Forty Three Years...and counting

I would be remiss if I did not mention that today is our anniversary. Ah, a late January wedding...ice, snow, sleet. Yep, that is what we did. I had just returned from nine months in the Med and took Christmas and New Years duty for other people, in port, so I could get two weeks off (which was not the rule) before we set sail again. Aleene was finishing her last year at IUP (not sure what it was called then) and had a semester break in January (and some how cut a few second semester classes.) Bingo. Let's do a wedding.

THE day was preceded by a week of final preparations including a trip to the Lawrence County Court House...Aleene's birth certificate in hand (we were afraid the clerk would not believe she was 21) we set off to get our marriage license.

THE day was rainy and icy. We got married at 7:30, so it was cold and dark. The church was lit by candles save for a few lights up front for the musicians and the preacher. That was January 23, 1965.

We drove to Florida stopping frequently along the way...and when we got there I put her on a plane back to Pittsburgh so she could get back to school. What a let down. As it worked out we were able to see each other about every six weeks that spring.

I sent her $100 and she would buy a plane ticket to either Jacksonville or Norfolk where the ship was in the shipyard. I even flew up in late May for a brief overnighter at Grier School for Girls in Tyrone. That is a story in itself about how a pilot from the ship, knowing I was from PA and recently married thought I might want to ride with him as an observer so he could fly a Navy plane home to Tyrone to visit his parents who owned the school. (His name was Tim and unfortunately he got shot down in Vietnam the next year.)

By June, Jeff was on his way and I had a chance to be home for Aleene's graduation and then off to the Med again. During this time at sea, I got orders for shore duty in Philadelphia, so we knew that we would be together again in September.

Thus ended the honeymoon...the rest is history....and it has been a great 43 years, yes it has.