Over the years they have visited each port where she had seen the Blue Flamingo. Abigail did most of the child rearing and when he retired they moved back to her family farm. He remained on active duty through the Vietnam War, retiring with the rank of Commander. Her excitement was contagious and resulted in her telling me the story of the Blue Flamingo. Not in five decades and over 2,000 pools completed have I seen someone so engrossed in the color of pool water. She takes one look and shouts, “This is the color of the Blue Flamingo.” She was referring to the azure tone of crystal clear water in the presence of sunlight and the reflection of a cloudless sky. I arrived at the job site just as Abigail, visiting from Kentucky, is seeing the pool for the first time. I have just completed construction of a swimming pool for the Pendergrass’ oldest daughter and her young family in the original Carrollwood section of Tampa. It is now forty years later and so far I had no knowledge of this story. Her description never varied and she was emphatic that it was a Blue Flamingo. When pressed for particulars she was short on details, but always commented on the vivid light blue feathers of the bird. She was immediately told that there was no such thing as a Blue Flamingo and even if they did exist they wouldn’t be as far north as Bayonne or Norfolk. She said that at each port she always had a room with a harbor view and she always knew it was the day of his arrival because a Blue Flamingo would fly by her window.Īfter the second Blue Flamingo sighting she related this phenomenon to other guests at her place of lodging. She always arrived at their destinations first, arranged lodging and waited for his ship to arrive. However, as I understood her travels, she and her husband had time together after Boston in Bayonne, Norfolk, Charleston and Miami on the east coast and in San Diego, Long Beach and San Francisco out west. As he reached the ports along the way, they would have a few blissful days together before the next leg of his voyage.Īnd now for the Blue Flamingo… The details of Abigail’s journey were sketchy. When she learned of the ship’s itinerary she decided to travel by rail down the coast, then cross country to San Diego and follow him up the California coast until he got underway for his assignment in the Pacific. The small ship was scheduled for training exercises down the Atlantic coast, passage through the Panama Canal and then final exercises on the West coast before deployment to the South Pacific.Ībigail, not content sitting home at her parent’s farm near Marrowbone, Kentucky, went by bus to be with her husband in Boston. In 1943 he was ordered to assume command of an amphibious vessel being fitted out in Boston Navy Yard. Pendergrass, a former Navy Petty Officer with service in the prewar China Campaign, reenlisted after Pearl Harbor and rapidly advanced to commissioned status. Abigail Pendergrass was married only a few months when the war started.
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