On 03/29/10 Glenn wrote:
The last 50 years have been nothing short of a great adventure for us, as I am sure the next 50 will be. After graduating from Milby, we spent a summer filled with job searches, all being dead end and with no finances to go to College at the time. We started our Great Adventure through life.
Elaine started nursing school at Memorial Hospital in Houston where she was to make her home for the next three years. I, on the other hand, joined the USAF and was off to basic training, separated from the love of my life. I traveled and lived in Colorado, Louisiana, and Rabat Morocco, where I spent the better part of 2 ½ years.
I was recalled from Morocco to the US by the Cuban Missile Crisis, after which I was to be stationed in Louisiana for a second time until the spring of 1963. In December 1962 I convinced Elaine to be my bride. She was still in nursing school and still had to take the state boards. I was transferred to Nebraska for what we hoped would be our home away from home. I took my bride to Nebraska and our first of many homes. Well, we spent one short winter in Nebraska with Elaine working the Medical Floor at the county hospital and me instructing Small Arms.
Then we were off to the Eifel Mountains of Germany where we lived, worked and played for the next 3 years. Elaine kept busy teaching Mother Baby Care Classes, and giving birth to our daughter Deborah. Meanwhile I was working gun systems on several types of aircraft with trips to Tripoli, Libya. Mixed with our Germany style living, we traveled across Europe with an 18 month old, something that most of the people in Europe thought only ugly Americans would do.
We returned to the US in 1967 and Elaine had to remain in Houston awaiting the birth of our son Gary. I went to the desert of California and Elaine joined me after the arrival of our son. We were to make our home there for 7 years. Elaine worked in the ER of the local hospital taking care of adventure seekers who came to the desert to play on the week end. I instructed pilots for deployment to Vietnam and supervised aircraft loading on evenings on flight line.
In the middle of our 7 years in the desert, I was to take an extended trip of 18 months to Vietnam and Thailand, where I flew and instructed during 1185 hours of flight time in Gun Ships. Meanwhile, Elaine returned to the medical floor at Memorial SW during my deployment.
Upon completion of my tour, to my displeasure it was back to the desert of California, where we would stay 3 more years and celebrate the birth of our son Matthew. Elaine worked in the ER and I was back instructing gun systems with trips to Ohio and Florida. I went back to school in Riverside (50 miles one way) 5 days a week, 6 hours a day, while working 3-11 shifts to have days free to attend classes. In December 1972 I received orders for another overseas tour. Having had it with family separation and being due for discharge, I elected to leave active duty for the reserves. We returned to Houston and Elaine once again went into the ER at Sharpstown General Hospital. I went to work for Motorola and then to the Houston Police Department.
I once again started back to school as a freshman claiming none of the college credits that I had from the previous 13 Years. Needless to say English Literature was harder than expected it to be, having been out of the formal classroom for 13 years. My interpretation of literature was from a different perspective than the Professor and students with less real life experiences - all much younger than I was at the time. I just had to put my faith in Cliff Notes and keeping my mouth shut as much as possible. Taking 18 hours a semester for 3 years during the day and working 3-11.
Being a content family was not to be in God’s plan for us. We were blessed with 3 more children, one being a ‘special needs’ child, when my sister was killed. God provided for us shortly thereafter. Elaine was recruited to be the School Nurse at the local elementary school, thus giving up the ER and hospital work, and allowing her to be at home when David arrived home from school. I dropped out of school and started working a day shift to be able to assist Cheryl and Tracy with their homework since the school they had come from was well behind that of their new school.
Elaine continued as a School Nurse for 20 Years until retiring in June 2000. I was recruited back into the military with the Texas Air National Guard where I continued to serve after Desert Storm, retiring in August 1998 after 26 Years of military service. In February of 2000, after 26 years of service, I also retired from the Houston Police Dept.
We have built our log home among the bluebonnets in Iola, Texas (between College Station and Huntsville). We enjoy our bluebonnets, gardening, and trips to NASCAR races. We also enjoy travel to see our kids and great places of the US. We have lived or traveled to 35 states and 16 foreign countries. We still look forward to more road trips to the North East where we have missed a few states. In August 2009 we made a 5600 mile, 13 state trip. We had to stop at 31 quilt stores along the way.
We have completed two mission trips to Mexico to build a Church and Orphanage. We have completed 4 Trips to Mississippi to help repair damage caused by Katrina, rebuilding homes, installing roofs and giving general encouragement to victims of the storm.
Elaine is busy most days between counseling at The Hope Pregnancy Center and volunteering with Hospice while working her flowers and quilting. I still spend a lot of time on rebuilding cars and airplanes. My present projects are a 1987 Pontiac Fiero and a Cessna 150G. I also make bright colored quilts. Most of the quilts we make are care quilts for those undergoing cancer treatments.
Our children are scattered to the four winds. Deborah our daughter is in Killeen TX. She works in school administration. She has a daughter and two grand children. Gary is in Montana where he is a supervisor with The Montana National Guard, both civil service and military. His house holds 5 of our grand children - 3 boys and 2 girls. Matthew has just retired from the USAF as an Air Traffic Controller and will start with the FAA in May. He now lives in Brandon, Mississippi while raising two of our grand children. Cheryl lives in Kentucky working as a loan officer in banking. She is married to a professor at the University of North Kentucky. Tracy lives in Stafford TX, working as a Special Education Aid for FBISD. She is raising our oldest grandson. David is now residing at The Bastrop Community Living Center, working for the Group Home Corp.
Glenn's words of advice.
Life for us is still an adventure, and God only knows where he will have us be or what we will do next. Life is too short to try to plan out all our actions, just flow and enjoy life. I hope your life has been an adventure. It is never too late to start one. Eat dessert first!
CLICK HERE to return to the top of the main section after reading comments below, and/or making your own comment.
Comments