I Never Knew...
I never knew how my parents met and wed. I was talking to my mom today and she told me...and I can't believe I didn't know.
They met between my dad's time in Vietnam and him leaving the Marines for the Army. He had been upset he was only on float in Vietnam and wanted to go back, but the Marines wouldn't guarantee it to him and the Army would. Also, the Marines would have demoted him and the Army said it wouldn't. As things turn out, once he signed the papers, he was demoted anyway and sent to Germany where he was a PSG or SL, I don't remember.
They were at a wedding, a rowdy one my mother says, and she was wearing a wig (a detail I did know before because I always thought it odd that my dad might have fallen in love with a woman in a wig). My mom had a party later my dad went to, which counted as their second date. From there, my dad went to Germany and they wrote each other for about a year.
Things didn't go too well in Germany, there being loads of drugs, alcoholics and race issues in the Army at the time, and I remember my dad telling me bad things about his time there. He was stressed and upset and they stopped writing for about two years.
When he came home, my mom was cutting a friends hair down the street when my aunt came over to tell her the phone was for her. My mom said Aunt Irene made it known who was on the phone and that my mom ran home and jumped over the fence to talk to my dad. He was in town, but couldn't meet and was leaving up to Fort Lewis that night. She said she might be going up there with her sister for a vacation and my dad said if she did, they should go out.
My uncle convinced my mom to go see him off at the airport, but by the time she decided it was a good idea, he was already gone. So, my Aunt Irene (her sister) and my Uncle Richard and their daughter (my nina) went to the airport to find him. They went opposite directions as LAX is shaped in a circle and it was my godmother, a young girl at the time, who found him leaving a bar and asked, "Are you Ed?" He said yes and she said her aunt was looking for him. He gave my mom a kiss and boarded the plane.
My mom went up to Lewis and that's when my dad proposed. Three "dates" and a year of letters. I don't know if the letters still exist, or what was written in them. My mom said she used to look at this picture a lot as my dad had sent it from Germany. She said she'd fantasize and pretend he was buying something for her in the picture and play stupid games like, "I wonder what cologne he has on...I wonder what kind of store it is...I wonder if the bread is good or who he's eating it with..."
They met between my dad's time in Vietnam and him leaving the Marines for the Army. He had been upset he was only on float in Vietnam and wanted to go back, but the Marines wouldn't guarantee it to him and the Army would. Also, the Marines would have demoted him and the Army said it wouldn't. As things turn out, once he signed the papers, he was demoted anyway and sent to Germany where he was a PSG or SL, I don't remember.
They were at a wedding, a rowdy one my mother says, and she was wearing a wig (a detail I did know before because I always thought it odd that my dad might have fallen in love with a woman in a wig). My mom had a party later my dad went to, which counted as their second date. From there, my dad went to Germany and they wrote each other for about a year.
Things didn't go too well in Germany, there being loads of drugs, alcoholics and race issues in the Army at the time, and I remember my dad telling me bad things about his time there. He was stressed and upset and they stopped writing for about two years.
When he came home, my mom was cutting a friends hair down the street when my aunt came over to tell her the phone was for her. My mom said Aunt Irene made it known who was on the phone and that my mom ran home and jumped over the fence to talk to my dad. He was in town, but couldn't meet and was leaving up to Fort Lewis that night. She said she might be going up there with her sister for a vacation and my dad said if she did, they should go out.
My uncle convinced my mom to go see him off at the airport, but by the time she decided it was a good idea, he was already gone. So, my Aunt Irene (her sister) and my Uncle Richard and their daughter (my nina) went to the airport to find him. They went opposite directions as LAX is shaped in a circle and it was my godmother, a young girl at the time, who found him leaving a bar and asked, "Are you Ed?" He said yes and she said her aunt was looking for him. He gave my mom a kiss and boarded the plane.
My mom went up to Lewis and that's when my dad proposed. Three "dates" and a year of letters. I don't know if the letters still exist, or what was written in them. My mom said she used to look at this picture a lot as my dad had sent it from Germany. She said she'd fantasize and pretend he was buying something for her in the picture and play stupid games like, "I wonder what cologne he has on...I wonder what kind of store it is...I wonder if the bread is good or who he's eating it with..."
Labels: Dad
posted by Adam at 12:47 PM
1 Comments:
Yeah, you're killing me, Adam. But I love it. Oh, last night I dreamed you talked Claire and me into joining the Army, and we regretted it immediately. We were issued uniforms and told to run this obstacle course, but somehow I managed to not get shoes. I was hoping they would kick me out for being barefoot when I woke up
in a sweat.
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