When Changes Come

As a young married couple, Eva and I wanted our own home as soon as we could afford one. We had very little of anything of value when we got married because our engagement was a very short 35 days. We got engaged on Valentine’s Day 1964, but we did not have a wedding date in mind at that point. A short time later, I received a letter from Selective Service informing me that I was required to have a physical on March 20, to determine my qualifications for service in the military. The Vietnam War had become very big after Lyndon Johnson had become President. I think that was my birthday gift from the government for turning 21.

Eva had moved out of the apartment she had been living in with a friend and back home with her family to save a little money. I was still living at home with my family. With only the home phones to have conservations, we tried to be together as many nights as possible. My job at Gulf Oil had me driving to Port Arthur every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On those days, I had to be at work by 4:30 am and did not get home before 7:30 or 8:00 pm. As the date of my physical got closer, Eva began talking about our wedding date with a more urgent concern. I knew that she loved me and wanted to spend the rest of her life with me, but not knowing if I would be going to Vietnam in the near future, I assumed we would get married after I got back from Vietnam if I went to the army.

On Tuesday, March 17, we went to Bailey’s Drive-In to eat and talk. With my physical scheduled for that Friday, Eva was very emotional, more than I had seen her before. She wanted me to know that she wanted us to get married before I went to Vietnam. The conversation was difficult because I did not want her to be married to me while I might be fighting a war on the other side of the world and might not return. When I took her back home, the last thing she said was “I would rather be your widow than to never have been married to you.” She kissed me and went into the house. The next day while I was driving to Port Arthur and back to Houston, all I could think about was her last statement to me. It was not just her words, but how she said it that I could not forget.

I called Eva when I got back to the Gulf Building to let her know that I would pick her up on the way home to go eat and talk. That is when I told her that I agreed to get married before I would go into the army. Eva responded with a kiss and then she said, “Let’s get married Saturday!” I realized she meant three days later, and that was a shock to me. It was Wednesday night and so we went to our church and waited for the Wednesday night service to be over, then we met with our Pastor. We told him that we wanted to be married and asked if he would marry us at the church. He said yes and then asked when. Eva said Saturday! He asked, “Which Saturday, what date?” Eva responded “this Saturday!” After laughing, he said you are serious, aren’t you?

He explained all of what would have to be done including getting the Marriage License, and blood tests, and that we would need a letter from him to waive the 3-day wait period required back then. He wrote a letter for the waiver, scheduled the wedding for 2:00 pm on Saturday, and scheduled a rehearsal for Friday night. When we left the church, went looking for an apartment. We rented our first apartment at the first location that we looked at. It was a fairly new apartment complex that was not close to where our parents lived, but it was not far from downtown where we both worked. It was a one-bedroom apartment on the third floor and it was ready to be moved into. We went to Montgomery Wards the next evening and bought living room furniture that would be delivered on Saturday morning and we bought my wedding ring there as well.

Eva bought a wedding dress that she liked, Mom agreed to make a cake and have the reception at our house after the wedding and I believe JoAnn helped with flowers and the decorations at the church. I believe Mom called the extended family members to let them know about the wedding and Eva and I called some of our friends. We got our blood tests done and on Friday after my physical, we went to the County Court House to get our marriage license. We had a quick rehearsal on Friday night with the Pastor, JoAnn, Lynn, Eva, and me to go through the process. On Saturday morning, I went to the apartment so that the furniture could be delivered, then to Globe to get some other things we needed for the apartment. Then I went home to get dressed for the wedding.

The wedding started at 2:00 pm and there were a lot of family and friends there with no prior planning or notice sent out, way more than I expected. Our close friends were there to support us and celebrate our day and we did what “could not be done”. My family made the reception at our house special by just doing what needed to be done with a smile. The pictures bring back memories of that effort by many. Lynn and the guys decorated my car with “Just Married” and tin cans tied to the bumper and the parade of cars following our car with horns honking.

Eva and I were pretty much broke so we went to a favorite restaurant for dinner that night and then to our apartment. We both took the following week off from work, but we could not afford to take a Honeymoon trip. We spent the week setting up our apartment and getting a dinette table and other things. Mostly, just getting to know each other’s likes and dislikes. Our meals were part of that learning process because I was a picky eater that Eva had to adjust to, but we learned together what worked. Eva was the one that really made it work with few issues. The following week would be the real test when we both went back to work from our new home and with my work schedule.

On Monday morning at 3:30 am, I got up to get dressed to go to work downtown. Eva would be riding the bus downtown as usual, but from a different bus stop; however, she did not have to be there until 8:00 am. She got up at the same time to see me off and to latch the chain lock on the door. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, my hours were 8:00-5:00 so we could ride together downtown to work. That first weekend, we did our first grocery shopping trip together as a married couple. It was that weekend that Eva told me that she would hear the door open after I left the apartment on the early days, and the chain lock would make a sound like it was being tested. We went to the apartment manager to get the door lock changed, but they refused and had no other available apartment. The following week, Eva said it continued to happen but she was afraid to go into the living room when she heard the sounds.

So after two weeks of marriage, we moved to another apartment at a different location. It was an older complex with a smaller apartment, but it was managed by the family that owned it. Most of the tenants had been living there for years and many of the families had small children, a much better place where Eva felt safe when I left early. We were in the Garden Oaks area, closer to stores and a bus stop and our neighbors became friends soon. Some of the older couples would make an effort to talk to Eva when they saw her alone. The kids got to know her quickly and Eva might have something small that she got for them.

We had been married about 8 weeks when I was told by my boss that my job would be changing and I would no longer be going to Port Arthur and working that overtime. The overtime pay helped to pay bills and buy extra things needed when starting out. I was told I would be working night shifts that would affect our lives in a big way. Those changes went into place on June 1 and on that day I interviewed for the job at NASA and started working at NASA the following day.

Within a short period after getting married, we had moved to a different location and I had changed jobs. I bought a new car to get better gas mileage for driving almost 100 miles a day to and from NASA. We were in a constant state of adjusting our lives but in an exciting way. When faced with a challenge, we just moved forward, supporting each other and trusting God. A few months later, I was able to take a week’s vacation and we went to New Orleans for our delayed Honeymoon. That was the first trip we had taken as a couple and it was fun. Eva liked the restaurants like Brennan’s, but she let me know she did not like most of what was in the French Quarter.

After our vacation, Eva quit her job and went to work at Gulf Oil getting more pay and better benefits. I was learning so much every day at NASA and getting more responsibilities. The owners of the apartments where we lived built some new units and we were able to move into a new 2-Bedroom apartment without leaving the complex. Then in September 1965, we signed a contract to build our first home. We moved into our home on Christmas Eve 1965. So much had occurred during our first two years of marriage when we had no clue what would happen just two months after getting married.

We were just along for the ride.