The Summer that Changed Everything by Sarah McDermed

MAP OF GUAM copyright Google 2024

My tenth summer, the summer of 1963, my life took an unforeseen turn. We left our mostly typical suburban life in Sunnyvale, California, behind for one of adventure halfway around the world on a small island in the South Pacific.

My father, a commercial airline pilot, was hired by Pan American Airways to fly passenger seaplanes from Guam in the Marianas Islands to what were then the United Nations protected Islands of Micronesia. Flying for Pan Am was a big step up in his career, and Dad was familiar with Guam. He had served in the Marine Corps on Guam during World War 2 after American forces liberated the island.

Moving to Guam that summer felt like a grand adventure to us kids. We arrived six months after Typhoon Karen devastated the island. Many families who had lost their homes still lived in temporary one-room plywood shacks with canvas roofs.

ALEXANDER TUTORIAL CENTER

My twelve-year-old brother and I soon made friends with kids in the neighborhood. Our new friends told us harrowing stories about surviving the storm. They also introduced us to the nearby beaches of Tumon Bay, snorkeling in the warm salt water to watch colorful little fish swim among the corals and sea anemones. We learned to avoid stepping on sea urchins and stone fish in the tide pools, and which seashells had poisonous stings.

Jack and I spent a lot of time playing catch-and-release with the wildlife. There were giant African snails and toads, both unfortunately invasive species introduced by humans. The cute golden geckos, gorgeous green anole lizards and funny little hermit crabs were strange and endlessly fascinating. Jack and his friends caught coconut crabs at night. With claws so strong they could pinch off a finger, those crabs terrified me.

When Jack discovered the island was full of caves dug by the Japanese during the war, he took me with him to explore them. Mom and Dad taught us never to pick up any metal objects, bullets or grenades we found in a cave, but instead report them to a responsible adult. We also explored gun emplacements, or “pill boxes” on the cliffs above some beaches. World War 2 was very real to us.

SPANISH FORT

The Marianas Islands had been “discovered” and their Chamorro people conquered by the Spanish during the 1500s. Most place names were either Spanish or Chamorro. Old Spanish forts, bell towers, churches and other ruins dot the islands.

Guam was a melting pot of peoples and cultures, and still is. Anyone, no matter their race, who came from the continental US was a ‘Statesider’. Besides the native Chamorros (aka ‘Guamanians’), there were many ethnic groups living on our new island home: Filipinos, Chinese, Japanese, Palauan, Trukese, Ponapean, and more.

IMAGE FROM GUAM ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS

Back in our little slice of California, it had been Big News when a Black family moved in a few blocks over. There were a number of Hispanic families in the neighborhood and one Native American family, but that was it for integration.

That summer, I didn’t’ know it yet, but in the fall I would be the only Statesider girl in my fifth grade class. I didn’t know I would learn what it is like to be the girl whose hair everyone wanted to touch, the strange one, the odd one out. I didn’t yet realize that I belonged to a privileged minority. I didn’t know how living on Guam would be key to my becoming the person I am.

I didn’t realize that summer had changed everything. ~ Sarah