NEW JEWELRY 03/05/00

Subject: new jewelry
Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2000 01:06:54 EST

For someone who never cared much about jewelry, I am certainly decked out these days in a variety of bracelets - one for each visit to the hospital for testing.

Who would have thought that Mike’s name would come up several times during my hospital stints? Mike has lived in Australia for well over 25 years, but on both Thursday and Friday, someone at the hospital asked, "Mrs. Lockhart? Are you related to Mike Lockhart?" On Friday, it was someone who was getting a blood transfusion at the same time I was. On Thursday, it was a volunteer who asked John, who had headed over to the hospital to see how things were going and was a bit lost.

John was tickled to pieces that someone knew Mike from way back when. As soon as he tracked down Elsa, he hurried her up to the main floor. The woman who had asked was gone. That didn't stop John. He started searching and found her. It was Muriel Liney, who is director of Volunteer Service and had been married to Vartan Yardumian, a good friend of Mike's and a fellow crew member of the USS Enterprise.

Not as in Starship Enterprise. This Enterprise was the FIRST nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Like its namesake, it was the first of its class. As I understand it, the first ship of new class is traditionally called the Enterprise, dating from the Revolution or the War of 1812.

Mike joined the Navy in his senior year (1960), a weekend warrior during the school year, then full-time after graduation. The lucky fellow pulled the type of duty people dream of - serving on the "Big E" on her shakedown cruise. This is a big thing. As a member of her first crew, he is called a plank owner. As parents of crew member, Pete & I were invited to the commissioning at Newport News, VA. The Enterprise is as long as three football fields laid end to end. The commissioning ceremony was held in the hanger deck, which was huge. I was determined that we would see Mike, even though Pete pointed out that the odds were slim. I zeroed in on every tall, slender sailor and said, "There he is!" but it never was. Even I was losing hope when this tall sailor, way down the hanger, bent over and pulled up his socks. Many's the time I have seen Mike do the exact same thing, even in the middle of a crucial basketball game. Well, I stood up and wiggle-waggled my arms, so that he could see where we were and, sure enough, we did tag up after the ceremony.

After the official festivities were over and the ship was duly commissioned, we got down to some serious festivities. The town of Newport News threw the crew and its guests a real wing-ding clam bake. There was oysters and clams done several different ways (including a delicious clam chowder) and shrimp and fish. There was a HUGE cake that looked just like the Enterprise. Everyone had a great time. As much fun as it was, it was tough going to accept that Mike would be gone for many months.

Little did we know.

Mike ended up serving on the Enterprise during the Cuban Blockade (nothing like getting a call from your son who tells you he only has a minute and he can't tell you where he is going - very scary) and on two tours of the Mediterranean.

On one of the Med cruises, he and some of his crewmates went to the El Greco museum, I think in Toledo. Entering a room, he looked at a painting and casually mentioned his surprise that a museum would hang a reproduction. His buddies kidded him about being a hot shot "art expert," but he stood his ground. The guys were pretty impressed to read on the description, "This is a reproduction." They looked at Mike with newfound respect. None of them latched onto what the rest of it said - "The original hangs in the studio of the Rev. Theo Pitcairn, Bryn Athyn, PA." Mike was not about to volunteer the information that he had seen the original as part of a high school art appreciation class.

Being separated from the Navy almost killed Mike. Literally. He was discharged in Beirut. Sailors had to wear their dress blues at discharge, even if it was 104F in the shade (and there was no shade). As low man on the totem pole, Mike had to wait for the air transport to arrive to take him and the others back to the States. There he was, in his heavy dress blues, for I forget how many hours. He collapsed with heat stroke. He might have died if the Enterprise - with all its medical facilities - had not still been off shore; he was returned to the Big E and right into sick bay. The only thing that kept him from death's door was a whirlpool bath of ice cubes. I can understand why he detests cold weather and lives in toasty warm Australia.

Mike still loves travel. When he and Kerry were in here in 1997 for Scott's college graduation, the two of them traveled from Sydney to the West Coast to Philadelphia, then continued on the eastern route home, making them 'round the world travelers. He joined the Navy and certainly has seen the world!

Love to you all at this very late hour. Am off to my slumbers.
Love ~ Auntie Kay

reposted with sweet memories of its author, KATHARINE REYNOLDS LOCKHART, by her scribe/daughter, Elsa Lockhart Murphy aka DEEV