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.