1967b Married Life
the year her parents brought her to me, the 1st year we lived as a married couple,
the year we moved from Illinois to Indiana.
1967-03-15 I was promoted to what was then called “Airman Second Class” (E3). I gained my second stripe and received a pay raise. My annual pay jumped from $1,037.00 to $1,429.00 ($11,517.00 in today's dollars). |
1967-05-30 Susie graduated high school and quit work. Coot and Dot brought her to me in Rantoul, Illinois. We stayed a week at the Holiday Inn after her parents left. 1967-06-01 I had previously made arrangements for us to stay at a boarding house in Rantoul. However, when I went to claim it, they said they had no vacancy. I was devastated until we quickly found and rented a 5ft. X 15ft. travel trailer that we lived in for the next two months. The travel trailer was so small you had to open the bedroom door to swing your feet out of bed. The toilet, lav, and shower were the same tiny room. The kitchen and dining table were also the living room.  A 1950s travel trailer |
Susie had no TV, nowhere to go, and nothing to do but wait for me to come home each evening so she learned to cook. We were on what the Air Force called "separate rations" which gave us an extra $100 a month to spend on rent and groceries. The whole time we had dated, each time I'd go down to the Little's house next door Susie would be making a Chef Boyardee Pizza or she'd make a cake. I thought she knew how to cook. After we married I learned that all she knew how to make was pizza and cake! When she made me breakfast that first morning in the travel trailer, I told her, "Hey! That's pretty good. When did you learn how to make eggs like that?" She replied, "This morning." Another military couple lived in an apartment in the house next to the trailer. They became good friends and would invite us over to play board games at night. I drove Susie's little red, rear engine 1959 Renault back and forth to the base every day for electronics class until I graduated tech school.  (click for a larger photo) Ron's tech school graduating class. I'm the one on the left, first row. |
1967-07-12 After I graduated tech school we drove from Rantoul, Illinois to the town of Peru, Indiana where I had been transferred to Bunker Hill Air Force Base (later renamed Grissom AFB). That's where I was assigned but there were no apartments available in town when we arrived. We were told to drive south to Kokomo, Indiana and we found an apartment in a four-plex on 408 S. Union Street.  (click the pic for a larger photo) 408 South Union Street in 1968 |
After we found an affordable rental in Kokomo, we left for home in Hueytown, Alabama for the remainder of my 2 weeks leave. My mother's sister, Aunt Tincy Abels, came to visit when we were there in 1967 and took this photo. Her daughter found it years later and shared it with me.  Ron & Susie fall of 1967 - photo compliments of cousin Judy Abels |
Aunt Tincy asked us to pose for a picture so naturally I was glad to oblige.  Susie and Ron on his mother's sofa |
On the way home, the Renault began to give us car trouble. I knew absolutely nothing about auto maintenance so Coot talked Dot's father, Gaston Youngblood, into selling us his 1955 Buick. We drove it for a year. When it, too, begin having problems I couldn't fix, we went car shopping and bought an early 1960s model Oldsmobile F-85. That car gave us trouble too. A crooked car salesman had sold us a lemon, but I was learning how to work on cars a little so it lasted until I got out of service.  A photo of a 1962 Oldsmobile F-85 |
Living on my meager pay as an Airman Second Class was nearly impossible. We couldn't afford anything and had virtually nothing to do except talk or visit the local free library for entertainment. We couldn’t even afford a TV. I had to take our only car to the base each day. For the first two weeks or so, she had nothing else to do during the day so Susie cleaned house. The place was filthy when we first moved there. She cleaned the place from top to bottom. Susie begged me to purchase a TV. I finally found an old, black and white TV at a used furniture store in Peru, Indiana for $5. It provided her a little entertainment for nearly a year. During our first year in Kokomo, Susie decided she wanted a sewing machine. We had no budget to buy one. The only optional expense we had was our grocery budget so we ate Sugar Pops cereal every meal for a month. We saved enough that way for her to buy an inexpensive sewing machine from Sears, Roebuck, & Co. |
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