go west, young woman

Dodie in Dayton before westward journey.

Top left: Ed at work in the U.S. Army. Top right: Playtime at home in Carmel.

Commuting time for Ed in Carmel, California, and Dodie in Dayton, Ohio, was prohibitive. With little Sally in tow, Dorothy boarded a westbound train and headed for Califor-ny-ay. Days and nights blurred as the iron machine click-clacked on its way, loaded with soldiers in uniform and their families.

Reunion was in the air.

Closing the familial gap in times before air travel was practical meant instant camaraderie, sharing, making do, and compromise.

Her smile at the ready, Dodie became a popular sight along the bouncing cars as she tended to the little girl with the headful of red curls and a taste for bacon.

Enlisted men hungry for home found some satisfaction watching the toddler's chubby legs pump up and down behind the lithe, dark-haired beauty.

Offers of all sorts of help abounded.

It made the trip go by more smoothly in those pre-Pamper days and nights.

Then, finally, the Pacific Ocean appeared and the long journey ended with Ed in a tiny railroad flat on a bluff overlooking the sea in Carmel, not far from Fort Ord where the PFC was posted.

More adventures. While Daddy was busy on the base, Mommy tended to a lively 2-year-old who loved to wander and, yes, ignore directions. There was the famous moment when Sally disappeared in one of those West Coast fogs, with a high cliff not far away.

There were breathtaking rides in the old beater downhill to shop and go to church. In order to get that all important dose of religion, Dodie volunteered to watch the toddler class at the closest Episcopal Church, the one with a front-door view of the Pacific.

California, so different, so full of potential, sang its song to the young Gravetts. They wanted to stay, once VDay had been celebrated and Ed had been honorably discharged.

But Midwestern roots won out over youthful ambition and Ed and Dodie rumbled their way east, crossing the country in a second-hand car their only passenger, Sally, called the Bee-wick.

It was home to Dayton and new possibilities in a familiar setting.

To this day, Dodie has remembered that dramatically beautiful California coast with longing and a desire to return.

"I want my ashes sprinkled over the Pacific Ocean," she says, not laughing for once.