Two pics of those short-sleeved dress shirts, 1970's

The first picture might have been taken near Marineland on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.   The blue shirt with the wide collar was just one of several.  The next picture is at the Lompoc Airport, not far from Vandenberg Air Force Base, where I was stationed for missile training in the spring of 1974.  I am also wearing one of the light jackets I also bought from the same store.  Again, I owned several, each with a single, solid color.

Along with the bright red dress shirt, I am wearing a colorful pair of checked bell bottom pants.  Pat Byrne could pull off such pants, but I wasn't always sure I could.

Mom might have flown up to visit.  A DeHaviland Dove is in the background.  I took one of those planes from LAX to Lompoc myself.  I don't even recall the name of the commuter airline that served the area.

Since I left my Camaro at mom's when I flew up to Minot the first time, I was able to drive it all during missile training.  Only then, when the training was over, did I then drive it to Minot.

The only problem I did have that spring of 1974 was the gasoline shortages that plagued the nation in those many months following another Mideast crisis, this time when the Saudis shut off the oil because of U.S. support for Isreal. 

California dealt with the shortage by having restricted even- and odd-day gasoline purchases.  If your license plate ended in an even number, you could only get gas on even numbered days.  Unfortunately, on the weekends, when I drove down to Southern California from Vandenberg,  I found it more and more difficult to get gasoline for the trip back to the base.  Most stations were not even open on Sundays as the shortages continued and even widened.

I would drive down on a Friday evening, and then get up early on Saturday morning and hunt for gas.  One weekend, I simply could not find an open station that had any fuel.  I drove back to Vandenberg on fumes, finding one station at the last moment.

The next weekend, I just stayed on the base.  I did not want to have to go through that ordeal again.

---