When I finished my last post, I was reminded that I broke up with Paul during that first year of college. It was a time when I doubted whether making a full commitment to this man was the right thing to do. We were both so young and inexperienced in the dating arena. We had become close friends through high school. We talked about our faith – we had questions about how we would go forward in our lives – he was sure what he wanted, I wasn’t. I felt this time apart would be a real test for us. We could be free to date others and then make up our minds what we would do in the future. He wasn’t happy about my decision. We went our separate ways. I dated one of my college friends. He dated a girl that he worked with at the “Y.” The chemistry wasn’t there for either one of us. I guess it didn’t take much testing for me to find out that my plan was a mistake. We were made for each other.
The first year of extended education was over. Paul would now head out for his stint in the Air Force. He enlisted in the Air National Guard and became an airplane mechanic. He sent me the above photograph in his uniform. My mother went berserk. She said he looked so handsome in that uniform. You’d think she was the one pledged to be his wife. He did look amazing though. When he came home after basic training, he had put on 20 pounds of muscle and had acquired a whole new vocabulary. He was dismissed from the dinner table for using some of it. That language eventually went away- thankfully. During his time in the reserves, Paul was called to be on alert for the Bay of Pigs Invasion. No one was sure what was going on at the time, but they had to gear up and get to the airport pronto. Again, God was guiding our future. The Invasion was avoided, but there was a lot of nail biting going on waiting.
I had another year of school. I was involved in the local learning channel puppet show productions. I acted as a stage manager. I look back at this time as a precursor to what I would do later in life with my writing skills and TV experience. I learned the art of Shorthand. I call it “an abstract art form.” I got my first real job at the end of the school year as a stenographer, because I had this ability. The problem is, I didn’t know what all those scribbles meant. It required me to ask my boss to repeat the letter. Eventually I worked from a dictaphone machine. My boss was a very understanding man. My place of employment was an advertising agency in the media department. I learned all about placing ad space and researching the demographics of specific areas. That experience came in handy when Paul went into the same field of endeavor.
That year went quickly and when he returned from the service, he enrolled in the Layton School of Art to study art. He became well versed in sculpture, design, painting and studying art history. All of those things helped him to follow the path he’d chosen for his life. I was now in the workplace and making money. After the ad agency folded, I found another job in a finance company, working as a cashier, loan closer and skip tracer, which was kind of like detective work. This is when I had the horrific experience of being robbed at gunpoint.
As you can see by the other photograph, Paul was now sporting a Van Dyke beard and mustache – very artsy. I was paying attention to the fashion magazines, with hair that reached the ceiling and required two cans of hair spray. We were a darling couple. We had no idea what we’d be getting into when we married, but it would be an adventure of a lifetime. We watched as some of our high school friends tied the knot. We waited again for the right time to get married. Believe it or not, we also waited to consummate our love until our wedding night. I know that isn’t the norm these days, but we were both glad we waited.
