DAMN YANKEE
TEX SCOTT, 1942.
NICK GAYNOS, 1945.
Taking a Chance on Love — VERNON DUKE, JOHN LA TOUCHE & TED FETTER, 1940
It took bravado, persistence and a $10 bet for a dashing Connecticut Yankee to win the heart of a petite Texas belle.
In the spring of 1943, Nick Gaynos and a friend were having drinks in the Bamboo Room of the Hotel Californian in Fresno. Both men were officers stationed nearby at Camp Pinedale. Long stalks of bamboo separated the bar from the dining room. Gaynos peered through the stalks and saw two young women having dinner. He called his friend over.
“I said, ‘See that redhead? I’m going to marry her,’” Nick recalled. “My friend said, ‘No way!’ I said, ‘I’ll bet ya $10.’” And the wager was on. His friend seriously underestimated him, but he shouldn’t have. The handsome lieutenant had already displayed the steely resolve and determination that would mark his military career. Nick had enlisted in the Army at age 23. “I wanted to fight Hitler,” he said.
But he found himself facing a different enemy at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. “I’d been up until 4 a.m. at my radio station,” he recalled. As a young private, he was in charge of air/ground communications at Hickam Air Field. He was asleep in his bunk when the earsplitting scream of airplane engines and the rat-a-tat sound of bullets strafing the barracks woke him. Grabbing his pants and his helmet, he scrambled out the door.
As he ran down the beach back toward his duty station, a Japanese Zero strafed the sand around him. Nick hit the ground and covered his head. He said he felt a hot breeze and heard a whistling sound inches from his ears. He looked up and saw the face of the pilot as he flew alongside him. The pilot grinned. When he got up he discovered a large piece of shrapnel next to him. “I grabbed it,” he said. “It was still hot from the explosion.”
After Pearl Harbor he’d been sent to Officer Candidate School, and quickly moved up through the ranks. Now, he focused that same kind of drive on the red-haired girl across the dining room.
“He sent the waiter over three times, offering to buy us drinks,” Tex recalled, shaking her head. “We already had Cokes.” She sent the waiter away. The 20-year-old southern belle had moved to Fresno and was living with her aunt because her parents thought she’d have better job opportunities in California than in Texas.
After the waiter returned for the third time without a drink order, Nick took matters into his own hands and approached the table. Tex wasn’t sure what to make of the young officer. “I thought ‘damn Yankee’ was one word, until I met Nick,” she said, with a smile. Finally, she agreed to let him buy her a soft drink. “You drink Coke?” he asked. She nodded.
“With what?” he pressed.
Tex raised an eyebrow. “With ice,” she replied.
She laughed as she recalled that first meeting. “I guess he thought I’d be a cheap date!”
Before Nick left that night, he had her phone number. He called the next day and wanted to meet her aunt, so Tex agreed. “My aunt said she liked him better than any of the other fellows who’d been hanging around,” said Tex. But the fiery redhead wasn’t so sure.
“I wasn’t wasting any time. I had a $10 bet on the line. I knew I needed to move fast,” said Nick.
When he discovered that hamburgers were her favorite food, he took her to Fink’s, a local eatery famous for their burgers.
“I had the best hamburger I’d ever tasted,” Tex said with a sigh.
Nick felt pretty confident that he’d won her heart after that delicious meal. “I figured I had it locked in and my $10 was safe.” So when Tex told him she’d gotten engaged to another suitor, it came as quite a shock. “I didn’t take that real well,” Nick admitted. But he also didn’t let it deter him from his pursuit.
When he found out that Tex and her friends were having lunch at a local hotel with a large swimming pool, Nick took action. “I put on my bathing suit,” he said. “The restaurant faced the pool so I flexed my abs and did my dives.” Alas, Tex was unimpressed. “She never did come out,” he said.
“I thought he was silly,” she said. But later that day, friends told her Nick’s performance had resulted in a nasty sunburn, which earned him some sympathy. Tex agreed to dinner—hamburgers, of course. After that date, she returned her suitor’s engagement ring, and accepted Nick’s proposal. Six weeks later on July 3, 1943, they were married in her Aunt Ruby’s home. “I don’t believe in long engagements,” Nick said. As he walked down the aisle, his friend held out a $10 bill, and Nick scooped it up. “I never miss a bet.”
NICK AND TEX GAYNOS WEDDING, JULY 3, 1943.
NICK GAYNOS, CENTER, CALIFORNIA, 1944.
NICK GAYNOS, TEXAS, 1944.
That was almost 70 years ago and the sassy Texan and the handsome Yankee have travelled the world together. He saw the beginning of World War II and he saw the ending when he served as a key communications correspondent for General Douglas MacArthur.
A son, Scott, was born in 1946 and when he was three, he boarded a ship with his mother and traveled to Tokyo where Nick was stationed. While in Japan, daughter Nikki completed the family.
Nick served over 23 years in the military, achieving the rank of colonel, and they moved 20 times during those years. The large piece of shrapnel from Pearl Harbor came with them to every post. Tex truly enjoyed the travel, remembering that as a little girl, “I always wanted to see what was going on someplace else.” The couple endured long separations, but Tex took it all in stride. “She was a great service wife,” Nick said, proudly.
“I took care of myself and our two children,” she explained. “When Nick was away, I always talked to the kids about their dad. I never felt sorry for myself. Caring for my family was a joy.” But scrapbooks show she did much more than that. As the president of the Officers’ Wives Club, she staged fashion shows, hat contests and flower shows. “His boss asked me to take care of the officers’ wives and keep them happy, so I did,” said Tex. “That was my job.”
When Nick retired from the military in 1963, the couple both enjoyed thriving real estate careers in California.
Laughter punctuated their conversation as they talked about their life together. Nick produced a scrapbook and pointed to a telegram he’d sent Tex in 1968. It read, “Dear Tex, It took a long time but I finally got a good looking Greek, too. Jackie.” As they chuckled together over Nick’s telegram, he said, “I always think a sense of humor is vital to a marriage.”
And that shared good humor has produced 70 years of happiness. Tex grinned at her husband. “We have had a lot of fun.”
A good attitude is the secret to a happy relationship. Accept the person you married and don’t constantly find fault.”—Tex Gaynos
NICK AND TEX GAYNOS, 2010. Photo courtesy Ralph Bartholdt
Tex Gaynos died June 3, 2014.