We met in April of '67. It was a blind date arranged by the girlfriend of one of my buddies. I have written about all that before. If I remember, I'll link that story at the end. I went back to San Diego when my enlistment was up in July, with no intention of ever seeing Arizona again. I had some strange idea about "getting on with my life". I didn't want to talk about Vietnam anymore; I didn't even feel much like sharing stories about Germany or anything to do with the Army. I was so full of what I didn't want, I never considered what I did want.
It turned out that no matter what I wanted or didn't wanted, everyone around me seemed to have their own lives, their own wants, and very little concern for anyone else...least of all me. Everyone was getting married or getting high. What disturbed me most was how little impact my being gone had made....and how little my return had mattered. I can't begin to count the number of times I heard, "Oh, are you back already?" Or, "Were you gone somewhere?" I guess it sounds kind of selfish of me to expect that people I had gone to high school with would notice I had been away. They were getting on with their own lives...whatever that meant.
I had a crap job, driving a truck for Walker Scott Department store, moving stock from store to store or warehouse. I wasn't making enough money to do anything but buy enough gas to get to work and a burger now and then. I was living at home. My folks were cool about everything, but I felt like they were waiting for something to happen...not pushing but watching real close.
On that morning when I realized that my life was not "getting on", that nothing was going right at all, I made a couple of decisions that fixed everything. It was amazing how, once the decisions were made, everything re-focused and my life became real again. Decision one: I was going to ask MC to marry me and Decision two: I was going back into the Army and going to Germany. That day was a Tuesday. I called MC (she was in Phoenix) and asked her to come to San Diego. She said, "OK". Later, when she was there and I said I thought we should get married, she said, "OK"....I told her I wanted to go back into the Army and she said, "OK". So we did. We got married on that Saturday. We both quit our jobs and got on with being "US". I went back in the Army on the following Monday. We went to Germany, started our family, and have been "getting on" with our lives together ever since, on our path to "Happily Ever After".
After being together for a few years now, I find that she still has the capacity to thrill me, surprise me, make me laugh, make me cry, fill my soul with joy, and make me feel like I matter. She has never asked me, "Are you back so soon?" and she has never not noticed when I was gone. She is always glad to see me and she makes me feel real.
That Saturday in El Cajon when we were married was the 7th of October 1967....forty-five freaking years ago tomorrow. Just thought I'd let you know how I felt about it.
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