The next 3 years were nearly idyllic. We were young newlyweds with a terrific little boy. We had our issues, money was tight for one thing, but we worked through things as they showed up, just like all newlyweds do.
Douglas was almost perfect too. He was as crazy about his Mom and Dad, as we were about him, and the 3 of us bonded well. He was the ideal first born.
Before I knew it, my hitch was almost up. Originally, I was going to do my four years and then go back to Loudon, but with about a year to go I had to start rethinking that idea. I had a family now and that changed everything. I could still go back to Loudon, but what would I do when I got there? Plus, she wasn’t too anxious to be so far away from her family. So, if I stayed in California, what would I do? After a lot of discussion, we decided I should look at re-enlisting.
So I did. The only rub was my career field was full so if I re-enlisted it would have to be in another field. Yuck. Remember those military tests in high school that I thought were no big deal, just a day out of class --- the same tests that severely limited my options in basic training? Well, they took one look at them and said, “Unless you retake these and make lot better scores, we can’t use you.”
So I did. There were tests in 4 categories; General, Administrative, Mechanical, and Electronics. Originally, the highest score I made was a 30 in Mechanical, after the retake the lowest score I made was 75 in Electronics. So now when I looked for a new career field, I had a bunch to choose from, especially those with bonuses. I selected Weather and received a $5000 re-enlistment bonus.
How did I get so smart in 4 short years? I didn’t. I just had an attitude adjustment.
The downside was I was going to have to go away for 4 months to go to school in Illinois, but besides missing Barb and Doug, it was a really good time. I met a lot of good people and learned that I wasn’t such a dumbass after all, not when I applied myself,
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Him
I cannot begin to image what a woman goes through when she finds out she’s going to be a mother for the first time. They have to have a lot more to deal with than men do, I mean we’re just observers; women actually do the work and run all the risks. But with that said, I was floored when I found out I was going to be a father for the first time, so I had all I could handle.
I could not believe the mixture of emotions. Happiness, fear, excitement, worries, you name it, and I felt it.
Was I ready for this?
Was it a boy or a girl?
Was it healthy?
Was there more than one?
Was my wife going to be okay?
How much more was it going to add to our already stressed budget?
Would I do a good job raising it?
What other changes would we have to make?
We would need a bigger apartment and a crib and high chair and car seat and clothes and diapers and on and on.
I still vividly remember the first time she put my hand on her stomach when the baby was moving. It felt so funny, but it made everything hit home. This was for real.
My wife and her mom started talking about the baby being a girl, and although I little girls are special; I wanted the first one to be a boy. So I told them in that macho redneck way, “Nope, the first one’s gonna be a boy!” And it was.
A couple of weeks before he was born her doctor decided to induce labor. I took her to the hospital and sat beside her for what seemed like forever while this IV was supposed to make her go into labor. Nobody told my son. He was more than satisfied right where he was. After 8 or 10 hours, they let us go back home.
On Christmas morning, 1972, she woke me up and said she was having contractions and it was time to go. I thought, “Wow, I’m going to have a Christmas baby!” Nope. He still had ideas of his own. She was close enough to having him that they kept her at the hospital, but he took his time showing up. She was there from 6 am until 1 am the next morning before he was born. I sat with her almost the entire time except for an occasional bathroom break and quick drag on a cigarette. Then, at about 11 pm, I wimped out. I was hungry and tired. I knew she was too, but I had to do something. I told her I was going to go to the waiting room and drink a cup of coffee and would be right back. I fell asleep.
The next thing I remember, a nurse is shaking me, saying, “Mr. Presley would you like to come see your new baby boy?” I literally ran to the recovery room. Now I know people say that newborns can’t focus on anything, but when they brought him into the room in an incubator, he looked right at me. To this day I would swear he knew who I was.
I had no way of knowing at the time, just how big of a role he would have in my life.
I could not believe the mixture of emotions. Happiness, fear, excitement, worries, you name it, and I felt it.
Was I ready for this?
Was it a boy or a girl?
Was it healthy?
Was there more than one?
Was my wife going to be okay?
How much more was it going to add to our already stressed budget?
Would I do a good job raising it?
What other changes would we have to make?
We would need a bigger apartment and a crib and high chair and car seat and clothes and diapers and on and on.
I still vividly remember the first time she put my hand on her stomach when the baby was moving. It felt so funny, but it made everything hit home. This was for real.
My wife and her mom started talking about the baby being a girl, and although I little girls are special; I wanted the first one to be a boy. So I told them in that macho redneck way, “Nope, the first one’s gonna be a boy!” And it was.
A couple of weeks before he was born her doctor decided to induce labor. I took her to the hospital and sat beside her for what seemed like forever while this IV was supposed to make her go into labor. Nobody told my son. He was more than satisfied right where he was. After 8 or 10 hours, they let us go back home.
On Christmas morning, 1972, she woke me up and said she was having contractions and it was time to go. I thought, “Wow, I’m going to have a Christmas baby!” Nope. He still had ideas of his own. She was close enough to having him that they kept her at the hospital, but he took his time showing up. She was there from 6 am until 1 am the next morning before he was born. I sat with her almost the entire time except for an occasional bathroom break and quick drag on a cigarette. Then, at about 11 pm, I wimped out. I was hungry and tired. I knew she was too, but I had to do something. I told her I was going to go to the waiting room and drink a cup of coffee and would be right back. I fell asleep.
The next thing I remember, a nurse is shaking me, saying, “Mr. Presley would you like to come see your new baby boy?” I literally ran to the recovery room. Now I know people say that newborns can’t focus on anything, but when they brought him into the room in an incubator, he looked right at me. To this day I would swear he knew who I was.
I had no way of knowing at the time, just how big of a role he would have in my life.
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Honeymoon in Vegas
To say I was smitten would be an understatement. It was more like head over heels and most likely because she was just so unlike any of the girls I knew before. She wasn’t exactly wild, but she was free spirited, always on the go and having fun. In a lot of ways, she was a living contradiction to what I imaged life should be like. I would have eventually done most of the things I did because of her, like buying my first car, but it wouldn’t have been as soon as it was, or as much fun.
The “aunt” she was visiting turned out to be just a long time family friend, and after she went back home, my sole priority was to find ways to see her again. This led to even more episodes; like the Saturday morning I had to be downtown before daylight to catch a bus to where she lived and had to almost physically fight off an old gay guy hanging around out in front of the bus station who wouldn’t take no for an answer when he asked if I wanted to go to his apartment for breakfast (actually it was hell no, but he wouldn’t take that either), or the day I hitched a ride with a friend and while we were driving across the desert a group of about 30 or so Hell’s Angels swarmed around the car like we weren’t even there as they passed us and went on up the road, or the time me and several of the guys were out drinking and we all went to her house drunk. Her Mom couldn’t stop laughing at us, and I couldn’t figure out why.
So I got the car and we were free to go anywhere --- the mountains, the desert, the ocean, LA. We put countless miles on that car. I became a fixture at her house and even today, I count her Mom and Dad as two of my best friends.
Did you ever notice that sometimes when you’re not paying close attention that life has a way of jerking you back into reality? Or put another way, when you’re young and think you know everything, life has a way of showing you that you didn’t know anything. Well, take my word, it does. It’s not something that we hid from our families or friends either --- what happens, happens --- so I’ll just say that soon enough, we were getting married.
Honeymoon in Vegas. Let’s see. First, I forgot to pack the shirt I was going to wear, which was the only button up shirt I had, so I borrowed a friend’s shirt. If you look closely at our wedding pictures you will see my collar tucked into my jacket since his shirt was one of those with the long pointed collars. Then we found out after the wedding, that even if you are dressed up as a bride and groom or not, if you’re not 21 you are not going to gamble. Then finally, her younger brother thought he could invade our room later that night to sneak a smoke so his parents wouldn’t find him. We let him stay for one, but when he started to light up another one we kicked his butt out.
You know, anything that starts off like that is going to be a hoot!
The “aunt” she was visiting turned out to be just a long time family friend, and after she went back home, my sole priority was to find ways to see her again. This led to even more episodes; like the Saturday morning I had to be downtown before daylight to catch a bus to where she lived and had to almost physically fight off an old gay guy hanging around out in front of the bus station who wouldn’t take no for an answer when he asked if I wanted to go to his apartment for breakfast (actually it was hell no, but he wouldn’t take that either), or the day I hitched a ride with a friend and while we were driving across the desert a group of about 30 or so Hell’s Angels swarmed around the car like we weren’t even there as they passed us and went on up the road, or the time me and several of the guys were out drinking and we all went to her house drunk. Her Mom couldn’t stop laughing at us, and I couldn’t figure out why.
So I got the car and we were free to go anywhere --- the mountains, the desert, the ocean, LA. We put countless miles on that car. I became a fixture at her house and even today, I count her Mom and Dad as two of my best friends.
Did you ever notice that sometimes when you’re not paying close attention that life has a way of jerking you back into reality? Or put another way, when you’re young and think you know everything, life has a way of showing you that you didn’t know anything. Well, take my word, it does. It’s not something that we hid from our families or friends either --- what happens, happens --- so I’ll just say that soon enough, we were getting married.
Honeymoon in Vegas. Let’s see. First, I forgot to pack the shirt I was going to wear, which was the only button up shirt I had, so I borrowed a friend’s shirt. If you look closely at our wedding pictures you will see my collar tucked into my jacket since his shirt was one of those with the long pointed collars. Then we found out after the wedding, that even if you are dressed up as a bride and groom or not, if you’re not 21 you are not going to gamble. Then finally, her younger brother thought he could invade our room later that night to sneak a smoke so his parents wouldn’t find him. We let him stay for one, but when he started to light up another one we kicked his butt out.
You know, anything that starts off like that is going to be a hoot!
Friday, December 03, 2010
California Girl and the Tennessee Square
With the passage of time, I adjusted more and more to my new home, albeit slowly. After the initial excitement of getting there wore off, there were bouts of homesickness and sometimes loneliness. And if that wasn’t bad enough, if you don’t find a way to deal those two soon enough, you can add stupidity to the list. That’s the only reason I can give for the dumbass stunt I pulled on a couple of my pen pals back home. I’ve never really obsessed about it, but even today I wish I could have found a way to apologize. If either of you ever read this, you’ll know who I’m talking about, so I do apologize.
Eventually, I did work my way out of it, thanks in no small part to one of the guys I worked with. He had moved off base and started dating the oldest daughter of the family who rented him a room. I can’t remember all the wherefores and whys, but on a some of their outings the daughter was required to take along her little sister, and I got picked to go along to keep the little sister company. We weren’t dating, we were socializing; she knew that and I knew that, but it was terrific just to be able to get out. Besides, she was 14 and even I had a sense of right and wrong, so she was way too young for an “older man” of 19. I enjoyed her company though and she seemed to enjoy mine.
That lasted about 6 months or so, and was instrumental in getting me out of my shell. Over time, she has became a “Poster Child” of sorts for me, and represents a lot of people who touched my life over the years whose name I have long since forgotten. Her first name was Linda, I remember that much, but I draw a total blank when I try to remember her last name.
Next was Lois, who was in the Air Force too. We only went out 2 or 3 times. She had a car and I didn’t, so it was a touch awkward, with me driving her car when we went out. But what the hey, at least I wasn’t sitting around in my room. And besides, along about then another friend was looking for someone to go to a party with her “niece”, who was visiting at the time.
There’s a line in Forrest Gump that goes, “….I don't remember bein' born. I don't recall what I got for my first Christmas and I don't know when I went on my first outdoor picnic. But I do remember the first time I heard the sweetest voice in the whole wide world…” Our first meeting was something like that, only it wasn’t just her voice, it was everything about her. Okay, later on we would be married, and she would eventually become my ex, but I’m not going to sit here, 40 years later, and pretend she didn’t move me, because she did. Our divorce does not change that. I even found it incredible she would go out with me a second time. I borrowed a friend’s car and took her to the drive in. I was so nervous I knocked down the speaker stand of the first spot I tried to park in.
That was the start of a whirl wind relationship. We did everything together, went everywhere together, almost constantly on the go. She was helping this kid from the hills settle into a new world; a world I never knew existed.
Eventually, I did work my way out of it, thanks in no small part to one of the guys I worked with. He had moved off base and started dating the oldest daughter of the family who rented him a room. I can’t remember all the wherefores and whys, but on a some of their outings the daughter was required to take along her little sister, and I got picked to go along to keep the little sister company. We weren’t dating, we were socializing; she knew that and I knew that, but it was terrific just to be able to get out. Besides, she was 14 and even I had a sense of right and wrong, so she was way too young for an “older man” of 19. I enjoyed her company though and she seemed to enjoy mine.
That lasted about 6 months or so, and was instrumental in getting me out of my shell. Over time, she has became a “Poster Child” of sorts for me, and represents a lot of people who touched my life over the years whose name I have long since forgotten. Her first name was Linda, I remember that much, but I draw a total blank when I try to remember her last name.
Next was Lois, who was in the Air Force too. We only went out 2 or 3 times. She had a car and I didn’t, so it was a touch awkward, with me driving her car when we went out. But what the hey, at least I wasn’t sitting around in my room. And besides, along about then another friend was looking for someone to go to a party with her “niece”, who was visiting at the time.
There’s a line in Forrest Gump that goes, “….I don't remember bein' born. I don't recall what I got for my first Christmas and I don't know when I went on my first outdoor picnic. But I do remember the first time I heard the sweetest voice in the whole wide world…” Our first meeting was something like that, only it wasn’t just her voice, it was everything about her. Okay, later on we would be married, and she would eventually become my ex, but I’m not going to sit here, 40 years later, and pretend she didn’t move me, because she did. Our divorce does not change that. I even found it incredible she would go out with me a second time. I borrowed a friend’s car and took her to the drive in. I was so nervous I knocked down the speaker stand of the first spot I tried to park in.
That was the start of a whirl wind relationship. We did everything together, went everywhere together, almost constantly on the go. She was helping this kid from the hills settle into a new world; a world I never knew existed.
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