IN FLORIDA, WITH EASTERN

The offer to remain in Florida with Eastern Air Lines rather than returning to United Air Lines, in San Francisco was not only a business career decision, but also a moral one. Although Eastern had picked up my salary and extra living expenses, United had continued my seniority. They had even sent me a one year pin along with a very complimentary letter about my excellent report from Eastern. They were looking forward to my return.

I found out that Fred, the other United employee, had also been asked to remain with Eastern. The two of us had a long discussion about the morality of Eastern approaching us behind United's back, and what the opportunities might be at either company. After much soul searching, we both decided to stay with Eastern. After informing our new employer, we each sent in a letter of resignation to United.

I had another personal problem: Mother, who was in San Francisco awaiting my return. In a long telephone call, I found that she was working with a pharmacy company, in San Francisco, and we agreed that she should stay there for now. As it turned out, she later met and married the pharmacist; but more about that in another blog.

Now it was time to reorganize our living arrangements. Dan, from Los Angeles, who had been working at the ticket counter, was returning to United with the remarks that Fred and I were not of sound mind for not going back. The biggest surprise was that George, from Seattle, our other co-renter, turned out to be gay; he was leaving to start a beauty salon with a gay friend he had met. Strange, but none of us had any idea that he was gay. That left Fred and me to find other accommodations. We found a great two bedroom apartment in Miami Springs; it was very close to the airport and came all furnished. So, now we were Eastern employees, Fred continued working in Terminal Control and I was in Reservations.

Eastern put me into a management training program. In effect, I was to spend time in all departments. It was April 1948, and Eastern was entering its slow period. This was great as I was able to get in a lot of training. My first assignment was airline accounting. This is where all the tickets picked up at the boarding gate were separated, by airline, and sent off to the Airline Reporting Corp. This company was responsible for processing all the tickets from all the airlines, in order to determine, which owed what. We also audited the money from the ticket counters, by agent, for accuracy, etc. Other departments were Departure Control, Flight Operations, Baggage Handling, Travel Agency Relations, Outside Sales, Ticket Counter, and Terminal Control where seat inventory was managed. Between assignments, I would return to reservations where we handled incoming reservations from the general public, from travel agents, and a special desk that handled calls from hotel concierges.

In the summertime, Miami and Miami Beach were almost empty cities. Hotels closed and boarded up for the summer. In Miami there were a few motels and only two hotels, the Columbus and the Everglades. On the beach, most of the hotels were in South Beach up to about 20^th Street. The big flashy hotels of today didn't start to come into being until the mid and late 50s.

One of my favorite places on the Beach was a bar owned by comedienne Martha Ray. Martha was often in attendance, when she was not making a movie or doing some TV show. She was very friendly and was just as funny in person as on the screen. Another place I enjoyed was a bar on the beach that featured twin pianos. I don't recall anymore who the performers were, but they were great. They would play for about twenty minutes every hour. They had a strict rule: no drinks served during their performance and no noisy conversations. No one minded the rule and the bar was packed every night.

I purchased a very used car. It was a 1939 Ford and not in very good shape. The Miami area had lots of canals and this was a very good thing; when the ford started to overheat I could pull up next to a canal and get some water for the radiator. The windshield also leaked when it rained, and I often ended up with very wet feet. In any event it was better than the bike I had been using.

I recall a funny story that I didn't think was funny at the time. I had just bought the car and decided that I would drive the car from Miami Springs to downtown Miami to go to the movies. As I came out of the movies, the bus that I used to ride on, was just stopping by the theatre. I ran for the bus and boarded; it was just about back in Miami Springs when I woke up to the fact that I was now a car owner and that my car was parked back in Miami. It was a long time before I forgave myself for being so stupid.

I had a number of girl friends, but nothing serious; the same for Fred. Although we were better paid than before, money was not plentiful, so a date often meant inviting a girl to the apartment, where we would listen to records and have a couple of beers. Many times a couple of girls came over and the four of us would cook dinner, and just hang out, having fun talking and joking. There were lots of girls working at Eastern, so most of the times these were the girls we entertained and hung out with.

It was about that time that a young lady came to work at Eastern. Her name was Helen Oliver.