Marilyn Genz was one gutsy lady.


The war in Vietnam was in full swing when Marilyn met then-Major General Elvy Roberts, the Division Commander of the First Air Cavalry Division, on a flight across the Pacific. She asked the General if she could visit his soldiers in the field. She expected Elvy to tell her it was too dangerous.


But Roberts, who had jumped into Normandy on the eve of D-Day as a Lieutenant with the 101st Airborne, was impressed. He issued her an invitation to ‘come and see the war’.


Marilyn flew into places that were only grid coordinates on the map, where infantry and artillerymen gawked as she alighted from one of the Division’s many helicopters. She ate with the men, shared stories with them, and forever afterward held ‘the Cav’ in her heart.


And the First Cavalry Division (Airmobile) reciprocated, naming her ‘The Sweetheart of the Cav”.


Marilyn wore a TWA in-flight service vest adorned with pins and insignia from all the units she visited. The vest is today in the First Cav’s Museum at Fort Hood, Texas.


Rest in peace, Marilyn, we will miss you…


The Chicago Tribune
February 8, 2010


Marilyn J. Genz, 1932-2010
Longtime TWA flight attendant flew with soldiers to Vietnam
As a flight attendant for more than three decades, Marilyn J. Genz flew aboard everything from prop planes to 747s. Over the years, she compiled scrapbooks filled with countless mementos from passengers — tokens of appreciation gathered from celebrities, dignitaries and people all over the world.
There were photos of Ms. Genz with Muhammad Ali and Frank Sinatra, a note from Ted Kennedy wishing her mother a speedy recovery, and hundreds of letters from passengers thanking her for flights she helped make enjoyable.
But the most memorable flights for the longtime Elgin resident were the dozens made with Army troops in the 1960s, where as a volunteer she flew in and out of Vietnam and became known as the "Sweetheart of the First Air Cavalry"
"She found it very rewarding, whether it was taking soldiers to the war or bringing them home," said her sister-in-law, Jeri. "She never spoke of the dangers."
In her retirement, Ms. Genz wrote a book about those experiences, "20,000 Men and Me," and spoke to groups about the unique role she played during the Vietnam War.
Ms. Genz, 77, a retired flight attendant with Trans World Airlines, died Saturday, Jan. 30, at Sherman Hospital in Elgin after suffering a heart attack.
"I admired Marilyn so much, especially for writing her book," said retired TWA flight attendant Cynthia Stiffler, who accompanied Ms. Genz on flights to and from Vietnam. "What she did during the war was not for the faint of heart."
Stiffler spoke of the moral support Ms. Genz provided troops going to and from the war and the special pass she received from Army officials to tour makeshift military bases in Vietnam.
"She had a special place in her heart for the young soldiers, the ones with peach fuzz on their chins," Stiffler said. "She'd hug them as they'd exited the plane and then go to the galley and cry."
Ms. Genz also collected commemorative pins that servicemen gave her during their flights home. She wore these pins on her uniform, but later donated them to the 1st Cavalry Museum in Fort Hood, Texas, her sister-in-law said.
Born in Elgin, Ms. Genz grew up there and in South Elgin. After graduating from Elgin High School in 1950, she briefly attended a nursing school in Chicago.
Ms. Genz began her career with TWA in the mid-1950s, when flight attendants were called hostesses and passengers were served meals on china with fresh-cut flowers on their trays.
"It was a time when airlines spared no expense," Stiffler said.
Ms. Genz retired from TWA in 1985 after more than 30 years of service based out of airports in Chicago and Los Angeles.
Other survivors include a brother, Richard, and many nephews and a niece.
Services were held.

 

Very brave lady. Shame That I never heard o her before now.

 

I would have to agree with this!!! 70's would be my ideal dream childhood if i lived back then

 

Yeah! Mine were blowing smoke out the rear in 1st, power shift to 2nd & STILL getting a speedo reading of 50-60 while doung ~ 20-30 in my '65 442!

Ralph

 

D@mn!

So cool! Thanx 4 the memory, Jamesbo!

Ralph

 

For those of us old know what 1 A means. Here's a list of songs

http://www.micom.net/songs

 

A good list at that...the best!

 

Great list Jamsbo

 

First car in 1982 , was 72 Cutlass Supreme . Gas pedal stuck to floor and I totaled it , the cops fricken laughed at me because I had a partial 12 pack of brewskeys in the back seat and beer and glass was everywhere. They never thought of giving a DUI to me back then.
Then BEFORE I turned 19 I went through :
69 Lemans
76 Camaro 350 4speed , very fast stock car
76 Monza(had 305 w/ manual trans ) that thing flew!
Volare station wagon ( Hey it was cheap !!)
Suzuki Motorcycle and yamaha Maxim 650
78 Cutlass 4 door
Fiat x19
72 chevy pickup
My dad was always pissed when I brought home another piece of crap.

 

Great to see this thread is still alive after almost 2 years. I guess I really am older than dirt also, even though I'm only 51, got 98% of the trivias right. Although not in the 60's, more like mid 70's, 1st real job working at a drive-in theatre. Worked the concession stand at night, cleaned the lot in the daytime, used my moms 66 starfire to drive around loading plastic bags of trash. Saturdays and Sundays were great, due to the fact that people would bring their own beer, get drunk and leave 3-4 cans in the paper bag on the ground. On a good day, I'd find maybe 2 cases. Put them in the ice machine for that nights shift Lot's of great memories of that place. You'll never guess the name of the drive-in. It was the "66 Drive-In", yep, just 2 blocks off of historic route 66, in Countryside, Ill.

 

I remember back in the mid seventies my father belonged to the “Columbia record club”. Now the way it worked was that Columbia record club members periodically received a card in the mail listing the different music genres, Classical, Jazz, Pop, R&B etc. Each music genre had a little box next to it and club members were supposed to check the genre they wanted to listen to. My father would always check the “Jazz” box. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Jazz now, but I was not a fan as a young man. In theory he was supposed to get a new eight track every month based on his Jazz preference. The only problem was my brother and I would highjack the card before he sent it in. We’d cross out Jazz and check; you guessed it, “Rock and Roll” baby. A couple of weeks later a package would arrive with his new Jazz eight track selection, but when he opened the box it was filled with good old Rock and Roll, like Jeff Beck,Lynyrd Skynyrd or ZZ Top. I remember him exclaiming on numerous occasions, “What the hell is this crap!” My Dad would package the 8-track up the next day and send it back but not before my brother and I had sneaked the 8 track out to his 69’ Pontiac Custom S (a poor mans GTO) and played that sweet rock and roll over and over again .They would send Dad another preference card and he would check jazz we would change it to Rock, and the cycle would repeat.

“Just take those old records off the shelf, I'll sit and listen to em by myself.” Bob Seger

 

For those of you who have never seen this. Here is the Virtual Vietnam Veterans Wall with our lost buddies listed by state then town.

You can click on your state, then the town, then the name for more infomation.

http://www.virtualwall.org/iStates.htm

 

Born in 64 in Munich, Germany we had a US Base here in town. When I was between 6 and 10 my mom drove by that base. Back then I saw cool cars as Mustangs, Pontiac Firebird, so on. This probably was when my heart for the US and Canada began to beat. At the age of 21 I got the chance to work in British Columbia, Canada in a hunting and fishing camp. We logged trees, built cabins and did some canoing and horse riding. Being German, I heard good stuff about San Francisco, so I decided to hitchhike from Vancouver, Canada to San Francisco. I had a great time, and after I got back to Germany I saved all my money to fly to the U.S. (Miami) and I got my self a used motorcycle. While riding I had a flat tire and a guy with a 69 Cutlass convertible helped me out. We became buddies and he borrowed me his Cutlass twice, when I visited the States with my back the girl friend, nowadays wife. We had a great time and we thought once we have a little money to the side, we buy a 69 Cutlass conv.what we did in 2003. But my best time was the year 1989 being on the road for 24000 Miles on my motorcycle, crossing 21 States.

 

Great story Tom. Thanks for sharing. In 4 more days I'll be looking at that picture of you & the 69 convertible for a whole month. Congratulations on making Jerry's Oldsmobile Calendar.
Cheers from Australia.

 

Hi Col,
thanks for the compliment, I wish one day I'll have enough money to go to Australia as well. Would be cool to meet old(s) car enthusiasts there. But it will take long time since my boys at the age of 6 and 12, and airfare for a group of four to Australia is for sure not cheap.

 

> This is for the over 50 generation:
>
> I thought about the 30 year business I ran with 1800 employees, all without a Blackberry that played music, took videos, pictures and communicated with Facebook and Twitter.
>
> I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouses, 13 grandkids and 2 great grand kids could communicate with me in the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space.
>
> That was before one of my grandkids hooked me up for Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie and Twittererific Tweetdeck, Twitpix and something that sends every message to my cell phone and every other program within the texting world.
>
> My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag.
>
> The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Blue tooth [it's red] phone I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Noble talking to my wife as everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. Seems I have to take my hearing aid out to use it, and I got a little loud.
>
> I mean the GPS looked pretty smart on my dash board, but the lady inside was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, "Re-calc-ul-ating." You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to make a U-turn at the next light. Then when I would make a right turn instead, it was not good.
> When I get really lost now, I call my wife and tell her the name of the cross streets and, while she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy, the GPS lady, at least she loves me.
>
> To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven't figured out how I can lose three phones all at once and have run around digging under chair cushions and checking bathrooms and the dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings.
>
> The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden "Paper or Plastic?" every time I check out just knocks me for a loop. I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused, but I never remember to take them in with me.
>
> Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, "Paper or Plastic?" I just say, "Doesn't matter to me. I am bi-sacksual." Then it's their turn to stare at me with a blank look.
>
> I was recently asked if I tweet. I answered, "No, but I do toot a lot."

 

AMEN Pat

I usually tell them, "I'll pay with plastic if ya bag them in paper."

"Please put the eggs on the bottom so when they break, they won't get all over everything."

Once they ring it up for a credit card, pull out a $100 bill if ya wanta see the "Deer in the headlights look."

 

Hi citcapp,
as I am in the middle of 46 years, I also feel that the word is starting to turn quite fast, maybe to fast for me within a few years. I like your story, and I really love to think about the year 1986 when I made it to the US first time and I enjoyed the relaxed lifestyle so much.

Tom

 

Trouble is Pat that we "normal" people are letting the pointy heads get away with it.
I blew up at work the other day because I forgot one of my 6 or 7 passwords to a system I rarely use and it locked me out until I get a systems administrator to get me back in. The amount of time wasted mucking about with different log-ins, passwords & systems obviously not designed by the end user means we spend more time at work doing the stuff we should have been doing while we were stuffing about with "the system". Despite the 3,756 different ways people communicate with us these days I reckon we are working harder to be less efficient. How many times have you been involved in a reasonably big deal that goes right the first time? Any type of deal. Buying something, opening an account, getting something fixed. 9/10 times there's a problem.
You watch young people walking down the street. They don't talk to each other any more...they play with iphones etc. We're letting technology get too far ahead of it's own practical application IMO. In a few more generations we'll have thin pointy fingers and have lost the power of speech.

 

Who tells them anything? Our grocery store is all computer checkouts except one and you look like a computer illiterate geek if you go to that one, and you have to bag your own groceries. Home Despot is the same way now, I hate it.
I've had to do some grocery shopping with my wife out of action.
Did you know that you can open the egg boxes and check the eggs for breakage before you buy them.
I still can't find where they stock the toast though.

 

Col,

Another thing that has occurred to me is that there is no social interaction when all the kids are listening to different songs on their on sound systems. [whatever they're called]

We used to either sit around a record player or an a.m. radio with at least one other person listening to the same music. We could comment on it or turn it up or change the station depending on our MUTUAL likes or dislikes.
We could even play a 33 1/3 on 45 rpm or vice versa.

It's like all the kids are operating in their own worlds of plug and play.

 

Good to hear from you Blue. Hope everything's OK.
The toast is always in the Vegemite aisle

 

This thing here called a computer is the only real modern communication tool I have. I do not have a cell phone and never will unless my job rquires me to have one and they give me one.Even then it would be off when not working.I never even had a walkman or anything like that , no GPS in my car since I know where the hell I am going most of the time (crazy).My one and only phone is in the house and if you cant reach me then leave a message. Just the other day I almost got nailed by some girl probably texting in her car. She was in a Sunfire and I was in my 98. I moved onto the shoulder and she looked up just in time.
They say that texting while driving is far worse than drinking and driving.So why isnt the fine the same or worse?

 

Agree. There should be some gizmo which disables a mobile phone in a car with the engine running unless its an emergency call. Almost every day it takes me at least 1/2 hour longer than it should to get to work because someone has rear-ended someone else on the motor-way & when you get past the accident it almost always a young person who has run into the car in front. I wonder why?

 

60's were great. Great music and some easy going times. Don't see it much at all anymore, but I remember when the moms from our block would get together and talk and help one another take clothes down from the clothes line (before we got a dryer) and just enjoy the afternoon together. No internet, TV, etc., but just "Kick the can" and "tag" with our neighborhood friends during the Summer as the sun went down. As someone once said..."The good old days."

 

NO kidding , we used to play kick the can as well. British bulldog was one of my favs.

 

now-a-days you don't see kids playing outside anymore they are inside texting or playing video games, one of the reasons so many of them are over weight. In the summer we used to play outside from dawn to dusk. anti over the house was a fun game, two teams one on each side of the house, using a soft ball throw it over the house, had to catch it on the other side or one team member was out. Things like that were fun, same with pickup baseball and basketball games. Should try that now wonder how I'd do

 

I think you'd hurt yourself. Just to be safe, I'm gonna dial 9-1 and keep my finger on the next 1 ready to push it fer ya

 

Come on I can kinda sorta move fast sometimes for awhile at least. Besides the wife knows CPR and the hindlick maneuver

 

Unless you were a 22 year old male. (the average age of an American KIA in Vietnam)

To the families of 43,000 American KIAs and the 200,000 WIA the 60s weren't all that great.

The 60s thru the eyes of a 1966 H.S. graduate:

The British Envasion

The Advent of the Muscle Car

Drive-in theaters

25 cent gas

cruising the town's main drag, over and over

bench racing at the A&W drive-in

then going to the outskirts of town (1/4 mile of straight 2 lane) and proving it

getting in line at the Fina station to access the Men's room before closing at midnight. (being sure adequate quarters were in your pocket)

pilfering watermelons on the way to our favorite swimming hole ( I still have a scar on my right elbow from a hunk of rock salt fired by an unhappy farmer who was the uncle of my future wife)

That was my small town in the 60s, until April 22, 1968. I received notice to report to the bus station on May 26 at 7 AM for travel to the Induction Center for induction into the US Army. Five months later the above list shrank to insignificance as I stepped off the 707 and experienced the heat and stence of South Vietnam.

 

I recieved my draft notice afer the war ended...1975, then they ended the draft. Unfortunately I found out yesterday that a good friend had died this past week of cancer, the result of Agent orange. My oldest brother was there in '67, and managed to come through o.k.

 

Interesting thread. For some, the 60s were great, nice, easy going times. For others apparently their lives were not so great. It's like a post where someone writes, "Last week was great for me" and someone else posts, "Not if you were one of the 1,000 children in Africa who starved to death, and not if you were one of the parents whose children died from cancer last week, and not if you..."
I must have misunderstood the purpose of the post when I read the topic "Growing up in the 60s." I thought it was a harkening back to simpler days, not a call for all the attrocities known to man during those times to be the focus of attention. No offense intended toward anyone who suffered during those years, we all know life can be very hard, it's just I no longer understand the purpose of the thread. Is it a call for a memory of simpler times, or a call to mention all of the hell life has to offer? If it is both, I don't think the "mix" works well to the benefit of anyone. My 2 cents.

 

Go way back to the original post. Its a call to simpler times no more no less

 

Yep,....simpler times it is.
And Pat, take Jamesbo's advice. Trying to relive the 60's in the physical sense is a ticket to the ER.
I had a freak throwing arm developed through the 60s and honed through the 70s. Especially throwing rocks long distances through windows...but we won't go there.
I picked up a ball not that long ago and pitched it for my dog to chase. Now my shoulder moves 1/2" in & out of the socket. Rotor damage & my chucking days are over. 9 years ago I decided to take up BMX racing in the over 45s. Bought a bike, did some training and spent the next six weeks after my first competition race doubled over like a cripple. Needed an MRI scan to see what bits had busted and which ones had just moved somewhere they shouldn't have been. I was leading into that first berm too. The cycle hangeth upon the shed wall & stayeth there.
Spent much of the 60s under my friends house with Tonka earth moving equipment, tunneling, building roads & other things. Surprised that house is still standing.
Amazing to think back in those days our parents were quite happy for us to play under the house, home to the Funnel Web, the world's second most deadly spider.
Or we'd play in "the creek". Back then the creeks were nothing short of septic pits as this was a new housing area without sewerage. "Be back before dark". OK Mum. And off we'd go to build dams and catch tadpoles in some slimey grey watercourse.
Yep simpler times and most of us are still alive despite them

 

To me the balance needs to be remembering the good times without making the whole era "Camelot"

 

I have balance in my mind, there were tough times as well, but they always made the good times that much better. I am a "half full glass" kind of guy as were my parents and even in the toughest of times they always found fun things for us kids to do even if is was just jumping of the rafters into the hay stored in the barn or swimming down at the creek.

 

$5.37." That's what the kid behind the counter at Taco Bell said to me. I dug into my pocket and pulled out some lint and two dimes and something that used to be a Jolly Rancher. Having already handed the kid a five-spot, I started to head back out to the truck to grab some change, when the kid with the Elmo hairdo said the harshest thing anyone has ever said to me.
He said, "It's OK. I'll just give you the senior citizen discount."

I turned to see who he was talking to and then heard the sound of change hitting the counter in front of me.

"Only $4.68," he said cheerfully.

I stood there stupefied. I am 58, not even 60 yet. A mere child! Senior citizen? I took my burrito and walked out to the truck, wondering what was wrong with Elmo. Was he blind? As I sat in the truck, my blood began to boil. Old? Me? I'll show him, I thought. I opened the door and headed back inside. I strode to the counter, and there he was waiting with a smile.

Before I could say a word, he held up something and jingled it in front of me, like I could be that easily distracted! What am I now? A toddler?

"Dude! Can't get too far without your car keys, eh?"
I stared with utter disdain at the keys. I began to rationalize in my mind. "Leaving keys behind hardly makes a man elderly! It could happen to anyone!"
I turned and headed back to the truck. I slipped the key into the ignition, but it wouldn't turn.

What now? I checked my keys and tried another. Still nothing. That's when I noticed the purple beads hanging from my rearview mirror. I had no purple beads hanging from my rearview mirror.

Then, a few other objects came into focus. The car seat in the back seat. Happy Meal toys spread all over the floorboard. A partially eaten doughnut on the dashboard. Faster than you can say ginkgo biloba, I flew out of the alien vehicle.

Moments later I was speeding out of the parking lot, relieved to finally be leaving this nightmarish stop in my life. That is when I felt it, deep in the bowels of my stomach: hunger! My stomach growled and churned, and I reached to grab my burrito, only it was nowhere to be found.

I swung the truck around, gathered my courage, and strode back into the restaurant one final time. There Elmo stood, draped in youth and black nail polish. All I could think was, "What is the world coming to?"
All I could say was, "Did I leave my food and drink in here?" At this point I was ready to ask a Boy Scout to help me back to my vehicle, and then go straight home and apply for Social Security benefits.

Elmo had no clue. I walked back out to the truck, and suddenly a young lad came up and tugged on my jeans to get my attention. He was holding up a drink and a bag. His mother explained, "I think you left this in my truck by mistake."

I took the food and drink from the little boy and sheepishly apologized.

He offered these kind words, "It's OK. My grandfather does stuff like this all the time."

All of this is to explain how I got a ticket doing 85 in a 40. Yes, I was racing some punk kid in a Toyota Prius. And, no, I told the officer, I'm not too old to be driving this fast.

As I walked in the front door, my wife met me halfway down the hall. I handed her a bag of cold food and a $300 speeding ticket. I promptly sat in my rocking chair and covered up my legs with a blankey.

The good news was I had successfully found my way home.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- READ BELOW !

Just in case you weren't feeling too old today - - -

The people who are starting college this fall were born in 1991.

They are too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up.

Their lifetime has always included AIDS.

The CD was introduced two years before they were born.

They have always had an answering machine.

They have always had cable.

Popcorn has always been microwaved.

They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.

They don't know who Mork was or where he was from.

They never heard, "Where's the Beef?", "I'd walk a mile for a Camel ," or "de plane, Boss, de plane."


They don't have a clue how to use a typewriter.

Pass this on to the other old fogies on your list.

Notice the larger type? That's for those of us who have trouble reading.

P.S. Save the earth. It's the only planet with chocolate.

 

Thanks Pat.......I think.
I got a Seniors discount on my house insurance this year.Didn't mind at all. I'll take all the discounts I can get and I'm not 55 yet.

 

Gee...not 55 yet??...I thought you were way older than that Col?? :
Must have been the boots that threw me?

I just turned the double nickel and I don't get nothin' but grief.

 

yer just kids 55 huh I can kind of remember being that age. Just remember its ok to grow old just never grow up that's the secret. Redgoat has that under control