Winter 1951/52 was very busy. Helen and I purchased a home in the Southwest Miami area. It was a nice 2 bedroom home sitting on a double lot, at 1625 S.W. 28th St. In those days this was mostly a farm area. The owner of the large farm across the street would often come by with corn and other produce he was growing. We purchased the home from the builder for $12,000. Would you believe this?
It was a hectic time at Eastern. Flights were full and often oversold. We had a special individual in reservations whose job it was to study the average number of no-shows on past flights and calculate how many seats we could sell, over capacity, in order to make up for the no-shows we had on every flight. In those days, there was no penalty for being a no-show; therefore, he would authorize the sale of additional seats over capacity. This was done for every flight. Often, even with over-sales, we would still have seats for stand-by passengers. On the other hand, when everyone showed up, we had very angry people ready to kill. All we could do was put them on a priority standby list or refund their ticket.
We counted tickets at the departure gate and when the tickets equaled seats, we stopped passengers from boarding. However, miscounts often resulted in having to go onboard the airplane and remove passengers who had no confirmed seat. You can imagine the problem and anger we encountered when trying to get someone to deplane. Only a few of us were authorized to handle these problems. It was up to management staff such as the Reservations Manager, District Sales Manager, etc to handle the tricky situation. It was not an easy task. The passenger would often refuse to get off or sit down in the middle of the aisle; some would even try to swing a punch at you. Our Reservations Manager had a good solution; he would hide in the men's room. When the season was over, he came to work one day and found a new Manager sitting at his desk.
It was good when the winter of 1951/52 was over. Then, in an effort to develop summer travel to Florida, Eastern came up with a special summer promotion called "Happy Holidays". We were able to convince a number of hotels on Miami Beach to remain open over the summer and we would promote special tours, using those hotels who would give it a try. We came up with a special $19.00 per person, plus airfare, for a 6 night vacation on Miami Beach. If you combined this with a roundtrip $88.00 per person coach air fare, a couple could spend the week on Miami Beach for only $214.00. This promotion was highly successful. Miami was on its way to becoming a year round destination. Miami was so appreciative of the Eastern Air Lines effort to increase tourism that they named a new causeway to Key Biscayne, the "Rickenbacker Causeway".
But something much more special was about to happen. On November 11, 1952, Helen presented me with a beautiful baby daughter, Kathryn Rae Kitchener. She was a very happy and healthy baby. Since Helen was going to continue work, we hired Mrs. Feeger, an English lady to take her for walks in her carriage and to take care of her every day. She just loved Kathy. We could not have had a better baby. I can hardly remember her ever crying. She sure was the joy of our life. She became "Punky", a nick name she still has today.
Unfortunately, Helen was having a very difficult time with the Florida heat. Our house was not air-conditioned; very few homes were in those days. The Eastern Airlines department where she worked was not air-conditioned either. After a number of visits to the Doctor and various medications that didn't work, he recommended that we find a cooler place to live. I approached the company to see if it was possible to obtain a transfer up North. Eastern was very accommodating and found that the Hartford Connecticut airport office was looking for someone who could handle flight operations and reservations. I soon found myself on a plane to Bradley Field, Connecticut for an interview with the station manager, Hip Loyd. I understood from those who knew him, that he was a very good manager and well liked. I hoped that he would like me.
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