REFLECTIONS ~ 50 yRS OF MARRIAGE

Many things have happened over the past 50 years; some very hard and difficult situations and many happy and exciting events have taken place.

We were talking with our friend Merel recently and found out that her Mama had always lived in Milledgeville, GA.  She lived her married life 8 miles from her childhood home until her passing this past December ’25 at the age of 94.  Where as Ron’s Mom lived in four places after her marriage to Pete in 1949 until her death in ’08 at the age of 86. 

On the other hand, we have lived in more places than most people, at least we think so.

~ The Many Places we Have Lived ~ Part I

1. We began our married life in Las Vegas, Nevada in a little one-bedroom apartment on Bonneville Parkway.
   1. The memories we have from there include being woke up at 11:30p on our first New Year’s Eve together by Tim & Martha to join their New Years Eve Party. Yes we had gone to bed around 10:00p.
   2. I was laying on the bed and Ron wanted to surprise me so he came running into the bedroom and face planted on me and the bed, sending the box springs and mattress to the floor.
   3. Shortly after we moved out I was looking for the nightgown I had been given for our wedding night. After searching and searching we realized it had been left hanging on the back of the bedroom door.
2. We then bought our first home in Las Vegas ~ a single wide trailer, 12’x70’, on Lake Mead Blvd.
   1. Shortly after we moved in I had met the girl that lived next door and we were visiting on our couch when all of a sudden we heard the most gut wrenching sound. Only to find out Ron had come home from work early and was puking into our front flower bed.
3. I began working as a secretary/receptionist for Tupper Real Estate and we found a cute little duplex to buy. We sold our trailer and moved to N. Las Vegas. Our stay was a short one ~ 1 month!
   1. We found out the house was infested with cockroaches!
   2. We were robbed twice in that month. Shortly after the first time, Ron saw a young kid walking down the road with his field jacket on…the kid tried to tell Ron his last name was Workentin – um we don’t think so. 
   3. The second time Ron’s sister Judy had come to visit for Thanksgiving since I couldn’t travel after miscarrying our first baby boy at 5 months. Our pastor had loaned us their small TV for me to watch during my recovery.  We wanted to introduce Judy to some friends and when we returned an hour later and our little home had been broken into a 2^nd  They stole the TV and Ron’s rifle but not the $500 Judy had in her suitcase.  And that was that ~ we sold the duplex back to Mr. Tupper and moved into an apartment on Statz Rd.
4. Our little apartment on Statz Rd was a complex with 4 apartments in a row, a swimming pool and our apartment in the middle and then another row of 4 apartments. We were a fun little community and also had quite the reputation.
   1. We played card games with the other couples in the complex. One night while playing spoons I (Ali) and Scotty ended up breaking a dining room table as we both climbed on it to grab the spoon!
   2. While living there we were expecting our 2^nd & 3^rd children (though we didn’t find out there were 2 until just a couple of weeks before they were born). The families in the complex all went camping over Memorial Day weekend.  Being very pregnant I had a difficult time getting up off the ground; one morning I called out to Ron to come help me up and so he came into the tent, grabbed both my hands and before he could pull me up to a standing position one of the guys walked by and yelled “oh my goodness they are going at it again!” Everyone laughed.  We had a great group of friends there: John & Pam, Rick & Pam, Scotty and his girlfriend and Fireman Jim with his wife.
5. We moved from Statz Rd in with my mom, stepdad and little sister after we had found out we were having twins! Plus getting ready to make a major PCS move to the Netherlands so everyone thought it would be best if we moved in with my mom until the twins were born and then just leave from their home to go to the Netherlands.
   1. Our boys were born on August 8, 1977.  Royce was born with a great set of lungs weighing 4 lbs 8 oz and 18” long; Jamie was born bluer than blue jeans, weighing 3 lbs 12 oz 19 ¼” long.  Sadly, we said goodbye to Royce when he was 3 days old.  He died  of neonatal sepsis from swallowing the amniotic fluid.