Un Tour
d'Orléans

Where did you live on
the economy in Orleans?

Sue Atkins lived here with her siblings Kathy Atkins, Debbie Atkins Reilly, Sandy Atkins Bottoms-Wallace, Bob Atkins, and Mike Atkins. Later they moved to Olivet.

Sue Atkins, Kathy Atkins, Christmas 1960

Sue's Recollections: We lived at this address from about Oct 1960 to Spring 1961. I was about 12 years old at the time. The ceilings were high, and it was always cold in the house. There
was a huge round wooden dining table in the dining room and a chandelier hanging above it. There was a 2-sided fireplace, one side to the living room, one side to the dining room. Ancient faded tapestries hung on the walls of the living room. There was a grandfather clock out in the hallway. We used some of the landlord's furniture, which my father described as looking "like it had been new at the time of Napoleon." The toilet was in a separate little room and had to be flushed by pulling a chain that hung down from above. It didn't fill up with water until it was flushed. On Mondays my mother would send me on a mission
to a nearby French laundromat to turn in laundry. It was always ready for pickup on "Jeudi".

I was also sent out on a regular basis to buy French bread to be part of our dinner. The loaf I bought cost 65 francs, which  was equivalent to about 13 cents at the time. A few years ago I had
an online conversation with a French woman who was associated with 3 rue du Commandant Arago, which must have been across the street from our old house. She said that, back in the days
when we lived there, there were rumors that there was some kind of American "spy" activity being conducted on one of the upper floors of our house. As it turns out, my father was responsible for maintaining the alternate Engineer Intelligence Library for USAREUR. Hmmm ......

Sandi Davenport: My family lived at 33 Rue de Glatigny at the corner of Rue de la Chapelle in Vouzon for 3 1/2 years. That’s about 3-4 miles south of Olivet. This is the only photo
I could find of the house. While we were stationed in Orleans
we spent most every weekend at the Caserne. My parents were on a couple of different bowling leagues. That meant that my sister and I had to tag along. We went to a lot of movies and/or roller skated. We also fell asleep quite often in the
bowling alley waiting for my parents to finish up. We liked being at home the best. We made friends with one other military family that lived in Vouzon and spent most of our time back and forth between the two homes. We rode our bikes all over town. Once we rode up to an Air Force Radar station that was located just outside of Vouzon. I think the enlisted guys were happy to see other Americans. In those days you could ride your bike all day and sometimes we did. We also got to know a few of the local kids who were close to us in age.

It was fun trying to communicate with them and learn
about the different cultures. They thought we were rich because we had a car and television set (even though the TV didn't work). We walked to the stores in town for freshly-baked bread and fresh vegetables. We didn't know too many of the other American families in the village. The bus ride to OHS was 25 miles round trip. One of the girls on the bus mentioned that her Dad had taken them to Germany to see Elvis Presley! Wow!! That would never have happened to us. I loved this big old house. I had my own room on
the second floor. We had electricity and plumbing, but no washing machine. My Mom did all of that the old-fashioned way, by hand in the bathtub. If the power went out we had no plumbing and had to get our drinking water from the well and boil it. But it was the longest we had lived anywhere and it was home. Returning to the States in 1962 left a huge hole in my heart (and my sister's). My mission now is to
go back for a visit and find the old house.

Mark and Pat Londner (Packard) lived here before
moving to Olivet in 1963.

Cynthia Crumlish: "Our address was 3, rue A. Gault. We lived there from 1963-66. The landlord, Maurice Guérin, always collected the rent in cash to as not to pay tax! System D, as the French say. So many happy memories in this house.  I dream of going back to buy it."  (Système D is a shorthand term that refers to a manner of responding to challenges that requires one to have the ability to think fast, to adapt, and to improvise when getting a job done).

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