Hello Again Dear Friends,Here's the happy homemaker, cooking supper for her husband in her brand new apartment. Our first home was in Pineville, Louisiana, at 110 Julia Court.
We had leased the apartment, bought some furniture from H&H Appliance in LeCompte, Louisiana, from some neighbors on Clover Lane, and along with some borrowed pieces from Uncle Luke and Aunt Jo; we had the place all ready for our return from our honeymoon. Have I mentioned that I have episodes of clumsiness? Well, so much for the tradition of carrying the bride across the threshold of her new home! Now, to be fair, it was a physically challenging feat in that our unit was up about 18 concrete steps...but, I think I made a very shaky three steps before we collapsed in a heap. Trudy unceremoniously declined a second try as she entered the home without any further help from me! Sorry, no pictures of that moment!
However, the hill that we had to traverse also had a benefit. In addition to the Mustang, I had picked up a candy apple red, 1965 VW Beetle. It had a weak battery and being unable to afford a new battery, I simply parked on the incline...you guessed it...so I could release the parking brake, get her rolling, pop the clutch, and putter on through the neighborhood on my way to work. It was simply inspired for this couple living on minimum wage for Robert ($1.61/hr) and full-time college student, Trudy. A further economy measure that Trudy employed was to take a couple of classes from LSU-A, while she took the majority of her classes at Louisiana College. Even in those days, LC was EXPENSIVE.
Trudy had always been very punctual in getting to class on time...before she got married! Now, it seemed that she sometimes arrived right at the bell...or even a little late. For some reason, that seemed to provoke some good-natured teasing from her profs and fellow students. I can't imagine why.
My bride constantly found ways to amaze me with her transparency of heart and soul. On our first Christmas, we started our tradition of waiting until morning to open presents. We had zero mushy presents as we gave each other the things that were useful more than fun or playful. I sooo was pleased to get my red tool box...that I still employ even now! Trudy loved to sew and she used her skill to make clothes that saved her from having to buy some things...a very frugal young wife indeed. Well, youdathought I had bought her an expensive diamond when she found a brand new Brother sewing machine under the tree that Christmas morning in 1971. She was happy and cried happy tears and simply could not believe she was having such a spectacular first Christmas with her new husband!
We only occupied that apartment for six months before a nice change occurred for us. My dad had been working in Winnfield, Louisiana, for about a year before we got married. He would commute from Alexandria to Winnfield, stay a couple of nights in the old Winnfield Hotel, and so on, back and forth. Shortly after our wedding, dad, mom, and Marcia made plans to move to Winnfield. So, the timing was perfect for us to complete our lease on Julia Court, and then move into my former house at 1720 Clover Lane. We had special friends that shared in the newly wed experience at the same time...Mickey and Marlene Sawrie; and Lynn and Kat Todd. These were our really close friends in those formative early days and we were together a lot. We had them over often and did lots of fun things. One memorable excursion, was up to Monroe, Louisiana, to the Louisiana Purchase Gardens and Zoo with Mickey and Marlene. Kat was a home-ec student teacher at Alexandria Senior High School. One class, she undertook a lesson on marriage. She asked me and Trudy to join her and her husband in a panel discussion format to present our newlywed experiences to her high school students...hilarious moments...as we commanded all of our few months of experiences to sound like experts on marriage! Thankfully, that was one time I didn't stick my foot in my mouth too bad, and our marriage survived all of my bold statements of how to do this "marriage thing" up right.
Oh, and we had our first vacation during the Summer of 1972. Aunt Jo taxied us out to the old Esler Field Airport and saw us off on a flying trip to Washington D.C.. My brother Jack and his family hosted us for the week. We did everything we could pack into a week. Smithsonian Museum, Monuments, Mt. Vernon, Arlington National Cemetery, and a Marine Corps Monument Evening program. We had a great time and were deeply touched by the patriotic experience.
We also bought our first new car that Summer of 1972. We loved the Mustang, but it had an annoying problem that I just could not solve...the A/C unit would build up some condensation that wouldn't drain properly. So, every so often when I would make a left turn, Trudy would get a shoe full of cold, nasty water dumped on her feet. So, when I'd had enough, I traded it in on a shiny new sky blue 1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle. Cost was high for this new ride, though...about $2.600.00!! But, we were able to finance it for 36 months at $87.00 per month, so we decided to make the leap and we had our new car.
Oh, what extraordinary times for Trudy and Robert! We found married life to be a grand adventure of discovery and joy. Next time, the amazing events that would challenge our young bride in 1973.
Blessings,
Robert
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