Page 11 - Amarillo Senior Link Magazine Fall 2019- Online Magazine
P. 11
WORLD WAR II
As anticipated, Dad got his draft notice and decided great schools and teachers. Our mom was a great
to sign on with the Navy. Farris, my grandfather, cook and always had a meal prepared for us. Her
had served in the Navy during WWI and explained chocolate pies were legendary.
to my Dad that he would at least have a warm place
to sleep at night. Not always the case in the Army or After finishing my degree at Texas Tech University in
Marines! 1971, my own young family moved to Amarillo. My
parents retired and moved to Amarillo soon after.
Following basic training, the Navy trained my Dad to Over time, my sisters and their families migrated
be a machinist. He was assigned to the USS Tennessee north to Amarillo as well.
that was back in service
after serious damage Our mother died in December
at Pearl Harbor the 2008 leaving a terrible void in
year before. My mother Dad’s life. He has lived at Park
wrote daily, but ship Central and now at Heartis
mail was intermittent Assisted Living Center the
and often delayed. After past 11 years. At age 97, his
one three-month delay, mind is sharp, and he is doing
my dad received a stack reasonably well physically.
of letters. Among them I check on him two or three
was news that my mom times a week, and we always
was pregnant with my enjoy great conversations.
older sister, Lynnita. From my perspective, I
She was born September know that I am what I am
15, 1943 while my Dad today because of my great parents. My father is a
was somewhere in the South Pacific. My sister was soft-spoken, true gentleman. I never heard him say
15-months old when my Dad finally got to come a curse word. He was slow to anger - although I
home on leave and meet her. His return to duty was tested him a few times! I rarely got a “busting”, but I
a difficult experience for my parents. assure you, I deserved it when it happened, and I am
When the war ended, Dad came home to Snyder, thankful today that he did that.
Texas where Mom and baby Lynnita were living As a kid, I recall being with my dad in downtown
with a sister and an aunt. Dad used his machinist Levelland and hearing incarcerated prisoners in the
skills to get a job, and the young family soon moved county jail hollering out the second-floor windows
to Lubbock. I came along in 1948, and my younger for someone to bring them cigarettes. We would walk
sister Patti was born in 1956. Dad was eventually over to the corner drug store, buy a pack of Camels
hired in the oil fields around Levelland, and that is and deliver them back to the jail. Lynwood Pirtle
where my sisters and I were raised. has indeed been a man who practiced his Methodist
My parents were active in the Methodist Church upbringing and affected many people in a very
where we attended every Sunday. Dad was a leader positive way. I am lucky to be his son.
in our church, a scout leader, and baseball coach. My
sisters and I agree that we were lucky to have been
brought up by loving parents in a small town with
Amarillo Senior Link 11
