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

The Inspiring Women of Lakewood Drive by Sarah Raplee McDermed

It was only while thinking about the women who helped shape my character that I realized most of them were not famous. Most of them were women I knew personally while growing up.

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Foremost was my mother, Catherine Raplee, who demonstrated strength, competence and independence from my earliest memories. 

My father was an aspiring commercial pilot, which meant they had to move thousands of miles from her family for him to attend flight school and then work as an air taxi pilot in Oklahoma. Mom had to adapt to the fact that Dad wasn't home some nights, and that we all depended on her to handle things without him. She gained confidence in herself and her abilities during those early years.

Pan Am Logo

Later, when Dad landed a job as a pilot for Pan American World Airways, Mom would "keep the home fires burning", sometimes for a week or ten days. This was before the advent of cheap international phone calls, Facetime and Zoom. Sometimes Dad wrote letters or sent postcards from exotic locales. We couldn't afford international calls.  Mom had to help three kids adjust to their Dad being away for extended periods.

During those years we lived on Lakewood Street in Sunnyvale, California. Many of the husbands in the neighborhood were in the Navy. My friend Stephanie's dad was stationed on an aircraft carrier. He was at sea for most of the year. Stephanie's mom was on her own with four little kids. I learned some important lessons. Count your blessings! And women can handle difficult situations on their own with strength and grace.

When Dad was laid off from Pan Am, he went to work for World Airways, a non-scheduled airline, and was gone for weeks at a time for less pay. Mom earned money taking care of the neighbor's two little kids while both of their parents worked. 

I was about eight years old when Mrs. King from down the street lost her baby. Me and Stephanie felt so bad for her that we made cookies and took them to her. She thanked us and invited us inside to share them with her. I never forgot how she was strong enough to be kind to two little girls during such a difficult time.

New neighbors moved in next door. They were a young couple with a couple of little kids. The mother was in a wheelchair because of a hunting accident when she was twelve. She was shot in the spine. She managed the house very well, but her four-year-old was a handful. When he would climb onto the fence, his mom called my mom for help getting him down. She had the strength to ask for help when she needed it.

My dad was re-hired by Pan Am when I was ten. He was stationed on Guam in the Marianas Islands, so we packed up and moved nine-thousand miles away. We lived in the village of Tamuning in a hillside  neighborhood of concrete block houses overlooking my school. 

In a whole new neighborhood of inspiring women!