Tales from WannaBea Farm

I was sitting up straight at my desk, my bare feet dangling, as I listened raptly to my first grade teacher explaining to us about the USS Texas. They were bringing her home, but there was not enough money to build her a wharf, so they (whoever “they” were) were asking Texas school children to donate change from their lunch money to build this great ship a home, and afterward we would be able to go through it. Wow, this was like a dream come true for me, as I loved ships, I loved watching them as the tug boats pushed them up and down the ship channel near where I lived, dreaming about the places they had been and were going, and wishing I could go too. I wasn’t one of those kids that wanted to run away and join the circus. Oh no, ever since I had seen a movie with a Navy Wave in it I had wanted to grow up and join the Navy. (But unknown to me at that time, this was a dream that would never be, as I would never be able to reach the height requirement.) Now my teacher was telling me that all I had to do was give some of my lunch money and I would be able to explore this ship.

“Daddy, Daddy”, I was yelling, as soon as my stepfather pulled into the driveway. Jumping up and down, spinning around like a whirling dervish and trying to tell him about the USS Texas. Grabbing me up in his arms, he laughingly told me to calm down. But I was so excited and so full of questions that the teacher couldn’t answer. “Come on in the house and let me get settled and then we’ll talk”, Daddy said. So I followed him into the kitchen and sitting down at the table he asked me, “Now, what about this ship, what do you want to know about it.” “Everything”, I answered. I was convinced that he knew everything about ships as he had served in the Merchant Marines, and he didn’t let me down.

So he began telling me what he knew about the Texas. It seems that when she was built, she was the most powerful weapon on earth, the first battleship to launch an aircraft, the first US battleship to mount anti-aircraft guns and the first ship in the US Navy to use radar. The USS Texas was the first battleship to be built with a laundry and the first to show talking movies to the crew. She was the first ship to fire her guns at Normandy on D-Day and she was also at Iwo Jima, in fact she was the only US battleship to see combat in Africa, Europe and Asia. She saw combat in both WWI and WWII. In this already long career she only had one fatality in action and was considered a lucky ship. From 1927 to 1931 she had been the flagship of the US Navy. He also explained how all battleships were named after states, other types of ships named after cities and how the USS never used periods after the letters.

“Okay”, I said, finally satisfied with his explanations, “I’m going look for soda bottles to cash in for the Texas.” I looked for bottles, I wheedled neighbors out of bottles, and I cashed in at least one bottle every day for months. I sneaked food from the house for my lunch and gave my lunch money to the USS Texas fund. Walking to school, except when it rained, I was able to give my bus fare to the Texas.

On April 20, 1948 the battleship Texas arrived at the San Jacinto Battleground State Park and the next day, San Jacinto Day, 112 years after the Battle of San Jacinto, the USS Texas was decommissioned and turned over to the state of Texas where she was immediately commissioned as the flagship of the Texas Navy.

The next day my teacher passed out large envelopes to all the children, and even though my reading wasn’t great at that age, I could read enough to understand what was in my envelope and I let out a blood curdling scream, but it was a happy scream and I was crying so hard I could hardly understand what the teacher was saying as she explained the contents to us.

There was a certificate thanking me for my donations and bestowing upon me the rank of “Honorary Admiral in the Texas Navy”, along with a lifetime pass for admission to the Battleship Texas.

Now sometimes when my Navy veteran husband wants to disagree with me about something, I just look up at him and say, “At ease, sailor, I outrank you!”