Navy Girlfriend

In the 50's, many children of working class families like ours chose to go into the Army, Navy, Marines orAir Force so they could receive education for a profession.  Upon coming out of the service, they could find jobs fairly easily since they had training in so many fields.  At age 17, I had a boyfriend, Bob, who chose the Navy because we were talking about a life together and he knew I was a diabetic and needed health coverage, medical supplies and of course, a stable life.  He was 18, graduated from high school and decided the Navy was the best option.  

We wrote every day.  We shared poetry.  We wrote of all the experiences we were having separately.  Bob even made plans with some friends he had in the high school I was still going to, to surprise me by coming home on leave, taking  me to the Junior Prom, (even though I was a senior; he couldn't get leave for MY prom.) having arranged all plans, having a friend buy the tickets etc.  It was a wonderful time and just amazing to have someone do all the planning and work for this event just for me.  It reminded me of my 16th birthday when he and our other friends threw me a birthday party for 16 and had himself wrapped in a giant box as a 'present' for me.  He was always thinking of things like that.  

The young people I'd gotten to know in this new environment in Levittown were very different from me.  They seemed to be formed of 'cliques'.  As I look back now, they were bullies of sorts but not to the extent I hear of today.  One time they invited Bob to a party they were having in their yard.  They told him I would be there.  He told me he went.  Of course I wasn't there because I was never invited.  That night his dog, a collie, got out of the gate at his house and he always blamed himself that his dog was run over because he believed I was going to be at that party.  Odd stuff.  

When I graduated high school, I was accepted into Clara Maas Memorial Nursing School in Staten Island, New York.  Now, my parents and I had never talked about college or anything after high school.  When I told my parents I'd been accepted into nursing school, none of us sat down and talked about it.  I don't think we even discussed the cost or anything else.  My father just said, 

"We can't afford to send you for more schooling.  We can send you to Secretarial School and you'll always be able to make a living"  

That was it.  I had been working at the local library and saving money.  I did not go on any senior trip to Washington, D.C.  I was adult enough to know I had to start taking care of myself.  I used the money to begin Browne's Secretarial School in Hemstead, Long Island in September, 1958.  




ANYWAY.....with Bob gone, not many regular friends as I'd had in Bellerose where we'd moved from, my brother in the Air Force, my father at a new job and my mother going into a deep depression, I was lonely, I was beginning to gain weight, and ready to start business school in a month or so, I just kept writing to Bob and being with my family for the summer after graduation.  We were campers.  That was summer stuff.

I met Ron.  Ron was the iceman at the camp site we went to in summer.  Wildwood State Park was out in Wading River, Long Island.  It was on Long Island Sound and lovely.  There are many good memories there.  Ron had just come out of the Army after a 4 year stint both in the US and Germany.  He thought I was cute.  I thought he was a hunk.  It started there on July 5th 1958 when my family had a birthday party for me at the camp site.  Clare, my sister, was only 4 years old.  Ron was used to little kids as he had 5 brothers and sisters at home in Freeport, Long Island.  His first job out of the army was as ice man for the summer camps in the area of Rocky Point.  He worked out of the ice house there with his friends, Liz and Bob. I was extremely attracted to him.  Well, one year later, on the same day we met, July 5, 1959 ,we married.  

Our honeymoon was borrowing a tent from my parents and camping out for a week in the rain in Wildwood State Park. My parents did give us a wedding present of money to go to a motel for one night before we departed for the camp grounds.  

A week later we were back at our first apartment in Huntington, Long Island.  I had gone to work at Grumman Aircraft in Bethpage after business school and  even found an apartment on the bulletin board there.  Ron had to find a job because the gas station he worked at had let him go the day before our wedding.  He was always successful making money though and had a landscaping job in a few days.  We were having fun, .  

My parents came out for our first Thanksgiving dinner that I prepared.  Clare was getting older and as cute as a button.  She wanted to help and carried plates to the dinner table which was a long fold up table that could seat us all.  Somehow I left the baked potatoes in the oven and found them the next day!  After they left, Ron and I went to a drive in movie.  It was wonderful to be grown-ups and do anything we wanted without someone saying, 

"Don't you think you've done enough for one day?"

I heard much later in my life that when Bob had gotten the 'Dear John' letter from me, all his hair actually turned white overnight.  

Ron and I discussed his getting an education so he could have a career, not just making money at odd jobs.  I found out that there was an aerospace program where he could get his mechanics training and could work at airports with benefits etc.  He said he'd consider it.  I called and asked the representative to come to the apartment .   

Next issue:  Marriage and diabetic challenges.