Over 48 years ago...
There was a very young girl. Sixteen, to be exact. And a young man. Only twenty. This is their love story.
.jpg)
When I was in high school I worked at a store called Sav-On. It was the first in our area and comparable, at that time, to what Walmart is today. As you entered, there was a Topsy's Popcorn by the front door. *For those of you unfamiliar to Topsy's...you have missed out. It's really good popcorn!* Back in those days we made it fresh...no ordering online! I made caramel, cinnamon, and regular. *I can almost taste it!* Cheese-flavored came years later.
Dan's mom never learned to drive, so he always brought her to get her groceries. Thankfully, her store of choice was Sav-on! Dan saw me working there and wanted to meet me. A boy that he went to school with worked in the camera department, so he asked him to introduce us. We visited for a short time. Soon after that first meeting, I had my tonsils removed and couldn't return to work for two weeks. Dan thought he had lost me forever! My first week back at work he appeared, but this time he asked for my phone number. It seemed that every night I worked, thereafter, he came for a visit instead of just for the reason of bringing his mom to get groceries. He came to see ME!
Dan started calling me on my days off, and finally asked me out on a date. We went to the Empire Movie Theater in downtown Kansas City, Missouri and saw "The Great Race". Upon taking me home, he asked if I would go out again. After our first date, we began having weekly dates, plus phone calls. On our 4th date, a month later, I finally let him kiss me goodnight. He let me know it was going to be the last date if he didn't get a kiss! I know he would have come back! Haha! We dated steady for several months.
It was getting time for him to go "active duty" into the Navy for the Vietnam War. He hated leaving me, so he proposed, but not in the traditional way. He said to me, "I want you to go with me, and the only way that can happen is for us to get married." He asked my mom for my hand in marriage, we set the date, and got married on June 25, 1966. We went to Noel, Missouri for our honeymoon for just the weekend. We didn't have much money for an extravagant honeymoon. In fact, we were quite poor.
Dan served in the Navy from 1966 to 1968 on the destroyer ship, the USS Harold J. Ellison DD-864. I supported him from various places in the states, and waited eagerly for him to come home, and for our lives to begin...together.
.jpg)
We just celebrated 48 years of marriage! Of course, with this disease we weren't able to celebrate in the traditional way this year, but we still spent the day together. Each day is difficult, but still so precious. I said I would love Dan in sickness, and in health, until death do us part...and I meant it.
After marriage, and the military there were houses, and children, and boats, and motorcycles, and LIFE!
~Ginger~loving wife to Dan
Next...The early days of marriage...
There was a very young girl. Sixteen, to be exact. And a young man. Only twenty. This is their love story.
When I was in high school I worked at a store called Sav-On. It was the first in our area and comparable, at that time, to what Walmart is today. As you entered, there was a Topsy's Popcorn by the front door. *For those of you unfamiliar to Topsy's...you have missed out. It's really good popcorn!* Back in those days we made it fresh...no ordering online! I made caramel, cinnamon, and regular. *I can almost taste it!* Cheese-flavored came years later.
Dan's mom never learned to drive, so he always brought her to get her groceries. Thankfully, her store of choice was Sav-on! Dan saw me working there and wanted to meet me. A boy that he went to school with worked in the camera department, so he asked him to introduce us. We visited for a short time. Soon after that first meeting, I had my tonsils removed and couldn't return to work for two weeks. Dan thought he had lost me forever! My first week back at work he appeared, but this time he asked for my phone number. It seemed that every night I worked, thereafter, he came for a visit instead of just for the reason of bringing his mom to get groceries. He came to see ME!
Dan started calling me on my days off, and finally asked me out on a date. We went to the Empire Movie Theater in downtown Kansas City, Missouri and saw "The Great Race". Upon taking me home, he asked if I would go out again. After our first date, we began having weekly dates, plus phone calls. On our 4th date, a month later, I finally let him kiss me goodnight. He let me know it was going to be the last date if he didn't get a kiss! I know he would have come back! Haha! We dated steady for several months.
It was getting time for him to go "active duty" into the Navy for the Vietnam War. He hated leaving me, so he proposed, but not in the traditional way. He said to me, "I want you to go with me, and the only way that can happen is for us to get married." He asked my mom for my hand in marriage, we set the date, and got married on June 25, 1966. We went to Noel, Missouri for our honeymoon for just the weekend. We didn't have much money for an extravagant honeymoon. In fact, we were quite poor.
Dan served in the Navy from 1966 to 1968 on the destroyer ship, the USS Harold J. Ellison DD-864. I supported him from various places in the states, and waited eagerly for him to come home, and for our lives to begin...together.
We just celebrated 48 years of marriage! Of course, with this disease we weren't able to celebrate in the traditional way this year, but we still spent the day together. Each day is difficult, but still so precious. I said I would love Dan in sickness, and in health, until death do us part...and I meant it.
After marriage, and the military there were houses, and children, and boats, and motorcycles, and LIFE!
~Ginger~loving wife to Dan
Next...The early days of marriage...
No comments:
Post a Comment