09/03/2026
September 3, 2025
Good morning,
No memories again this morning. I am not sure how this is true as I always have memories after so many years of posting.
I have been a reader all of my life although it was a rare thing for me to read a book while I was a wife and a working mother raising my young sons into manhood. My sailor husband gone a lot and all the holding of family together was mostly on my shoulders. I never blinked an eye or felt sorry for myself. I just did what I had to do.
That military career was not in our thoughts when I married in 1964 at the age of 18 nor did moving to Long Beach, California so far away from home. We were just two young people in love. I had maybe in all my life been out of Texas only once. I was maybe 3 when we went to Arkansas to visit friends of mother and daddy. The only thing I remember about that trip was getting a tick embedded in my little body. I think it was because it hurt but more so it was terrifying to me. I am not sure what all they tried but my memory remembers me terrified because daddy's friend who smoked was coming at my thigh with a glowing cigarette and I thought he was going to burn me. I remember daddy telling me in a calm voice, the man was only going to get as close as he could to heat my skin so they could get that tick. Daddy said for me to be very still so I didn't get burned as they had tried everything else. I settled down and that tick didn't like the heat from that cigarette. They got it out of me. Funny how that popped into my mind.
Anyway, at 18 my life did indeed change as a young wife far away from all I knew and the safety net of family. My husband netted $100 a month give or take a few dollars. Our rent of an apartment was $70. We had no car, little money but it wasn't long before I had a job and it was a good one. I was hired by Pacific Telephone as a long distance operator. Starting pay was $300 a month plus shift differential and holiday pay..and overtime if I worked it. WE WERE RICH!!! And so this started our way of life as we knew it. We were a 2 income family.
Our first call was a 1953 Plymouth. It was beat up and some of the glasses cracked. We bought it for $125 total. We drove that car for a couple of years and sold it for $75 and by the time we sold it that old Plymouth was a 2nd car. One of Mike's young shipmates gave him $75 to use it for one week while he had family visiting him. That leads to something else. Mike was out at sea right after we got that car so I was the one who had to find car insurance. Liability of course. I get some. Within a few weeks, I get a cancellation saying I was too young to purchase insurance and my husband would have to pursue. So in the eyes of the law I was old enough to be married but too young to purchase insurance. So, I wait for Mike to come home but getting insurance would not come easy as now I had a cancellation on my record. Doing nothing wrong I felt this was very unjust.
Mike and I was as proud of that beat up old car as if we had a brand new Cadillac. We drove it to Beverly Hills and we bought a map and drove up and down its streets looking at homes that belonged to people we knew who entertained on a silver screen. As we drove around, we realized how we must look in such a lofty neighborhood and laughed.
Days, months and years passed and finally 22 1/2 years brought the end of a military career and my husband retiring in 1985 as Senior Chief of the Command at NAS DALLAS. Our life went on but before our 25th anniversary our marriage as we had known it did not survive. I say this because it was a hard time for me. I didn't believe in divorce yet I was getting one. Now I have 2 behind me. I am certainly not proud of that but neither am I fretting over the fact...it is a just a fact.
My young years as a military wife made a strong woman of me. As a single mother, I did my best to give my sons stability and roots. In my minds eye, I succeeded. In theirs, you'd have to ask them.
I have never cared about keeping up with the Jones....I was raised on enough and I was and am happy with that.
Until nest time......
Partners are nice to come home to, but in our opinion, an unread stack of books is even better! 📚💤
[🤪Meme by Bookstr Team]
