Beach Tale: The Times They Are A-Changin'--Navy Spouse Edition

Let’s face it, times have changed, especially in the Navy Spouse ranks.  And it’s easy to see the changes when flips through an ancient copy of Welcome Aboard—A Service Manual for the Naval Officer’s Wife by Florence Ridgely Johnson (an Admiral’s wife, so she knows of what she speaks.)  Published in 1951, it gives a great perspective on what spouse life was like back in the day when the Navy’s unofficial motto was, “If we wanted sailors to have a wife we’d have issued them one in their sea bag.”  Some of the stuff is absolutely hysterical and horrifying at the same time.  Here are some excerpts, followed by a few editorial comments about Navy Spouses life in 2012.  Enjoy! 

Beach Tale: Navy Spouses, Then and Now

          After 28 years of navigating the murky waters of navy Spouse Life without a compass, I recently discovered there IS a Navy Spouse Manual!  And it’s plum-full of good advice, a real How-To manual on what to do and not do in various aspects of being a military spouse.  Welcome Aboard—A Service Manual for the Naval Officer’s Wife was penned by Florence Ridgely Johnson, wife of an Admiral.  Okay, so it was written in 1951 and its age shows when it talks about an Ensign making $129 a month (which wouldn’t even cover dinner and a movie in today’s world.)  It makes the life of a Navy wife sound incredibly romantic, a social merry-go-round of formal calls, fancy teas and elegant dinner gatherings.  But times have changed…and to prove that, here’s a sampling of how things worked then (1951) and now (2011).