Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Finally! We Finally got Married


As my last few postings have indicated, I didn't move very fast in the courtship arena. From first date (Dec. 1960) until marriage (July 24, 1965) was almost 5 years. During that 5 years, I had been in Westpac three times, Panama once and numerous local operations. Of course I had also been in Norfolk VA for the year prior to our marriage. We had known each other since I was 10 and she was 5. We had dated for almost 5 years. Wow, they must have really known each other. Wrong! After the wedding it was, "Who is that woman?" Of course she was saying, "Who is that man?"

When I went to Norfolk in July of 1964, I reported to the USS Mahnomen County (LST 912) as Executive Officer. Shortly after reporting, I learned that the ship had been chosen to be a test and evaluation platform for a new class of LSTs to be built with a completely new concept. LSTs were essentially floating box cars about 300 feet long that could carry a load of tanks (or other vehicles, even about 1000 tons of cargo.) The original LST had a shallow draft in the bow which enabled the ship to run up on a beach, open her bow doors, discharge her cargo, retract and head back to sea. The new concept was for two massive derricks to be installed on the main deck to deploy a 75 ton ramp out onto the beach. The tests were successful -- a new class of 20 ships was built in the 70s using this concept. I will discuss this in some later posts, the only issue related to our marriage is that these tests were very important to the Navy and even necessitated a postponement to the wedding (three weeks before it was to take place) and caused me to be very busy after the wedding. Here is a picture of the ship when we were involved in the final tests.


We were engaged during the Christmas season of 1964. I then returned to Norfolk to continue my work on the ship. We finally were able to set the date for our wedding, so I flew home to Bellflower a week before the ceremony. This was a busy week. We had to do all of the normal things, get a license, blood tests, get fitted for tuxedo etc. But, the Pastor wanted us to have some marriage counseling also. This was pretty easy since the counseling was composed of watching three little film strips: Sex, Child rearing and Money. I was insulted -- but, what were my alternatives. I was 28 years old and had been a Zoology major in college. Sex! Really! Well there was a lot I could have learned, but that film strip wasn't going to do it. We didn't have any children, so that was a worthless exercise. Finally, money (actually I could have learned a lot here), Linda was a bank teller and I had been on my own financially for 10 years. The thing I really learned from this exercise was that pre-marital counseling was important enough to do something meaningful. This came in handy when I became a pastor. No Filmstrips!

The wedding was going to be a fairly large affair, so we all got together for the rehearsal in Friday night, July 23rd. The rehearsal went well, so we went to my mother's house for a small buffet dinner. Nothing fancy and didn't cost much. I recommend it. Here is a picture of the wedding party. 




Saturday, our Wedding Day dawned bright and cheery -- but I was completely panicked! What was I doing. You can't imagine how much I feared making a commitment like this. My parents and my grandparents had both been divorced. I saw from observing my parents' divorce that this wasn't pleasant. I didn't want to repeat this, but thought it inevitable. Then my best man, John Pletcher came over and we went out and played golf. I calmed down -- and we did it. The ceremony went well except that my best man dropped the rings and they clattered down the aisle. Oh well, there should be at least one thing that goes wrong. I will finish the marriage weekend in the next posting. Meanwhile here are the rest of our wedding pictures:















Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Our Courtship -- Conclusion




I am so sorry that it has been so long since I have written. I apologize to any readers out there -- but I need to apologize to myself also -- I really have a lot that I want to say, but discipline is a problem. Anyway, here goes: Linda and I finally make the commitment.

As I mentioned in the last posting, I left for Norfolk, VA; by myself. Linda did leave me a crumb of hope though. The morning I was to leave, I stopped by her house and she gave me a box of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. She had me there; I knew she cared. I put gas in the car in Bellflower and left my gas credit card there. I had plenty of money to eat and stay at motels along the way (because I could charge my gas.) But, when I found out that I had no credit card, the situation changed. I did stay in a motel in Las Vegas the first night. I thought that I might still be alright.

The second day, I wanted to make it to Denver. I did, but something was wrong with the car. I can't remember exactly what happened, but I had to get the car repaired in Denver. There went all my spare money. I was holding my breath that I could get gas all the way across. I had already decided that I would stop at my Aunt's house in Cincinnati, so I drove non-stop to her house -- about 26 hours. She helped me out so that I could get to Norfolk.

Linda and I continued to correspond and I even called her once in a while. Then, in September we had a conversation something like this:

She -- "Did you mean what you asked me when you were here?"
Me -- " I don't know, what do you mean?"
She -- "Well, you asked me. . . ?" 
Me -- "When I asked you to marry me?" 
She -- "Yes, that is what I mean." 
Me -- "Of course I meant it."\ 
She -- "The answer is yes."

Wow, she wanted to marry me! We made arrangements for me to go home for Christmas. While there we got a ring and we were officially engaged. We were to be married in July of 1965. I must interject here that I have done a lot of premarital counseling. I wouldn't advise this couple to go through with it. Think of it. After early January, 1964, I saw here briefly in June of 1964, was with here for two weeks in December of 1964 and then didn't see her until the week before our wedding in July, 1965. To make matters worse (remember Linda had never been away from home), we were married on Saturday, spent Sunday with the family, flew to Norfolk on Monday and I went to sea on Tuesday. More about the wedding and subsequent turmoil next time. 

PS. I hope it the next addition will follow quicker than this one.