Thanksgiving 1972

Thanksgiving 1972 My family my husband Robert and son Scott 2 were living in Virginia Beach after my husband had re-enlisted in the Navy. He was stationed at Norfolk, VA on the carrier the Nimitz while it was being built. 

 It was Thanksgiving and we decided to go home to first pick up my mother Frieda Felberbaum and then onto Cleveland, Ohio to my sister Beverly. 

We had two cars at the time a new car and some old thing. For some reason we decided to take the older car on the trip. We went over to a friend’s house the day before we left, and a bunch of Navy guys worked on the fan belt and replaced and tightened it and the car was good to go. 

We packed up and left on our trip to Pennsylvania and then onto Ohio. It was cold and snowing. We were driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and suddenly, the radio went off and the heat went out. I said, “stop at the next gas station.” In those days gas stations had mechanics. But my hard-headed husband said No we’re fine. It was getting dark and Rob turned the car lights on and guess what they didn’t work. No heat and no lights and it’s dark and snowing. 

He pulled off the freeway, but it was on a connection which lead to another freeway very dangerous situation. He said, “stay here I saw a gas station not far I’ll bring a tow truck.” I put Scott on my lap and tried to keep him calm and warm and I didn’t know from one second to the next if a car was going to exit the off ramp and smash into us. No flashers and no lights. I don’t remember if he put up the hood of the car. I hope so. 

Then it happened lights big lights came up behind the car and I was terrified. I thought the car was going to ram us. But it was Robert to the rescue in the tow truck. They quickly hooked us up and took us to the gas station. I called my mother and told her we were going to be late, that we were fine I didn’t give her the details. Guess what the problem was the belt that all those guys had installed and tightened the day before had come loose.

 I don’t remember how long it took but when we were finally on the road again the snow had become a blizzard, but we made it to my mother’s safely. When we reached my mother, I was so glad to see her, and she told me how worried she was all night waiting for us to arrive. We stayed for about an hour and made our way to my sisters in Cleveland. 

When we finally reached my sisters house cold, tired, dirty and starving the turkey wasn’t done she didn’t know we would get there so early in the morning. We had to wait a couple of hours to eat. But it was worth it. I saw my sister and brother-in- law Dennis and my nephew Mark. We headed back to my mother’s in Erie stayed a couple of days and headed back on the road again.

 Thankfully we didn’t break down but when we reached Richmond we had to use the potty and needed gas, but I didn’t realize the cars lined up around the gas station was a mile long and the line to the bathroom longer. After finally reaching the potty I found out there was no gas. Thankfully, we barely made it back to our apartment in Virginia Beach. Maybe we stopped for gas along the way but I don’t remember. A Thanksgiving to remember. Linda Meckler, author copyright 2017