The music I have chosen for this page was suggested by a friend I met on the cancer forum. Thank you, Nancy. It is “Stuck With You” by Huey Lewis and the News. I loved the lyric:
Yes, it’s true, I’m happy to be stuck with you
Yes, it’s true, I’m so happy to be stuck with you
‘Cause I can see that you’re happy to be stuck with me
Stuck With You By Huey Lewis and the News
This page will cover from May 28, 1973, the day we left college for my first professional job until the end of 1974 when our story changes to the sacrificial love that Connie provided me.
An Index to the EDS — Starting A Career Page
(Click to go directly )
Move to Indianapolis Indiana
Finding An Apartment
The First Day of my New Career
Summer 1973 – Phase I
An October Surprise
November 1973 — Phase II
February 1974 — Phase III
The Move To Indianapolis Indiana
This story begins on Monday, May 28th, 1973. It was moving day. I had accepted an assignment with the new company I was going to work for in Indianapolis, Indiana. The new company was going to pick up our furniture and move us to Indianapolis. I had signed an agreement that if I left the company before completing their training program, I would have to pay back the cost of the move. The problem was I had no place in Indianapolis to live. Connie and I had not gone up over the past week because of the surgery I had back in April. I still had a couple of doctor appointments and needed to get cleared to go to work. He finally did but I was supposed to find and follow up with another doctor after I moved for a final checkup.
That morning the mover came before 8 AM and they had us loaded in no time. We only had a one-bedroom apartment and the packers had come the previous Friday to pack things up. We were to call them as soon as we found a place and if not, our furniture would go into storage. Since we had so little our furniture was on a moving van with several others and they told us it would be about a week before they got there.
There was just one problem, the Indianapolis 500 was supposed to be run on this day Monday, May 28th, but because of a major accident at the beginning of the race in which a driver was critically injured along with several of the spectators. Rain prevented the continuation of the race and prevented it from being run on Tuesday. When it was finally run on Wednesday it did not run the whole 500 miles because of two fatal accidents. It was and still is the shortest 500 race ever and still is. So, the hotel we had booked told us that a lot of people would still leave on Monday and we would be able to checkin any time on Tuesday.
Connie and I already said goodbye to my mother and other friends, so we decided to drive to Louisville and spend the night get up early and drove to Indianapolis, so we could get there and start looking for a place to live as I was to start work on Friday, June 1st. The problem was it was only about 3 pm when we got to the hotel in Louisville and there was not a lot to do to kill the rest of the evening and afternoon. There sure were not many TV channels back then. I remember both of us being very bored and saying why did we leave so early.
We wanted to get an early start but were now concerned about our hotel room since the race had been postponed on Monday. We decided to leave early Tuesday morning in case we had to find another hotel, and needed to start looking for a place to live. Indianapolis was a little less than two hours, but we left early at about 5 AM. We got to the hotel at about 7 or shortly thereafter. Lucky for us the hotel said that most of the guests did not stay over because they had to be back to work. They gave us a room right away. I changed clothes and a little before 8, I started waking to the EDS office which was probably only about half a mile away. Connie and I used to talk about this as she remembers looking out the window following me as far as she could, so excited about our new life after college.
At the office, I met all the people I was going to work with and was shown around. They also gave me information about the area and where some of the other people were renting apartments. After about an hour left to go back to the hotel and get Connie.
Finding An Apartment
Connie and I were so excited, that we started immediately to check out some of the areas they had suggested for apartments. We decided we look south of the city. After driving around the area for a little bit we had lunch and looked at some places. There was one that Connie fell in love with but it was $165 and I did not want to go over a $130 now I wish I had rented it because she really liked it. We decided to wait and check out the north side of the city the next day before we would make any decision. You can imagine how happy we were, we were on cloud nine. I was going to be making more money than I ever thought I would starting and we were beginning a new chapter in our life. I can still feel the happiness of those days.
The next day, Wednesday, May 30th, was our 3rd anniversary and we were looking at an apartment in north Indianapolis. We looked at several but one that caught our eye was brand new and a lot of the apartments had not even been rented for the first time yet. That evening we celebrated our anniversary at a little hole-in-the-wall place in downtown Indianapolis. What a wonderful anniversary it was. We had decided we were going back to the apartment on Myrtle Grove Drive to take another look and if we still felt the same we would rent it. It was the one in the new apartment complex, where most of the apartments had not been rented for the first time yet.
Thursday, we got up a little later than normal but immediately headed out to the new apartments. We had them show us a couple and rent one. Our new address was 4461 Myrtle Grove Drive. I wish I could remember the name of the apartments but maybe I will one of these days. By noon we had signed a lease and even though it went over the $130, I had set it was only $140 for a brand-new apartment in which we would be the first occupants. Next, we called the moving company to give them an address of where to deliver our furniture. They said it would probably be Monday or Tuesday of the next week. Now I had to go buy some suits. There was a major shopping center on the west side of Indianapolis and by about 5 that evening I had purchased two suits from JC Penny’s, a gray one and a brown one. I was on my way. If I remember correctly it was only about $100 for both.
That evening of May 31st , we celebrated we had a new apartment and tomorrow we started a new chapter in our lives together.
The First Day of my New Career
The next morning, we got up early around 5 AM to check out of the hotel and take her to our new apartment. I took her to the apartment and was worried as she was going to be there all alone with nothing in the apartment, but I was excited to start my career. I found a parking place close to the office and parked there. I was not too worried even though they had a sign that you might not be able to get your car out until the end of the day if the lot got full and you were blocked in. No problem as there was no reason for me to leave early or so I thought. I remember filling out all the new hire paperwork, so I could get paid, health insurance, and then I went to my first business meeting at 10. Boy, did I feel important, no more carrying out groceries, unloading big trucks, stocking shelves, being a sacker, or trying to catch shoplifter, here I was in a suit, sitting in a business meeting, I was so proud of what Connie and I had accomplished in just 3 years. Yes, I include Connie, because none of this would have been possible without her love and support. We were so excited as we knew we were going to have a good life and the future we were building together seemed so bright. After I got back from the meeting around 11, there was a note; that Connie had called and our furniture would be delivered around noon. I asked to leave, and they told me to go take care of it. I went to the parking lot and it was crowded but the attendant helped me and after about 15 minutes of maneuvering, I was able to get out of the lot. I got home somewhere around noon and do not remember if the movers were there or not. The rest of that Friday, June 1st was unpacking boxes and getting everything put away, hanging pictures, and moving furniture around two or three times until we got it where Connie wanted it. We continued that work the next morning and around 2 pm were satisfied, now we needed to go buy some curtains. So, we took off across town to the shopping center where I had bought my suit and bought some drapes for the apartment. We even hung them ourselves, it nice to remember being young before I got RA and all the things we did for ourselves back then.
Summer 1973 –Phase I Learning the Business
Summer 1973
EDS stands for Electronic Data Systems and was started by Ross Perot in 1962. I joined the System Engineer Development Program (SED). It was divided into three phases. During the first phase, you were assigned to an account to learn the business. I was assigned to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Indiana. They processed Medicare and Medicaid claims for the state of Indiana. The first phase was to learn a customer’s business, communicate with the technical staff, and write the business requirements for the programmers. This phase was scheduled to last 12 to 18 months.
We settled into a routine after that first week. I would get up early and Connie usually got up with me and off to work I would go. Since I am color blind if Connie did not get up with me, she laid out my clothes, so they would match. That was not hard because we had to wear a suit and a white shirt. So, all she had to do was lay out a pair of socks and a tie.
Luckily there were 3 of us that started about the same time living in that apartment complex. So, we all took turns driving, so Connie, was without the car only every third week. The other two lady’s names were Jessica and Kathy and they became friends. I was trying hard at work and Connie was doing everything she could to make our home a happy one. It was so much fun back then. One of the earliest things we did was to go shopping for a new television, and we got a nice one that was a color TV. On Fridays, the staff would leave around 4 and go to a Happy hour. I am not a big drinker, so it was never hard for me as I always limited my intake of alcohol. I learned early on that I just could not handle alcohol. I had never had a drink until I went to Germany were I found out that if I took a dollar to the NCO club where drinks where only 15 cents, I would end up back in my room with 55 cents left not knowing how I got there. So I always stopped after 1 drink. If had three then I was out of it.
The weekends were great, as Connie and I both like to go riding in the car. It did not matter where we were going we would just take off. The place we liked the most was a little town just north of Indianapolis called Carmel. We went there several weekends, it was a beautiful area with well cared for lawns and nice houses and I remember Connie and I wondering if we would ever be able to afford a nice home like that. I remember there was a movie theater in the shopping center in Carmel playing ‘The Sound of Music” and neither Connie nor I had ever seen it. When I saw the girl playing Gretl, I could just picture Connie as her being Connie when Connie would have been a child that age. She was always my favorite actress because I thought that what Connie would have looked like and been like at that age. The summer was filled with getting to know the area. I loved the long rides on Sunday, just going nowhere and discovering so much about the area. Connie and I would continue to do that our whole lives.
Since work and coming home became such a routine thing, I will describe some of the events that happened that summer.
Our favorite night was Thursday nights because only about a mile from us was this little shopping center that had a Ponderosa Steak House in it. Thursday nights they always ran a special, steak, baked potato, and drink for 99 cents. I think we may have even gotten a salad with that but I am not sure since I was not a big fan of salads then. I think we went most Thursdays and I know we always looked forward to it. It is the little things like that that bring back such fun memories.
The best thing about working during my SED Phase 1 assignment is we always had the weekend off. While we were not as faithful about attending mass back then as we should have been, I do remember this very old Catholic Church that we went to, it was beautiful.
After we had been there for about 4 weeks, I and the other two new SED-1 were sent to an orientation in Dallas. If I remember correctly it was only a two-day event. I remember very little about it except they put us up at a very nice hotel.
Early on after we had been there only two weeks, the ladies who were married to the men who worked on the account of which there were only about 5 or 6, took the new wives out for a picnic on a Friday. I came home and found that Connie had called the account manager’s wife a weirdo. She told me she had said it in a humorous tone, but I worried most of the weekend if that had gotten me in trouble. What had happened it was a very hot day and the lady was drinking hot coffee at noon when they were doing a picnic. Everyone else was drinking sodas. Connie just said what a weirdo. Thank goodness she must have taken it as a joke.
There was another picnic, for all the people on the account and their families on a Sunday afternoon. I remember this so well because one of the little girls sat for just a second on a hot grill. Luckily her father saw her getting ready to do it and grabbed her right away, but she still got burned a little bit. I can still remember his name it was Carl Kay. There was another event that happened, and it also happened at this picnic. There was a volleyball game going on and Connie hurt her wrist and had to stop playing. She had told me it was not bad. But it must have been as Connie woke me up a little after three the next morning and had me take her to the emergency room. For those of you who know Connie, you know she did not like going to doctors so I knew it was hurting her pretty bad for her to go to the ER. The sad part was the emergency room doctor kept coming out and asking me a lot of questions about what had happened. After they discharged Connie, she told me the doctor was trying to get her to say that I had hurt her. He did not understand why she waited so long to come to the ER if she hurt it at the picnic. But knowing Connie, she would hide the pain from me because she knew I would try to get her to go to the ER. Finally, early that morning she just could not take the pain anymore. Luckily it was not broken but she did have a severe sprain. I know the doctor was just probably doing his job, but Connie and I were both upset with him.
During the summer, the assistant account manager had everyone over and we were each to bring something. As those of you know Connie’s greatest skill was not in the kitchen. Back in 1973, KFC was not as well known at least to Connie and me and I do not think too many people. Connie and I decided to buy some KFC and pass it off as our own. I think that was the first time we had ever had KFC. It went over great, everyone was raving about Connie’s chicken. Now if anyone knew it was KFC, they did not let on, they just kept telling her how good her chicken was. Thank goodness we never had to duplicate that feat.
The apartments we were living in were in a square and several squares made up the whole complex. In August, we noticed a lot of soldiers sitting on the stairs to one of the apartments upstairs. I guess we were a little bit slow to figure out what was going on. Two cute girls had moved into that apartment a few weeks earlier and Connie thought they seemed nice. Well since Fort Benjamin Harris was only a few miles away, we thought they were coming to visit. But one would go in and the rest would stay on the stairs, then he would come out and another one would go in. After 3 or 4 nights of different guys waiting on the stairs, we finally figured they were ladies of ill repute. Someone must have turned them in because they only were there for about a month and then they were gone. Needless to say, we were shocked.
Connie was a fabulous typist and could do over a hundred words a minute on a manual typewriter. If I remember correctly she did about 108. She continued to help me when she could, especially if I needed some typed-up. Not only would she type it but would sometimes reword it, so it sounded better. She knew a lot about what I was doing as she typed and corrected my request for changes to the function of the computer system, such as new reports, calculations, etc.
I had spent the summer during the weekend, developing a proposal for processing Medicare and Medicaid claims, using the same system. If my managers liked it and thought enough about it, they were going to present it to people higher in the organization who would be visiting in early September. It was a lot of work and Connie spent a lot of time correcting and typing the document. It turned out to be about 30 pages typed. Connie finished typing it on Sunday evening before Labor Day. So, on Monday (Labor Day) September 3rd, Connie and I celebrated. One of the things we liked to do was play tennis and I remember, so vividly that we went to the tennis courts at Fort Benjamin Harris and played tennis. It was a warm day because we were playing right around noon and the courts were empty except for us and that was because it was quite warm that day. Oh, how I loved playing tennis with her. As far as the paper went management told me they thought it was good and they would present it, but they never did. When I asked after the meeting, they said there was just not enough time to get into it.
My brother and sister-in-law came around the middle of September, I remember it so very well as we played football on a Sunday afternoon. My brother and sister-in-law were staying at our house for a few days and I remember getting mad because they wanted to spend the last night in a hotel. When I look back on it what a stupid thing to get mad about.
It started getting very cold starting in October and getting dark so early. Even though Murfreesboro and Indianapolis are almost on the same latitude they are in different time zones. So, it seemed to get darker much earlier in Indianapolis. October seemed to fly by.
Phase II — What A Surprise
Connie and I had a big surprise hit us around mid-October. We were told we would be going to Dallas to start Phase II of the SED program during which I would be taught Assembler and Cobol programming languages. We were both totally caught off guard by this news as we had expected to be in Indianapolis for 12 to 18 months. They had told us at the beginning that Phase 1 normally lasted between 12 and 18 months with the better performers getting to go to the next phase around the 12-month mark. Since I had started on June 1st we had not even been there for 5 months yet. It turned out that EDS had signed a bunch of contracts that year and they had to get more people trained faster for the programming needs they were facing.
I do not think Connie and I could have been more excited. We received information about where we would be staying for the next 3 to 4 months, about storing our furniture, etc. We felt so important at that time in our mid-20s. The brochure they sent us was that we would be staying at the Forest Oak apartments on Forest Lane. It was going to cost us about the same as we were currently paying. Looking at the brochure we could have not gotten any more excited, the apartments were beautiful, both on the outside and the inside and they had a swimming pool, etc., We were going to be in a really nice place. EDS had two apartment complexes that they used, and our whole class was going to be at this one. We had somewhere between 15 -20 students assigned to this class.
The bad part of it was that the program was 13 weeks long and you worked every day including Saturdays and Sundays. You did get the weekend off between weeks 5 and 6 and between weeks 9-10. I knew it was going to be hard on Connie, but we had prepared ourselves for this as we had both been told upfront in our interviews that the hours would be long and hard.
November 1973 – Phase II
November 1973 — Phase II
We left Indianapolis on Monday, November the 5th or the 12th, I am not sure, but I believe it to be the 12th. They had come to pick up the furniture that morning and we left that afternoon and drove to Murfreesboro to spend the night. The next morning, we drove over to Shelbyville to see my mother and then about noon, we took off for Dallas. There was nothing memorable about those two days until we crossed the Mississippi River into Arkansas where we stopped to get gas. It was about 7 PM that evening when I pulled over and filled up our 1972 Maverick but when I went to pay, I had a problem, as the young man working that night did not know how to do credit cards. After a little while, he was able to take my credit card and we were on our way again. We stopped about a couple hours later somewhere around Little Rock Arkansas. As would be the case for our whole marriage, while traveling, we would always unload the car when we stopped for the night. We were up early the next morning, reloading the car, and headed on to Dallas. We had a flat tire about an hour later around Arkadelphia. I put the spare on and drove into the town where I dropped the tire off to get fixed and Connie and I had breakfast there while the tire was being repaired. After breakfast, we took off again for Dallas and only stopped a couple of times for a beak. I remember turning on Interstate 635 from Interstate 30 around 2:30 that evening. We stop shortly after turning off the interstate at a Holiday Inn in Mesquite.
The next thing we did was such a big disappointment. We unpacked and decided to go look for the apartment where we were going to be living. The apartments were at 9696 Forest Lane in Dallas. We headed west on IH-635 and we could see them from the interstate. I felt so bad. Connie and I from looking at the brochure had built this place up in our mind to be something wonderful. The only thing I can think of it these pictures must have been taken about 15 or 20 years earlier when they were first new. Because they looked so old, we got off the interstate and drove around and that did not help either. Well, the good thing all the people in our class were staying in the same apartments.
That night we met up with another couple that had left Indianapolis when we did to go out for Mexican Food. They were Jessie and Toni who lived near us in Indianapolis Ind. Connie and I had never had real Mexican food before and when we saw the refried beans we said no way are we eating those. It took us a while maybe 3 years and at that time we could not get enough.
On Friday we were allowed into the apartments after noon. All the apartments were furnished with everything you need. Connie and I went over soon after noon and got a good look at the place, it was not great, but it was livable, and it was about the same as we were paying in Indianapolis. We were getting hungry so somewhere around 2:30, I took off to get us some burgers and fries. Connie wanted to stay and wash all the dishes and put all the personal items we had brought with us away. I found a place about 10 minutes away called Watson Burger and it became one of our favorite hamburger places while we were at those apartments. We spent the weekend exploring and figuring out the best way for me to get from the apartment to Exchange Park where EDS was located.
I started classes on Monday, November 19th. There was a meeting for all the wives at the apartments and Connie was not too thrilled with a couple of them. There was a couple that wanted to make it into a club that had a lot of activities together. That was not Connie’s thing as she was more of a one-on-one person.
We started into a tough work schedule. While that first week we got Thanksgiving Day off, that was the only day for a while. I usually left the house a little after 6 and did not get home most night till between 8 and 9 PM. We always had to bring in a suit with a white shirt and tie, except for Sunday. I look back and cannot believe we had to wear a suit and tie on Saturdays.
There is not much I remember about this period as I was working every day during those 13 weeks except for the two weekends we got home and Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. It was not too hard to do a carpool at first as there were like 16 people in our class. The weekends were a little harder as most of us wanted to be able to go as soon as we got our work done. I do remember the first weekend we were going to have off, Connie and I went out to eat and then headed out for a ride on a Friday night. We got lost and by the time I found out where we were and got us back home, it was about midnight. It must have taken me a couple of hours to figure out where we were. I do not remember anything about the holidays. Some of the people started dropping out of the program and then we did not have as many options for car polling. I remember Connie, driving me sometimes on the weekend and we would stop at a Denny’s type place just across from Love Field and have breakfast. The last 4 weeks were not as hard as we were able to get some Saturdays and Sundays off as we were in our project phase. That was good because we had to find a place to live once we knew where our assignment would be. They told us about two weeks before we finished class. About half of the class was assigned to Dallas with others being sent to other parts of the country. I was assigned to the Life Insurance Division, others were assigned to Banking, Health Care, etc. By the end of the thirteen weeks, we had lost half the class as only 8 of us finished the course.
Connie and I had no idea where we wanted to live as we had not had much time to explore the Dallas area and we did not have much time to look. We decided to rent an apartment at Montfort Place which was just behind Valley View Mall and gave me easy access to the North Dallas Toll Way to get to EDS which was located at Exchange Park.
We were so excited that I had finished Phase II of the Systems Engineer Development (SED Program and hoping for more normal working hours and to get back to a normal routine. We started the next phase of our lives with hope and excitement. One of the reasons we were so excited was that I had been given a big raise after the SED Phase II school. They told me that they thought they probably brought me in at a salary lower than they should have based on my performance in school. We thought we were going to be ok financially as I was now making $1000 a month it was so much money to us. With the SED Phase II school behind us, we now look forward to a happy future. Thank you, Connie, I could not have made it through that difficult time without you.
February 1974 — Phase III
SED Phase III — February 1974
I am sure I took most of a week off before I started back to work again, but if I did I do not remember much about it. Oh, we were so happy and excited we had our whole lives ahead of us and the future looked so bright. I started what EDS called Phase III of the SED program around March 1st, 1974. During Phase I, I learned the business side of the company, during Phase II, I went to school to learn to code. now during Phase III, I was assigned to a Life Insurance Division where I would be making coding changes for the Life Insurance client that EDS supported. It was unbelievable for me as I had come from a background of factory workers and not only could I not believe the salary, I was making, I was wearing a suit, white shirt and tie every day to work. What made it so much better was that Connie always let me know how proud she was of me. I was driving a long way to work, taking the tollway from Valley View Mall to Exchange Bank where our offices were located. I was learning, and things were going very well the first month but then a problem arose.
If you remember back to last April just a year ago, I had an anal fistula and had to have surgery. I did not follow up with a doctor when I moved to Indianapolis as I should have, I was just too busy. Anyway, I started having problems again and had to see a doctor, evidently, it either did not heal correctly or I had another one. So, at the beginning of April, I was headed to surgery again. The first time I was in so much pain, I did not care what they did to me, so the surgery was not a problem. But this time the pain was not that bad, and I know I spent a lot of time worrying about the surgery. But I had Connie, who kept me level-headed and tried to keep me from worrying. Thank goodness for her.
It took me a couple of weeks to recover and Connie took good care of me. I was given this stuff that Connie mixed with water and orange juice that I had to drink several times a day as it made my bowel movements very loose. But still that first one oh did it hurt. Anyway, as bad as that stuff was it was not as bad as the castor oil my mother used to give me when I was a child.
Finally, I was back at work and Connie and I started to settle into a routine. I worked very few weekends and then if I did I only went to work for a couple of hours. It was a great year for Connie and me after the thirteen weeks of school where we did not have much time to do things together this was a welcome relief. The other great thing about it was the office was moving from near downtown to Forest Lane where EDS had built a new headquarters. The headquarters had a 9-hole golf course, a small pond, tennis courts, etc. We were so lucky that we chose the apartment we did because the new headquarters were less than 10 miles from where we lived.
That summer was so enjoyable, as we got to know the Dallas area. We spent the weekend just doing different things. One of the first things we did was we went to the JFK museum and found it amazing as we were both teenagers when John Kennedy was assassinated.
We both loved to play tennis at the time and in the evening, we would go to the tennis court at the EDS headquarters and play some tennis. Our apartment was right behind Valley View Mall so if we wanted to go shopping we would just walk over. Connie was big on new store openings, I am not sure why but if there was a new grocery store or some other kind, Connie would be there. We only had one car at the time, so Connie would drive me to work a lot of the days and pick me up. Those early days for all young couples starting, to bring back memories of happiness for all of us.
During the summer we had a couple of visitors, one was a friend of Connie’s. whom she had met during her college days. I do not remember much about the visit except Connie complaining about going grocery shopping and the friend just kept putting things she liked in the basket. The other visitor that came for the weekend was my brother-in-law Danny who I was stationed with in Germany. He was flying back to Tennessee from California where he had been for training for his company. I remember on a Saturday evening; Connie and I had taken Danny out to dinner and I was trying to explain some of the things I did. I was telling him that I had to run a job over the weekend to create month-end back-up tapes for the account I was working on, it must have taken about 30 minutes because Danny thought I kept saying muffin tapes, not month-end. Connie knew what I was saying but she was laughing so hard she could not tell him what I was saying. Anyway, after about 30 minutes he figured out what I was saying but by that time I was worried about Connie because I thought she was going to hurt herself from laughing so hard. We had a wonderful weekend with Danny.
In September of that year, I was promoted, to System Engineer from SED III. Again, it came much faster than I thought it would but by now the company was growing very fast. I think it also helped that since I was working in the Life Insurance industry, I had taken some classes put on by the Life Insurance Division and had done extremely well in them. As we continue, I think a lot of things that happened in my life were because I was at the front of the baby boom period.
In the fall of 1974, EDS worked out a deal with a furniture company close to downtown Dallas where we could buy furniture at cost plus some percent extra. Anyway, this place was in an old building and I think they sold to other brand-name furniture stores at the time. We went down and bought a very nice bedroom set. We paid over three times more for that bedroom set than we paid for all the furniture we both bought when we first moved into an apartment. It still looks as good today as it did then. Connie was always good at decorating and picking things out like that.
I have no recollection of what we did that Thanksgiving but for Christmas, we went to spend the holiday with Connie’s sister and her family in Oak Ridge Tennessee. We left Dallas on the 21st of December and drove till about 8 pm that night. I remember it was a Saturday because in the afternoon between Memphis and Nashville, I was listening to an NFL game on the radio while Connie slept.
We stopped to spend the evening in Lebanon Tennessee which was only about 15 miles from where we used to live. We arrived at Bon and Danny the next day which was Sunday. I do not remember much about that week except that we had a great time. It was so much fun.
We left Oak Ridge on Sunday, December 29th, in the afternoon and stopped and spent the night in Murfreesboro, where we had lived for 3 years while I attended college. The next morning, we went over to Shelbyville to visit my mother before heading back to Dallas. We got a late start that Monday and by 9 pm that evening we decided to stop for the night and got a hotel room in Texarkana. The next morning, we drove on into Dallas and were glad to get home before the rush for the New Year’s parties started.
I would be remiss if I did not give Connie the credit she deserved for my success so for. Back in those days, we used keypunch cards and Connie would come in with me in the evening and on the weekends and do the keypunching of the code that I had written. What a wonderful wife, not only was she there for me in our marriage she was always there to help me in any way she could in my career. Thank you, Connie all the success I have had I owe to you!!!! I love you.
END OF THIS SECTION!!!