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Monday, March 24, 2014

Matrilineal Monday: Fearless Females Gerrie Guokas & Jean Metcalfe at Mount Bonnell, Autumn 1945


Mom's first roommate at the Ford House at the University of Texas in Austin was Jean Metcalfe.  Jean was married and her husband, Thomas "Tom" Brooks Metcalfe, was still serving in the Naval Reserve, but when the war ended in August 1945, he came home soon afterward, so Mom and Jean were not roommates for long.  Sometime during that time, however, they made a trip to Mount Bonnell, a famed lookout at (what was then at least) the highest elevation in Austin at 775 feet.  The view above is from the southern side of Mount Bonnell, looking south down Lake Austin. (Here's a similar view from October 2006:)

This photo of Mount Bonnell is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Even though they were no longer roommates, Mom remained friends with Jean and her husband.  On her way home from her trip to New York in 1950, she took a train from New York to Philadelphia (where she saw the Liberty Bell and the Army-Navy football game) and then on to Washington, DC.  From there she took a bus to Atlanta, as Jean and Brooks lived there while he worked on his doctorate and as a research assistant in chemical engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology.  From Atlanta, Mom took the bus on to New Orleans and then home to Houston.

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

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