My Family Today

I would like to begin by saying, being a proud father and grandfather, you will see some pictures of the kids placed throughout this page.

Everyone does not get married in a fever. But, I think I did. I met my wife while home on leave from the Marines in 1968. The folks took me to church, and she was singing in the choir. She kept looking at me and smiling. I don’t know why, maybe I was the only one in church that day in uniform. She happened to sit down just behind me after the choir came down from the stage. Gee a pretty girl behind me I thought.. Prettiest thing in the choir that day. She handed me her name and address and after church asked if I wanted to write to her when I went back to base. I was stationed in Camp Pendelton, California at that time.

I went back to Camp Pendelton, and wrote to her. She was still in High School and playing in a local band. She was a singer with a beautiful voice. I wrote to her for about six months and she wrote back. Then came the letter to me when she said that she was pregnant. The baby wasn’t mine either, because we never went out together. Just met her in church that one day. What happened was one of the guys in her band took her out, and the way she put it. . . his mother was with them, and they were going to the next gig. The car supposedly broke down, so they had to get a motel room and it only had two beds in it. She had to sleep with the guy, and she said that he forced himself on her that night. She became pregnant, and when she told the guy he left town and went to Canada.

I wrote and asked her to marry me. It didn’t matter if she was pregnant or not. I really had a soft heart back then. You know..one of those hard core Marines being soft too. I was getting transferred from Camp Pendelton, California to a base in Hawaii, in July 1969, so I took about a two week leave and went home. She lived in Parkersburg, W.Va. at the time. I flew there from California and I stayed with her parents. I didn’t even tell my folks I was in town. They found out about our marriage after she put it in the local paper. Why didn’t I tell them? Simple, they didn’t approve of her and I knew it. I should have listened to them. Sometimes your parents know more than you think about someone. I just knew her from the letters she wrote to me. Some people would call them love letters. I was a lonely Marine stationed in California. So her letters enticed me.

I gave up another little lady in Texas to marry Terri. The one that wrote my poem to my parents after I left to go overseas. She was the sweetest little thing in all of Texas too. She still has a place in my heart today. Sandra Chesney was only about 16 when she started writing to me. I couldn’t write her a letter before I went to Vietnam, because her dad wouldn’t let us write to each other. She wrote the poem 'Song of Pride' to my parents after I left for Vietnam. She wrote to me after I came back from Vietnam when I was stationed in California. She shocked me when she started sending me letters. Then they started to become loving letters. In December of 1968 I sent her a package for Christmas. It was returned to me unopened by her dad. I received a letter from her explaining what had happened. Her dad did not want me to write to her any more, or her to me, until she was age 18. Well this broke my heart. She finally wrote her last letter to me the month after I was married. August 1969. I never heard from her after that. She went to college, and a couple of years after that and married someone she went to college with. They have six children and live in Texas. I still have a place in my heart for her. I hope that one day I can meet and see her again, and thank her for what she has been to me, an inspiration.

I was married July 23, 1969, to Teresa E. Walker of Parkersbug, W. Va. I was home on leave from the service when I got married. I wore my dress blues for the wedding.

We stayed at her mom and dad's place. Then two weeks after I was married I had to leave for my new duty station in Hawaii. She took me to the local airport and saw me off.

I spent less than nine months in Hawaii, and then came home to a civilian life.

I did not think I could afford to stay in the service and support my new family. We moved out of her mom and dad's and into a house that her grandmother used to own. We lived there for about a year or so. We decided to move out to the country. We rented a two story country home. There we could have animals if we wanted any. I did have a pet skunk one time. Had her from when she was a few weeks old until she was nine months old. We had to turn her loose eventually. We were buying a trailerhouse and didn’t think that anyone in the mobile home park would enjoy a skunk.

We bought the trailer house, and lived in it for about two years. Then decided to buy a house. We purchased a three bedroom house. We lived just outside of town, in West Virginia. It was in a housing district. During this time I landed a job at Ideal Corrugated Box Company in Parkersburg, W.Va. I worked there for about two years and then in August, 1972, I started working for Johns Manville, that's where I am today.

In summer of 1976 we decided we wanted some land, so we bought a house in Ohio. That's where we live today. Our marriage has had its ups and downs. Two divorce attempts by my wife, and a judge ordered separation for one year. So all of this tears a relationship apart.

I have one son, Scott and one son that is not mine, Chris, but I claim him I have two grandsons, Corey, age 10 who belongs to Chris, and Jacob, age 2 who belongs to Scott.

Scott was married a very short time, about 3 weeks, and then divorced. Scott has the custody of Jacob, and we help take care of him. Scott works for a local grocery store here, and he works the midnight turn five days a week and then trys to sleep during the daytime. Chris works for a local nursery here, doing landscaping.

I use to go fishing with my son Scott alot. We camped out at some of the local parks near here. He traveled out west with me alot to other states. He’s been to Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, and other western states. On the day we were going west to Kansas, he had to take his drivers test for his drivers license. Then he wanted to drive the car all the way out there, and then when we were coming back, he drove it. Took some of the driving off of me. I’ll tell you all about these adventures in my next page. . . My Fun Persuits.