I
grew up in Midland, PA, a small town in western PA. The town was famous
for it's Forth of July celebration “ it was the social event of the
year." People came from all over to see the parade, the concerts in
the park, followed by the Drum and Bugle Corps competition at night, ending
with the fireworks display. This was one of my favorite holidays growing
up. It's really sad now to see the condition of the town. I have
one brother who is four years older than me. My father worked in the
steel mill in town. In fact, that was the only place one worked to make
good money. My parents were not well off, yet I don't ever
remember doing without. During those days (as in the other bios
I've read), I walked to school (rain, sleet or snow) and I came home for
lunch. The lunch was always hot and homemade because my mother did not
work. I went to Catholic School through the 8th grade and then
high school.
After
my graduation from high school, I went to business school in Pittsburgh, PA
for a year. The school had a placement service and after several
interviews, I still was not able to find a job. One Sunday afternoon, my
cousin came over to our house and asked me if I wanted to take the Civil
Service exam to get a job with the federal government in Washington, D.C. She
took and passed the exam and she was headed for D.C. and she was looking for a
roommate. I took the test and passed and I too was off to D. C.,
much to my parent's chagrin I was moving out of the house. I was the
homebody of the family “ never strayed far from home." As
it turned out, my brother got married in August and he and my sister-in-law
had taken teaching positions in Bel Air, MD and were leaving at the end of
August and I left in September. That was hard on my parents “
especially my mother." I left Midland for VA in September of 1967
and I never looked back. I lived in VA until we moved to San Diego in
1997. I had my first job with the Federal Government as a GS-3 making a little
over $3,000/yr. I thought I was rich! Our apartment was in
Arlington, VA and there were four of us sharing the apartment (girls from my
home town) at a cost of $125/month. Surprisingly, I wasn't a bit
homesick. My brother and I were only an hour or so away from each other
so we visited frequently. My parents came to visit as much as they
could. I went back as much as I could. Back in those days a
round trip ticket from DC to Pittsburgh was $28.
I
met my husband Al in October 1968. He was in the Army (enlisted). We met
at the "Bluejack Lounge" in Fort Myer in Arlington, VA. My
roommates and I would go to this club every weekend. Non-military
were allowed to use this club, but you needed to have an enlisted person sign
you in. So we would stand in front of the door and ask whoever came if
they would sign us in. This particular night I was with my roommate,
Darlene. She really didn't even want to go that night, but I convinced
her she should go. Her fiancé was on leave in Oregon and she was really
missing him. I told her we wouldn't stay long. We were getting
ready to leave when Al and his friend came up to ask us to dance. We
ended up staying longer than planned. Al asked me for my phone number.
Now, I had been in VA for over a year and I had given my number out to several
guys, but they never called and I expected the same from Al. Well you
guessed it "he did call." It was a whirlwind
romance! He left VA in December to go back home to LA for a
month's leave. In January of 1969, he left for Vietnam for a year.
He sent me my engagement ring in the mail (again much to my parent's chagrin)
he returned in January of 1970. I had a cousin who lived in LA so I went there
in January for three weeks and was there to surprise Al when he returned home.
When I think about it, my life could have turned out totally different:
I really didn't know Al all that well (only a few months actually), I didn't
know his family and the same for him, he didn't know me all that well nor my
family. In July of 1970 we were married and this year it will be 34
years and it is still a solid marriage. We have one daughter, Angela who
stayed in VA. She lives in Falls Church. In 1995, Al retired after
25 years with the Washington, D. C. Police Department and I'm still working
”what’s wrong with this picture?”