Summer in Florida could honestly be called tropic. Although it did cool down somewhat during the evening and night, heat and humidity made the days rather uncomfortable. It was easy to understand why there was very little tourism from June through October. Although the few hotels that remained open were air conditioned, most places were not. Florida had not yet embraced the comforts of air conditioning. It was far too expensive to purchase and run. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, President of Eastern Air Lines, did not believe in a/c, and told us all that it was unhealthy. Frankly, Capt Eddy was a tightwad and could not bring himself to spend the money. He did, however, have a supply of salt tablets by every drinking fountain.
On my first summer in Florida, I was introduced to hurricanes. All I knew about Hurricanes was from an old Bogart film called "Key Largo". The one that hit us that summer was a close relative to the one in the movie. When Eastern knew it was coming, they evacuated our aircraft to the North. They informed us that all the married men and home owners could go home to board up their homes and be with their wives and families. They asked for a few volunteers to stay at the airport for security reasons and to answer phone calls from people trying to leave Miami. The main terminal building was new, but on either side there were wooden fingers where the gates for incoming and departing flights were located. Fred and I volunteered to stay along with four or five others.
I had taken my old Ford and pulled it under the roof of one of the fingers, where I hoped it would be safe. When the storm hit, it was wind and rain with such force that the wooden fingers began to come apart. The wind was howling so badly in the terminal that we felt sure it was going to collapse. I remember looking out at the runway and it looked like an ocean with waves coming in and crashing against the building. As the eye of the storm passed overhead, it became very quiet and still. You could look up and see the moon in the sky.
We all went outside to look around. Just down the street, about four or five blocks away, was a little coffee shop with the lights on. I decided that I would see if it was open and get some coffee for all of us. It was open, so I got several cups of coffee which the owner put into a box for me to carry. I had walked back about two blocks when the eye of the storm disappeared and the winds returned in full force. I grabbed hold of a telephone pole as the wind almost blew me down. The box of coffee disappeared into the wind and I was about as scared as I had ever been. I managed to get back to the terminal, mostly on my hand and knees, soaking wet, with a lesson learned: never go out in the eye of a hurricane.
The old Ford survived (unfortunately). It had a few extra dents and scratches along with a cracked windshield, but it was running. Fred and I decided to drive into Miami and look at the damage. I recall Burdines store windows had broken open, with clothing and manikins laying in the street. Some streets were impassable because of the debris. Miami was like a ghost town. No people, no police, just a lot of destruction where ever you looked. We decided to just get out of there and drive back to Miami Springs. When the airport reopened, the employees were full of stories about roofs gone, trees down, flooded houses, broken windows and children crying of fright. Hardly anyone had storm shutters or even hurricane insurance in those days. It was quite an introduction to the fury of Mother Nature.
Summer passed into fall and the tourists started to return. I had been dating Helen Oliver for more than six months and I asked her to marry me. Helen was a divorcee; she had been married to a man who was an American seismologist, working for the Venezuelan Government, searching for oil in Venezuela. She had worked for the American Embassy, in Caracas. When the marriage broke up, she came to Miami where she got her divorce. She then obtained a job at Eastern Airlines where we met. We were married in February, 1951.
It was a very busy winter; Eastern was now flying the Super Constellation, the L1011, with 64 passengers. They started "Economy Coach Service" with flights flying out of New York and Miami around midnight and arriving in Miami or New York at 7 AM in the morning. The fare was only forty four dollars one way. Flights were crowded and we had to have a midnight to 8 AM shift and a 3:30 PM to midnight shift to handle the new schedules. The daytime flights were sold out as well. We often had as many as 1000 people on our standby lists trying to get on a flight home.
Life with Eastern was good and I was happy that I had decided to remain there rather than returning to United. It certainly was giving me a great deal of airline experience and I was looking forward to the future.
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