The Mousetrap continued...

Pick a year, any year~~~except for the 1950's. For some weird reason, nothing really exciting happened. Well, there were a few bright spots. Got me a daughter in 1954. Was voted "Miss Carswell of 1952" by the farm team of the St. Louis Cardinals, while I was stationed in Fort Worth. Went to Germany later that year, met some guy and got married, twice. It was the law there, had to be married by the burgermeister first, so Sept. 10th was the legal knot tied and Sept. 12th at the base's church was, at least to John, the biggie. I couldn't have cared less about the church wedding.

First of all, I had to borrow a wedding dress that didn't fit very well and wasn't exactly designer quality. Then I bought a pair of white shoes in a Wiesbaden store that didn't fit too well either so hurtin' feet didn't help my cheery disposition. I was three months pregnant which definitely did not help my disposition, unless you count morning sickness as a masochistic delight.. Getting gifts was nice though, especially the crystal decanters/vases/liqueur glasses the guys bought at the PX. Crystal was cheap there -- and the reception was fairly decent. (Had French champagne, altho the guys probably would have preferred beer). Tough.

OK, then we were kicked out of the base quarters where we lived, I had fought for that apartment on the basis of MY being the ranking NCO which meant I was eligible for the housing, my husband was only a Sgt/1st Class. The Air Force was not keen on that concept..........a woman literally being the head of the household. They had never come up against anything like this before. Apparently I was the first to demand my rights as a ranking Non-commissioned officer, never mind what the other half of the equation was (the man). Equal rights for women was totally unheard of then, obviously.

Well, when it became apparent I was preggers, I was immediately discharged from the WAF, no such horror as a pregnant military woman walking around in plain sight, egads!! We were summarily ejected from the base housing unit and had to choose a German family to rent a bedroom from, it was called "going on the German economy", these poor people had their houses commandeered by the Air Force and Army and literally forced to accept Americans like John and I in their homes to live. We wound up with an elderly couple who were totally blissed out with us though, as we had plenty of decent coffee, cigarettes and other scarce delights they couldn't get in their own markets. Ach, those rich Americans

But we had to make a decision. I couldn't have the baby and stay at their house. They had no refrigerator and things were pretty cramped, blah blah. So regretfully. we decided I should go home. Well, by this time I was 7 months pregnant, well over the limit for flying in an Air Force plane (it had to be one with a registered nurse aboard), so I just lied and said I was 5 months preggie. I had a belly sticking out to....there , but looked so angelic and innocent (?) I got away with it. Doubt anyone believed me, but I got on the flight, anyway.

Hmmm, where are we now? Oh yeah, the kid was born in Milwaukee, minus her father who was still in Germany. He came home, next stop------his assignment in Chicago. (We lived in Gary, Indiana and he commuted) Gonna skip over this interlude, nothing exciting about the two years in Gary, for sure. Ah, but the next assignment? -- Green Bay, Wisconsin......Home of the Championship G.B. Packers. Yay!!

To be Continued.......................
posted by Lorraine 12:55 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------