Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Chapter 22 1976….Bye bye Oak Harbor

Our marriage so far was ok. We only had the one fight, and I continued bartending the day shift from 10-6pm and Larry worked on the base in VP-69. Larry would come in to the bar when he got off work and wait for me to get off work. I would get off and get my going off drink and then the balance game would begin. We had to finish our drinks together before we went home! Most nights we got home around 10PM, I would make dinner then we would go to bed. We would go to the functions that the American Legion put on, the yearly picnics, early bird dinner, the Peace Gavel passing. The Peace Gavel passing was a FUN function!! One year the Canadian Legion would come down to our place and put on a parade in town with their bagpipe band and end up at our Legion and PARTY all day and night!! One year we went to White Rock, British Columbia in a bus. I got the privilege to bartend on the bus to and from!! Whooo hooo!! And all the drinks I could drink for FREE!! Man was that a challenge standing in the back of the bus all the way to Canada pouring drinks and swaying with the turns! If I remember right, I slept on the bus as soon as we got there and don’t remember much of the festivities!! (Typical).
I was beginning to black out a few times more than usual in those days. I didn’t drink every day, and I didn’t get drunk every time I drank, but I did seem to make a fool of myself about once a month! One time was our first wedding anniversary. I worked until 6PM then we were going to go out to a nice dinner and then have a romantic evening. HA!! As usual, Larry had a full beer when it was time to go. People kept buying us drinks, and Larry really didn’t want to go to dinner, so we ended up staying at the Legion! I was upset, and got drunk!! As quick as I drank there was another drink waiting for me. We were sitting at the bar, and Larry was on my right and some good looking guy was on my left. The guy on my left was flirting with me so I flirted back. (This story was told to me the next day, as I have no recollection whatsoever of what happened)! I guess I ended up making out with this guy at the bar, kissing up a storm with my husband sitting next to me!! Larry got me out of the bar and took me home and put me to bed and then went back to the bar and had a stare down with the guy! I cannot believe I did that, but the bartender said OH YES, YOU DID!! I have no idea who that was and according to the bartender it was the first and the last time anyone ever saw him. Oh well, Larry had fun being the bully!! I could just see him scraping his feet in the dirt after taking me home and marking his territory!!
Larry got his last set of orders in June. He was to report to Hartford Connecticut July 15th. He was afraid I wouldn’t go, but I was all excited to have a new adventure ahead of me!! We had two cats and a Pinto station wagon. We had the movers come and pack the household goods and we packed the station wagon with what we would need for a month and the two cats, then headed to Hartford!

Tomorrow….Hartford, Connecticut!!

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