-store in a carton. One of the boys made a suggestion.
“Oh, put it in your pocket and take it to Grandma.”
Janice did put it in her pocket and started for the house, but of course when she got the egg to her Grandma it had broken and was a sticky mess in her pants pocket. When Mary came back to the kitchen Mom was being very sympathetic and was helping Janice clean up the mess.
“Those mean old boys, telling you to put it in your pocket. They were just playing a trick on you.”
Mom was for the underdog and always had special place in her heart for the very young. Mom could drive horses, and in her early years of marriage she at times had a horse and buggy for her own use. But since the ill-fated driving lessons back in 1926, Mom refused to try to drive a mechanized vehicle.
But now in the fall of this year, all their sons and daughters having grown up and left, Dad needed help with shucking the corn. He wanted Mom to drive the tractor while he did the shucking, but he had to make full use of his powers of persuasion to get her up on that tractor. She finally agreed, but reluctantly.
The tractor had a foot speed and a clutch, and Dad showed her how to put it into low gear. She finally mastered that after a few nervous mistakes on her part and control of his caustic tongue on Dad’s part. She’ drive the tractor slowly along the rows while Dad took care of shucking the ears of corn.
Clifford was there one day when she was operating the tractor, and he thought he would help by showing her how to shift from second to low. She wouldn’t listen.
“No, don’t tell me about that! I know as much as I want to know right now.”
And that’s as far as she ever got in her mastery of the tractor.
In1952 King George of England died and was succeeded by his daughter Queen Elizabeth II, Dwight D. Eisenhower resigned as Supreme Commander in Europe and was elected President, the movie “High Noon” with Gary Cooper a d Grace Kelly won the Academy Award, and the first hydrogen bomb was exploded by the United States at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific. That year popular songs were “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” a 6-ounce can of Minute Maid frozen orange juice was 19 cents at Safeway, Jello pudding 7 cents, and one pound of Nob Hill coffee76 cents, Don participated in an atomic explosion exercise in Nevada, and Mom and Dad made a trip to California.
It was at Camp Desert Rock in Nevada on May 1, when Don was one of 4000 Marines taking part in one part of a series of atomic tests at the Atomic Energy Commission Proving Grounds. After witnessing an atomic explosion, the Marines then joined in the mock assault on an objective near the center of the atomic impact area. According to an article that appeared in the Neodesha Register: “The exercise includes training in operations employing the use of atomic weapons, the handling and use of equipment exposed to an atomic explosion, and the newest developments in physical protection.” Don, then a Corporal, was a member of a provisional battalion of Marines from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, which along with another battalion from Camp Pendleton, California, was flown to the desert site to participate in atomic attack problems.
In the summer of this year Dad and Mom made their first trip back to California to see their children living there. They drove by their old place, the first land they’d owned. It was now a vineyard again.
During the twelve years the folks had lived in California they’d never gotten over to the ocean, so Bud and Delma drove them over to the coast. It was quite warm in the San Joaquin Valley, and Bud warned them to take a jacket or sweater along.
Dad said, “I didn’t bring a coat. As hot as it is, I thought a coat would be the last thing I would need.”
Bud lent him a jacket to take along. Dad still couldn’t believe he would need it.
Both Dad and Morn were fascinated by the ocean. Bud remembers Dad walking up and down the beach in amazement.
“I Inever thought I’d see the day I’d have to wear a coat in July in California!” ·
Bud and Delma also drove the folks up to Seattle to see us that summer. Dick and I, along with two-and-a-half-year-old Rickey, were living in the town of Bellevue, across the floating bridge from Seattle.
One day in particular stands out in my mind about that visit. We all went down to the Seattle waterfront (Seattle being on Puget Sound), and Dad was very intrigued by it all. One of the things we observed was the unloading of fresh salmon. After watching for a time Dad suggested that we buy one to take home for dinner that night. He had always liked fish. It was still early in the day, and I was afraid it would spoil as we had no means in the car of keeping it cool. He agreed, but I knew he was disappointed.
That evening, when we got home, I made a quick trip back to the grocery store, without a single inspiration about what to have for dinner. I was delighted to find the store had just gotten in fresh salmon, very possibly from the same lot we saw unloaded. I’d never cooked a whole salmon before and I’ve never considered myself a talented cook, but I went home, exhibited my fish to Dad, and nervously got out my Fannie Farmer cookbook. I baked the fish according to directions and dinner was just a little late, but no one seemed to mind. That salmon was absolutely delicious, and I hoped my reputation as a cook went up a little in Dad’s mind.
In 1953 Dwight D. Eisenhower was inaugurated President of the United States, Elizabeth II was crowned Queen of England, Russia’s Stalin died and was succeeded by Malenkov, the U.S.S.R. exploded a hydrogen bomb, and the Korean armistice was signed at Panmunjom an c United States and South Korea signed a mutual defense treaty. Also, that year popular songs were “1Doggie in the Window,” “I Believe,”1 and “Stranger in Paradise,”the film “From Here to Eternity” won an Academy Award, and cigarette smoking was reported to cause lung cancer.
It was also this year Dad and Mom decided they no longer wanted to farm. Dad would be 65 in April and Mom had turned 64 the previous November. They no longer had the energy for the hard work they had done in their earlier years. They sold the eighty-acre farm and bought a house in west Neodesha.
They had lived in the house only a short time when the refinery decided to expand and bought them out. They purchased another house on the northeast side of town. Joanne Hutchison often visited her grandparents there. She commented in a letter to me:
“1The house is on a double lot with room for a large garden. It has a screened porch that has a porch swing. A brick sidewalk goes out to a garden area. Grandma soon had it filled with many varieties of vegetables, as well as flowers. One plant I had never before was a succulent called ‘Hen and Chickens.’ This must have been Grandma’s first experience with indoor plumbing. She must have felt sure there had to be an odor because she always had the bathroom window open, ‘just in case,’ even in the winter.”
In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against segregation by color in public schools, Senator Joseph McCarthy continued his witch hunt but was formally censured by Senate resolution, Billy Graham held evangelistic meetings in New York, London and Berlin, popular songs were “Three Coins in the Fountain,” and “Hey, There,” Europe and America were becoming concerned about fallout and disposal of radioactive waste, and the inoculation of school children with Dr. Salk’ s polio serum was begun in Pennsylvania. That year the United States contained six percent of the world’s population but had 60 percent of all cars, 58 percent of all telephones, 45 percent of all radio sets, and 34 percent of all railroads, and Family Circle magazine sold for 5 cents, New York Steak for 58 cents a pound and Nob Hill coffee for 87 cents. The postwar economy was good.
Don had spent the previous two and a half mostly uneventful years at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. His enlistment was up in March, and he was discharged.
Don chose not to go directly home, and instead went to visit a buddy in Syracuse, New York. He got a job there with the Carrier Corporation, but after about a month he became restless. He quit the job and went home to Neodesha, Kansas.
Don describes himself then as the proverbial “fish out of water.” There was very little employment available at that time in the Neodesha area except for seasonal and menial jobs. After about three weeks he reenlisted and was sent back to Camp Lejeune. He was 21, and he was still bored.
Don says of that period:
“After a short period, I applied for acceptance into the embassy guard program. I was accepted, and reported to Headquarters Marine Corps in Washington, D.C. for training. It was, in a way, tougher than boot camp. After twelve weeks of indoctrination, training and physiological testing, I graduated. The attrition rate of the trainees was about 50 percent. On Christmas Eve, 1954, I reported in at the American Legation in Reykjavik, Iceland.”
It was this year also that I visited Kansas with my two young sons, Ricky and Jamie. Rick was four and a half and Jamie just one year. I already had our date of departure set and tickets bought when Ricky came down with chickenpox. Rick recovered, and we waited out the incubation period for Jamie but he didn’t get chickenpox and the doctor said he undoubtedly wouldn’t. So, we boarded the train in Seattle for the trip to Kansas.
Jamie became very irritable and fussy on the train, and by the time we debarked in Topeka he was breaking out in a few spots. I’ve often wondered how many children he exposed as we came across country, as the chickenpox germ is airborne.
We sat out the worst of Jamie’s illness in Topeka with Goldie and John. There was a tornado watch on at the time, and I remember sitting with Jamie on the front porch swing and listening on the radio for tornado warnings. One was headed for Topeka, but it swerved and we were out of its path.
From Topeka we went to see Mom and Dad in Neodesha. Jamie was still irritable from the pox and cried more than was normal. Mom and Dad were sympathetic and· helpful, and Dad even made a special trip to town to buy some cornstarch to add to his bathwater as Mom thought it might soothe the itching.
It was only later I was told the two of them were made very nervous by Jamie’s crying. I was hurt then, but now having reached and passed their ages of 1954, I can understand their reactions.
One of Ricky’s favorite places to play when we were there was on and around Dads tractor. My son was completely “mechanized”and loved to sit in the seat and “pretend drive” it. I think Dad was gratified to see his grandson’ s interest in the vehicle and gave him permission to sit on it as long as someone kept an eye on him. On a couple of occasions Dad gave Ricky a ride for a few blocks on the tractor.
The folks had a large garden, and Mom told me Dad was working seasonally for a nearby farmer, for the money, and also to pay in to Social Security.
After visiting with Flossie and Oran a few days, my boys and I went to Oklahoma to stay for several days with Lois and her husband Glenn and their children on their ranch. One day Glenn was going into town and came in to ask if Lois needed anything.
She mentioned one or two grocery items and then added:
“10h, yes, I need a sack of chicken feed.”She paused and began to laugh. “And also, a dozen eggs.”
In 1955 President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack, the United States Air Force Academy opened, atomically generated power was first used in the United States, Albert Einstein died, and “Sugar” Ray Robinson won the world boxing championship. Also, that year the musical comedy “Damn Yankee” opened in New York, rock and roll music was born, and popular songs were “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” “Davy Crockett,” and “Rock Around the Clock.”
Before Don left the States the previous year, he had bought a new 1954 Ford sedan. All the time he was gone he sent money home to the folks to make the payments, as well as bank savings, which Dad did.
Before Don left, he also told Dad to drive the car, but Dad never did. However, he would periodically back the car out of the shed and run it for a few minutes to keep it charged, but he preferred driving his own vehicle, just because it was his probably.
Don spent the whole of 1955 in Iceland. He remembers it as “uneventful but interesting.” But Don was young and wanted adventure, so he put in a request for duty behind the Iron Curtain, little knowing what that duty would bring.