The song below expresses how I first felt about Connie!!!!!

The Four Seasons “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You”

An Index to the Beginning

(Click to go directly to a story)

Our First Meeting
Lutzerath– First Date and The Castles
The Rest of the Summer

May – August 1968

 

The first picture I have of Connie after we met (she is in the middle) — June 1968.
Our First Meeting

Our First Meeting

Connie was over visiting her sister and brother-in-law in Germany. Her father, to whom she was very close had passed away in 1967.  Her mother sent her to Germany in the summer of 1968. It was between her sophomore and junior years at St. Joseph College in Maine. It was something that affected her deeply as being the youngest she was his favorite. Never a week went by over our almost 46 years of marriage that he did not talk about him.

It was in early May of 1968, that I first met Connie. I was stationed in Buechel, Germany which is a German Air Force Base. There were about 75 Americans on a base of several thousand Germans. I was working part-time during my off hours at our two-lane bowling alley and our theater was in the same building. I remember so vividly that it was a Thursday night and Connie had come in with her brother-in-law. It was pouring rain and she had on what they called back then a slicka hat. I thought she was maybe in the eighth grade, and I found out later that she thought I was from the show Hee-Haw.  

Our two lane Bowling Alley and Theater!! 

I did not see her again for about 10 days. The next time I ran into her was at a dance we were having at the club for the Americans on that base. It was a Saturday night and I had been to one of the local towns we hung out in, which was Cochem located on the Mosel River and during the summer a major stop for people traveling by boat. Anyway, I left early and went back to the base where I saw her and asked her to dance even though she had been dancing with another soldier. We had a good time, so after I had asked her to dance again, I asked her to go with me to see some castles on Sunday. What girl can resist a castle? We had such a good time that after that I spent all my off time with her.

Lutzerath–The First Date and The Castles

 Lutzerath

After the dance on Saturday night, I was very nervous to pick Connie up as I really had no real plan for a castle. I was flying by the seat of my pants. I picked her up mid-morning from her brother-in-law’s and sister’s place in Lutzerath. Off we went and as most people know I tend to get lost very easily. There were very few castles that were still intact around us but when she
laughed at some of the castles I showed her, and she did not mind me getting lost that made a great day for me. That first day was the start of many years of taking off, not knowing where we were going but just going to wherever we landed.

Lutzerath where Connie stayed during the summer of 1968.

The Castle

Connie had already seen the most famous castle in the area and that was Reichsburg Castle in Cochem, Germany. From May through September a lot of boats cruising the Moselle River would stop there. During that time, there were always a lot of visitors to Cochem.

The picture to the right is of Reichsburg Castle showing the town of Cochem below the castle.

Connie and I enjoyed visiting this town often. During the summer months, most of the airmen from the base went to Cochem every evening as each night the town was filled with visitors from all over Europe where cruises on the Moselle stopped for the evening.

The Castles I Showed Connie On Our First Date

Now, if on your first date, you had promised to take her to see some castles, you would think what a romantic thing to do. Well, since as I mentioned earlier here are some of the castles I showed her. Now in all fairness to me, there were not that many intact castles in the area. Connie, being the sweetheart, she was just laughed and enjoyed the time seeing parts of Germany tourists never see. She did not even mind me getting lost and even after that first date she was the one that was always getting us where we needed to go. That day was the first of many that summer where we just took off and went wherever our mood took us. We saw a lot of the country around there that most people do not see, even some of the German people probably never went to some of the places we did. That set the stage for the rest of our lives, never going the way the map said but just going where we felt like it. Oh, by the way, wait till you hear where we got lost on our honeymoon.
The Rest of the Summer

The Rest Of The Summer

The rest of the summer we spent getting to know each other. I think we spent every evening and weekend we could together. A lot of the evenings were spent in Cochem visiting with all the tourists that came in each night by boat. It was so much fun meeting people from all over Europe and also getting to know the locals. If we were not in Cochem we would have been at the NCO Club at the base or the two-lane bowling alley and theater. The weekends were filled with just driving around and visiting different areas. Most of them were very welcoming of Americans but we did run across some places where we were not welcome.

Next – The engagement years August 1968 – May 1970

 

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