Temporary Housing
A lot of homes in the immediate vicinity of SeaTac airport had been bought up by and were now available for rent from the Port of Seattle, one of the owners of the facility. The runway and its supporting structures were expanding and they had aquired many of the homes in the surrounding area to that end. So until they were torn done they were let out on short leases for habitation.
We moved into a one story brick house with a basement. It was a stop gap measure to be sure. Something to meet our immediate need while our parents continued their search for a more permanent home.
It was comfortable. Besides I had my cards, comics, books and models (Old Ironsides had made the trip cross country) to keep me busy and amused. The classes at my new (to me) high school turned out to be slightly behind their East Coast counterparts. But I was able to continue in most of my electable interests. There was only one class that was lacking, but more on that next time.
There wasn’t much to see out and about in the neighborhood. To the west of us, all of the dwelling places nearer the airport had been torn down. Other house properties nearby were for the most part deserted, all awaiting the bulldozer. I remember walking by some properties whose landscaping was running amok.
Temporary Amusements
Dad was gone a lot. He frequently stayed at the theater site, looking after things, and making sure all ran smoothly. If the builders had any doubts about how something was supposed to go together and be used afterwards, he was the go-to guy.
The living room was set up with a TV – black and white. We had not yet graduated to color. But at times it was fun just to turn it off, draw back the curtains in front of the picture window and watch the airplanes go by, the big passenger liners. Though sitting down on the couch our view was limited to the tall tails passing in review, like so many shark fins.
I remember one time when we were planespotting, my attention was drawn to some lights – four of them – moving in an aerial ballet over our end of the runway. That they weren’t normal air traffic was obvious. They hovered around the same area for the longest time before suddenly streaking straight up and out of sight. We couldn’t identify it, so by that mere fact, it was an UFO.
Or maybe it was just Boeing experimenting with a new platform.