Rendezvous with Dick Day

Dick Day at  1965, NY World's Fair.

Photo by Don Lash

My Naval Reserve active duty ended July of 1965.  I was still a reserve and was required to fulfill my obligation by going to reserve meetings and our unit was activated two weeks every year. 

The Unit I belonged to in 1966  for the two week active duty went to Oceana.  Virginia   Oceana , Virginia, was not that far from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  My Navy  friend Dick Day was a radio announcer in  Harrisburg. 

I decided to arrange a weekend meeting.

Our unit's people did not drive our cars up and meet at Oceana - we flew as a group.  How I got to Harrisburg from Virginia I have no idea.  I know it was all planned.

In the barracks that we stayed at was one of the people that did the janitor work  that I had seen before.  I asked him was he from Marietta.  No.  I asked him was this his first duty assignment.  He said no, he was stationed in Lakehurst, New Jersey, with a helicopter squadron.  BINGO!   Then I remembered him.  Unfortunately, any name I asked about he didn't know - he just didn't keep up with names and seemed uninterested in people.  However, on the same base I ran into guy that was in our helo squadron that knew a lot of the same people I knew..... he was a boisterous kind..... drats - It is hard to pump information from that type too.... I think their favorite implied statement is "What does that have to do with me?"

I got to Harrisburg and met up with Dick Day and his wife Nancy and their daughter.  Also in the meetings was another Navy friend from Chicago, Don Lash.  Don arrived shortly after I did.  Dick and Nancy took us to a lobster house for dinner.

We stayed overnight  in their guest bedroom, which was mostly a storeroom in their basement.  T he first thing in the morning Don left.  He had plans in New York City.

I went to work with Dick in downtown Harrisburg.   When we arrive the person  that Dick was relieving showed us a  tape he was working on that he was proud of. 

On the weekend NBC Monitor domineered the programming.   Dick would check scores and the teletype and make notes and when Monitor would take a break he went on the air and read off ball scores, weather, and anything of interest newsy.

Once or twice he said he had a guest with him and mentioned my name and even asked me a question on the air - which caught me off guard, but I said something that seemed to be appropriate.

Dick went on to make a name for himself with NBC News and moved to the Washington, DC, area.  When I say made a name for himself, i mean literally, he change his name.

He started off as a page on a daily talk show and then a tour guide for one of the big three networks, I forgot which one.

After we were  married Dick and Nancy visited us a couple of times.  One time when they visited Schatzi, our Schnauzer dog had puppies.