contributed by Richard Konizeski

The apples ripened early that year, and they were huge, due to lots of hot weather and irrigation.

This area is prime apple growing country; if you can get water, you can grow tremendous crops of apples. Red and Golden Delicious were the big sellers in those days; you didn`t see the diverse types of apples as you do now.

The transient apple pickers hadn`t yet arrived when the area was hit by devastating winds, and the farmers were suffering lots of crop loss due to windfall.

Some of the farmers south of the base called Col Colburn, frantic for any help they could find, and he told the Section Leaders to let anybody they could spare go down to the orchards and help the farmers out.

We were overstaffed at that time, and Sgt Penny told those of us in the 26 Tower to take off for as long as we were needed, as long as we donated 10% of our apple-picking wages into a beer fund for the tower.

Several of us went to the orchard for a whole week to pick apples, the Goldens being as big as small grapefruits that year. I made quite a bit of extra money, and relearned what manual labor was all about. I thought my back would break filling up those canvas sacks and hogging them over to the bins, and I gained instant respect for the Mexican families, young and old, who did that for a living.

The farmers told us we could take as many windfalls as we wanted, so I folded down the back seat of my V Dub Beetle and filled it to the roof. I took a load across the Cascades to my folks and friends in Bremerton, and was giving everyone I could think of free Red and Golden Delicious apples.

The farmers were gratified to get the help, and the base enjoyed the good public relations it provided.