1963
G recovered quickly and didn't need surgery. I stayed at the hospital most of that weekend. His parents were there briefly on Sunday, then said to call when he was released and they left. Monday, I had to go back to school. C.A.S. had spread word of the accident before I got there. I wanted to go back to the hospital after school, but my brother needed our car. Remember the friend who lost his girlfriends ring on a hayride and I hunted through straw all night to find it? Well, he told me he'd take me to the hospital. He had an errand near there and could leave me and pick me up later. What he didn't tell me was that he'd be driving his sisters little M.G. and his buddy would be going too. After school, I found B. and J. and a very small two seat midget of a car. B. drove. J. stuffed himself into the "boot" and they took me to see my boyfriend. When we got to the hospital, poor J. was so cramped we could barely uncurl him to get him out of the car. It was funny, but I told them to go on and I'd find another way home.
G was in great spirits and said they were going to release him in the morning and he'd be home before I got out of school. I called home and then waited with G till my brother came to pick me up. Mom never mentioned the grounding or that G wasn't allowed to come back for a month. The next weekend he was back and driving an old car his Dad had owned forever. They had even named it Nellie. It reminded me of the "51 Chevy that Mom refused to ever drive again. G continued to drive Nellie and didn't even seem to be in any hurry to buy another car.
G had been lectured after the accident. His Father was annoyed at his lack of maturity or focus or goals. If G wanted my sympathy when he told me, I'm afraid he didn't get it. I was crazy about him, but I wasn't blindly in love. There was a lot of conversation every which way, and in the end G decided he would enlist in the Army. He wasn't interested in going back to college like his parents wanted. He was still rebelling.
My parents were real happy with this decision. Dad believed the Army would be good for him. Make him grow up a bit. Mom saw it as a way to seperate us. Then I made both my parents very unhappy with me. G asked me to marry him and I said yes. Under the condition we wait till he had finished his service. That was agreeable with him, and I was the first girl in the Senior class to show up with a diamond on my finger. Mom calmed down when I assured her the wedding was three years away. Dad didn't speak to me for months.
G went off to basic training and I concentrated on my school classes and activities. We expected G to be stationed far away after basic. It was a scary time. The Cuban Missal Crisis and the Viet Nam War were in the news. Not to mention Nuclear Bombs and Russia. But, I saw it as a good omen, when his break between basic training and assignment couldn't have been timed more perfectly. I got to take him to my Senior Prom and he was in Uniform. His assignment was Wilmington, Ohio. I was engaged and my Father was speaking to me again. I was a happy girl when I graduated in 1963.
I had started looking for a job before graduation and was hired by General Telephone Company to be a Long Distance Operator. I had turned our car over to my brother and wanted an apartment close to the job. My Phy. Ed. teacher was quitting at our school and returning to her home state. She set it up so I could move into her apartment. Another good omen. I graduated on Saturday, moved on Sunday and started training at G.T.E. on that very Monday.
It was all very exciting. At first. During training I was working days. My friends could hang out at my apartment with me. But, once training was over, I discovered I would be working a split shift. Four hours on, then off four hours and then back to work for four more hours. Which really messes up a whole 12 hours. And, the hours changed each day, so my friends couldn't keep up with my schedule. They gradually stopped visiting as summer progressed and there was more to do. Then there was a ridiculous dress code at work. We entered work from an alley, climbed up three floors and were restricted to a break room and the equipment floor. No one ever saw us, but we had to wear dresses and our hair had to be kept combed. In other words I couldn't join my friends at the pool during my four hours off. There wasn't time to get to the pool, hang out, get dressed and dried and back to that third floor. Or do much of anything else without a car. Everyone else was off till College or working days and free in the evening. My second four hour work shift took up my evenings.
My apartment was upstairs in a large old house and had one very big room, plus a bathroom. One wall had a small fridge, cook top and sink. No oven. There was also a very large walk in closet. And, I had a fireplace too. There were three other apartments on the second floor. I shared a wall with Howard. He was a young bachelor who taught at our local branch of O.S.U. The other apartments were occupied by a truck driver who was seldom there and a young woman who worked in an office. Neither one of them spoke to us. If they were home, they were locked in their rooms. Howard and I became friends. He promised my Mother he's watch out for me. His teaching schedule meant he was home at odd hours too. Our doors were often left open and we talked back and forth from our rooms.
The floor downstairs was taken up by an Architects office and their drawing tables and one other apartment occupied by a sweet little old retired lady. There was a full kitchen at the bottom of a beautiful wide winding stairway. Everyone in the house had full access to the kitchen. I loved to bake and used the kitchen a lot. When I baked the smell would bring the architects in to share cookies or cake. So, even though I wan't happy with my work hours, there were compensations. I became interested in the designs the architects were working on. They explained a lot of their work and talked to me and accepted my ideas. This became a hobby that I still play with. I must have a barrell full of floor plans I've drawn over the years.
I think I would have been content to go on like that for quite awhile. But, G and the Army were about to turn my world upside down.
G was in great spirits and said they were going to release him in the morning and he'd be home before I got out of school. I called home and then waited with G till my brother came to pick me up. Mom never mentioned the grounding or that G wasn't allowed to come back for a month. The next weekend he was back and driving an old car his Dad had owned forever. They had even named it Nellie. It reminded me of the "51 Chevy that Mom refused to ever drive again. G continued to drive Nellie and didn't even seem to be in any hurry to buy another car.
G had been lectured after the accident. His Father was annoyed at his lack of maturity or focus or goals. If G wanted my sympathy when he told me, I'm afraid he didn't get it. I was crazy about him, but I wasn't blindly in love. There was a lot of conversation every which way, and in the end G decided he would enlist in the Army. He wasn't interested in going back to college like his parents wanted. He was still rebelling.
My parents were real happy with this decision. Dad believed the Army would be good for him. Make him grow up a bit. Mom saw it as a way to seperate us. Then I made both my parents very unhappy with me. G asked me to marry him and I said yes. Under the condition we wait till he had finished his service. That was agreeable with him, and I was the first girl in the Senior class to show up with a diamond on my finger. Mom calmed down when I assured her the wedding was three years away. Dad didn't speak to me for months.
G went off to basic training and I concentrated on my school classes and activities. We expected G to be stationed far away after basic. It was a scary time. The Cuban Missal Crisis and the Viet Nam War were in the news. Not to mention Nuclear Bombs and Russia. But, I saw it as a good omen, when his break between basic training and assignment couldn't have been timed more perfectly. I got to take him to my Senior Prom and he was in Uniform. His assignment was Wilmington, Ohio. I was engaged and my Father was speaking to me again. I was a happy girl when I graduated in 1963.
I had started looking for a job before graduation and was hired by General Telephone Company to be a Long Distance Operator. I had turned our car over to my brother and wanted an apartment close to the job. My Phy. Ed. teacher was quitting at our school and returning to her home state. She set it up so I could move into her apartment. Another good omen. I graduated on Saturday, moved on Sunday and started training at G.T.E. on that very Monday.
It was all very exciting. At first. During training I was working days. My friends could hang out at my apartment with me. But, once training was over, I discovered I would be working a split shift. Four hours on, then off four hours and then back to work for four more hours. Which really messes up a whole 12 hours. And, the hours changed each day, so my friends couldn't keep up with my schedule. They gradually stopped visiting as summer progressed and there was more to do. Then there was a ridiculous dress code at work. We entered work from an alley, climbed up three floors and were restricted to a break room and the equipment floor. No one ever saw us, but we had to wear dresses and our hair had to be kept combed. In other words I couldn't join my friends at the pool during my four hours off. There wasn't time to get to the pool, hang out, get dressed and dried and back to that third floor. Or do much of anything else without a car. Everyone else was off till College or working days and free in the evening. My second four hour work shift took up my evenings.
My apartment was upstairs in a large old house and had one very big room, plus a bathroom. One wall had a small fridge, cook top and sink. No oven. There was also a very large walk in closet. And, I had a fireplace too. There were three other apartments on the second floor. I shared a wall with Howard. He was a young bachelor who taught at our local branch of O.S.U. The other apartments were occupied by a truck driver who was seldom there and a young woman who worked in an office. Neither one of them spoke to us. If they were home, they were locked in their rooms. Howard and I became friends. He promised my Mother he's watch out for me. His teaching schedule meant he was home at odd hours too. Our doors were often left open and we talked back and forth from our rooms.
The floor downstairs was taken up by an Architects office and their drawing tables and one other apartment occupied by a sweet little old retired lady. There was a full kitchen at the bottom of a beautiful wide winding stairway. Everyone in the house had full access to the kitchen. I loved to bake and used the kitchen a lot. When I baked the smell would bring the architects in to share cookies or cake. So, even though I wan't happy with my work hours, there were compensations. I became interested in the designs the architects were working on. They explained a lot of their work and talked to me and accepted my ideas. This became a hobby that I still play with. I must have a barrell full of floor plans I've drawn over the years.
I think I would have been content to go on like that for quite awhile. But, G and the Army were about to turn my world upside down.
posted by LeeAnn | 5:59 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks for visiting Leeann. I like your rememberies too. So sad about your friend Jan.
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