1961 – A Year to Remember

On February 20, 1961 while on a Navy deployment, I purchased my first new car in Kowloon, Hong Kong—a dove gray, right-hand-drive MGA roadster.

Marilyn and the MGA in 1961.

At that time foreign car prices were less overseas and particularly in the free port of Hong Kong, one of the best places in the world to buy almost anything. Low cost was a major objective as I was making less than $3000 a year as a Lieutenant (Junior Grade).

What I didn’t know at that time was that almost all new cars sold in Hong Kong had to be special-ordered. That limited my choices to an Austin-Healy (too expensive for me back then) and an MGA with wire wheels and custom upholstery (which had not been picked up by its prospective buyer). I didn’t really want the wire wheels (a $150 add-on), and I didn’t care for the dove gray color, but the $2250 price tag was too good to pass up. And since I had been out of the country for six months, the car was also exempt from customs duties.

U.S.S. Paricutin.

I purchased the car and arranged to have it barged out to my ammunition ship, the U.S.S. Paricutin, anchored in a remote spot of the harbor. At the time Navy personnel were allowed to carry home even large, bulky items aboard their ship, but at the risk of having them off-loaded or dumped at sea should a conflict break out. Even though it appeared that a potential war was developing in Laos, the ship was nearing the end of its seven month deployment, I took the chance. When the car was loaded aboard the ship, the crew on deck broke out laughing The MG was the same color as our haze-gray warship.

Actresses from the Orient.

Two weeks later the U.S.S. Paricutin was in the Philippines, and I took five days leave to visit Manila and Baguio. On the first evening I discovered that the 8th Annual Asian Film Festival was underway at the Manila Hotel. I had a wonderful time taking photos of attractive young ladies from Japan, Australia, Singapore and other countries throughout the orient.

The next morning I was scheduled for a 6:00 A.M. flight to Baguio, a resort in the cooler mountain area north of Manila. At 4:30 in the morning I was waiting for an elevator in the Manila Hotel. The door opened and there were two Pan American stewardesses, who I initially mistook for Australian or New Zealand actresses. One was outgoing and spoke with a British accent; the other appeared exhausted from her long flight to Manila from Honolulu. But she was to become my girl-in-every-port and later my wife Marilyn.

Marilyn, her Pan-Am crewmates and myself in a jeepney at Baguio.

The stewardesses and two other members of their flight crew were on a three day layover in the Philippines and were also on my flight to Baguio. The five of us got along famously and enjoyed touring the summer capital of the Philippines and dining together. On our last evening in Baguio, I was dancing with Marilyn and I asked her if she would like to get together when my ship returned to San Francisco. She appeared agreeable, so I asked for her telephone number. She didn’t know it. As it turned out, she had just arrived in San Francisco from Pan-Am’s training center in New York and had left on her 15-day series of flights across the Pacific after moving into her new apartment the day before.

I asked her for her address, and she hesitated before saying “1961 Jefferson Street.”

“1961… Sure,” I thought, “very clever.”

We parted company, and I returned to my ship. With little to do in the evenings aboard ship, I decided to write to Marilyn at 1961 Jefferson Street. Ten days later I was surprised and delighted to receive a reply.

After returning to the ship’s home port in San Francisco, Marilyn and I began to date regularly. One of our first excursions in my new MG was to the town of Monterey, where we now reside. We fell in love with the beautiful Monterey Peninsula, and it was there that I took the photograph of her sitting in the MGA along the coast in Pacific Grove in April of 1961.

More recent photo of Marilyn and the MGA in Monterey.

It has been a wonderful and long adventure with my loving wife and our MGA. The car has never been restored and has over 300,000 miles on it. Since the mid-1970s I have reserved it for shorter drives. However when I retired, I had to drive the car 500 miles from San Diego to our new home in Pebble Beach. I was primarily concerned about the car overheating in the congested freeway traffic of Los Angeles, so I delayed my departure until 8:00 PM in the evening.

Remarkably the car did not overheat. I cruised through Los Angeles and was doing just fine until just after I passed Santa Barbara—and my lights went out.

“Why me? Why now?” I thought.

Our granddaughters. Not quite driving age, but the MGA will be ready when they are.

Several good Samaritans stopped and offered to help, but no one could repair my generator; however, I was in luck. My lights had failed only a few miles from Goleta, California—home of Moss Motors. I was able to follow a vehicle to the front door of Moss Motors where I spent the night, attempting to get some sleep in my MGA. Early the following morning Moss Motors sold me a new generator and even helped me install it. Within a hour I was happily driving up Route One through the Big Sur to Pebble Beach.

Little did I suspect back in 1961 that more than 50 years later I would still be married to that beautiful Pan-Am stewardess, living on the Monterey Peninsula, and driving the same MGA.

By Chuck Gibfried, Captain, U.S.N. (Retired)