Legacy of a Lifetime (Part 3) :: MARRIAGE & MILITARY

A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN

   During his time in Statesville, my Dad and Mom met and started dating.  The night that they met is another story woven into my Dad's life tapestry.  He tells the story whenever he gets the chance.

   My mom, Betty, lived in Troutman, which is a very small town near Statesville.  Her two uncles ran a skating rink, and my mom frequented it with her friends.  One night, she was there with a friend when my dad and his friend also showed up.  His friend and my mom's friend somehow knew each other, or met that night, and hit it off.  At the end of the night, he offered her a ride home, but she had a friend (my mom).   My dad's friend had a truck, and the cab only had room for three people.  So my dad's friend said, "Someone is going to have to sit on someone's lap!" and the other girl said, "I'm NOT sitting on anyone's lap," so just by the process of elimination, my mom agreed to sit on my dad's lap on the ride home.

   Both my dad and my mom say that they do not remember many of the specifics of that night, only the part about riding home together (literally!).     Even though my mom agreed to the arrangement, and my dad went along with it, they were both terrified and afraid.  Neither of them talked to each other, or said much at all.  They do not remember how they ever started dating, or the next time they met.  But obviously, this was an interesting start to their life together.

   Mom and Dad began dating while they were still in high school.  After their strange first meeting, they do not really remember when they saw each other again or started dating, but Mom thinks it must have been back at the skating rink, because they both went there often, especially Mom, since her uncles ran the place.

AIR FORCE @ CHEYENNE

   After high school, Dad joined the Air Force.  He flew to Texas for basic training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, then on to his assignment at Francis E. Warren AFB in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  He was attending classes, was in the Top 10% of his class, and also had a job as a munitions clerk on the base.  He would check various weapons and ammo in and out to those authorized to use them.

   Dad related one story recently about Mom missing him and wanting to come out to visit him.  She and dad's mother had actually booked a flight or made plans to take the trip.  But Dad says he observed the others when they were out on leave, and he was aware how they behaved around other women.  He told my mom to cancel the trip.  This was a pretty bold and gallant move for my dad to make, considering how much they were missing each other.  Mom was disappointed but understood the reasons.  She never made it out to Cheyenne.   Dad has -always- had a desire for them to go out there to Cheyenne, so he could show Mom his base.  He has also mentioned the Frontier Days festival.

Cheyenne's Frontier Day Festival

   Mom has told me that Dad was only stationed in Cheyenne just a little over a year, so he only had one opportunity, in July 1951, to go to the Frontier Days festival, which has been held during the summer for many years.  Evidently Dad could not get a pass to go off base during the days of the festival.  I know that he really wished to go. It would've been something like a Bucket List item for him.  And all through the years, he had mentioned it many times.  I am sure he wanted to take Mom and go back out there for a trip to visit his old Air Force base and to take in Frontier Days with her.  Unfortunately, his health problems inhibited him from traveling, and this sadly never ever happened.   I hope to go out there someday and visit all of those sites that he wanted so badly to revisit.

   Dad was stationed there about a year when his mom had a nervous breakdown, and dad was given an honorable discharge to go home.  Dad had made it to PFC and then Colonel, and was planning on staying in for awhile.  However, he was the youngest son, and needed at home.  It ended up that my grandmother moved in with my mom and dad, and stayed until her death in February 1975.  She was, for all intensive purposes, a second mama to my sister and I from my birth until her death.  I was in college at the time, and during a trip home at Christmas, she told me that she would not get to see me again. At the time, I didn't think anything about it, but her prediction came true, and I came home on a plane from Florida a short time later for her funeral.  My sister was nine at the time our grandmother passed away.  She was a wonderful, caring lady who helped while both of my parents worked each day.