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Friday, March 20, 2020

THE FIRST 18 MONTHS...OR SO


        We married, we honeymooned and returned home to our regular lives. There was one big difference…we had a television. Okay, it was black and white Zenith, but this was 1966, remember; and it was a wedding gift from all of John’s buddies. It also included a stand with wheels, so we could roll it hither, thither and yon as we so desired.

          At that time, John was a truck driver and he drove down to what is now the area of the stadiums every morning. I worked in a small detailing office just a few blocks from our apartment and walked. It was all men, and the detailing they did was for structural steel that a plant on the other side of the ship canal produced. I was the entire office, doing all the scheduling, bookkeeping, typing, etc., rather a girl Friday. All these gentlemen, and they were too, had children and more or less adopted me as one of their own. Their combined gift to us was a Hamilton Beach stand mixer which I used for decades.

          It wasn’t long before we gave notice on the apartment because the couple that introduced us told us about a little house in Ballard, just one door from theirs, that was for rent. We interviewed with this much older couple and they agreed to rent to us. It was in the shape of a square with a big porch in front. There was a living room with a fireplace and behind the fireplace was the kitchen. There was a bedroom adjacent the living room and a second bedroom adjacent the kitchen. In between the two bedrooms was a bathroom. Just outside the back-kitchen door was a small space which housed the water heater, washer and dryer. If memory serves, the washer and dryer came with the rental. Our monthly rent was $92.00 and included garbage and water.

          The best part for John was the single detached garage behind the house. You reached it by driving down the alley which pretty much ended at our garage. He and his buddies spent a lot of time working out there doing a wide variety of projects. They all had a great time and I was sort of the den mother or maybe their younger sister. That meant I provided food, cookies, drinks, etc., and pretty much stayed out of the way.

          In return, when it came to painting and decorating, John’s buddies turned to and helped out a lot. It was such fun to decorate that little house which I did as cheaply possible. I don’t know how many of you remember all the house parties a wide variety of companies did back in the late 1960s. In one year, I had six parties, three of them Tupperware some which I’m still using today. I also had a Princess House party, some kind of a knick-knack decorating party, and maybe the last one was a lingerie party. I still have glass from Princess House and some metal birds hanging on the wall. The lingerie disappeared some time ago. I do think family and friends got tired of the parties because the last Tupperware party, I think only one person came. Ah well, I got some good stuff.

          Of course, I couldn’t walk to work any more, so John bought the 1957 Chevy pickup that’s now AJ’s. I took to driving the 1965 mustang convertible until we decided to factory order a 1967 Plum Chevelle Malibu with a big engine and four on the floor. John drove the truck and I drove the mustang/Chevelle. Much later in life John lamented giving up both of those cars and longed to have them in the driveway with all the others.

          The following year we took our vacation after school began and drove south. We planned to end up in Las Vegas, some place we had never been. In the process, John did most of the driving and I navigated. I remember one day we kept driving for far too long and were way out in the sticks someplace. There were no motels, so we ended up going to a drive-in movie where we sort of watched the movie…it was the one with Raquel Welch, One Million BC…and slept until the sun came up. Then, it was onward.

          That day, I navigated us through eastern California. This little two lane road suddenly went through a tunnel. When we came out, we were inside what had once been a volcano. Now, it was completely flat inside and contained a farm. We drove through the middle and back out through another tunnel. It was sunny and whatever the farmer was growing was golden and beautiful.

          On that trip, I made Christmas stockings for everyone in my family. We’d never had stockings, but John always did. I made one for each of us as well. When I wasn’t navigating or sewing or looking out the window, we talked and sang songs and enjoyed our time together. John always did a hell of a rendition of Lonnie Donegan’s song, “The Grand Coulee Dam.” I just looked it up on the Internet to make sure I had the name correct and actually listened/watched Lonnie Donegan sing that song and it turns out I liked John’s rendition much better than Lonnie’s.

          In Las Vegas, we went to see the musical, “Hair,” and were amused by all the much older people in attendance who got up and left once they got a whiff of something aromatic. I’m sure it wasn’t real weed, but they were sorely offended by it anyway. I can imagine the stampede if they’d stayed to the end when the entire cast comes from beneath the parachute silk totally naked. Whoa!!!

          We tried gambling a little bit, but we hated wasting our money. Still, it was quite the experience to be there at that time. The Las Vegas Strip still had all the old neon lights and places like Circus Circus and Caesar’s Palace hadn’t yet been built. We saw “Hair” in the MGM Grand which was fairly new.

          Back home, I wanted to make a ton of stuff for Christmas. I baked and cooked and made all kinds of stuff. Some of it turned out fine and some of it didn’t. I remember this green Jello-like candy that was so gross I just tossed it.  We went to my parents in Chehalis for Christmas and had a wonderful time. They loved their new stockings as well as all the goodies I’d made.

          If memory serves, we celebrated New Year’s Eve at John’s best man’s home. He and his wife had everybody over to celebrate. It was a potluck and we ate and drank and had a wonderful time. When the clock struck midnight, John and I shared a big kiss and then everyone went around kissing everyone else. I don’t think I’ve been to a party like that since, and John remained the best kisser I’d ever kissed.

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