So… sometime in September 1968 I met a guy names David Nelson. Quite a nice guy, very polite and good looking. I met him on a Friday night and expected to hear from him the following week…but NOTHING!! Monday came and went, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday…nothing!! Oh well, so much for him. Guess he wasn’t too interested in me. You have to realize I was on unemployment at the time…so my days were kinda just moving along slowly. I remember going to the park near the apartment, even going for rides out into the countryside in my 65 Mustang. Life wasn’t bad then…and I sure wasn’t feeling desperate for a guy in my life. I had dated quite a few by then…been proposed to twice…so I was feeling pretty confident the right guy was going to come along in due time.
So…Monday morning I’m just messing around – doing a whole lot of nothing---and the phone rings!! It’s that David dude. He wants to know if I’d like to go downtown with him. He states he has some errands to run. Heck yeah…I have nothing better to do. (and maybe there’ll be a free lunch in this).
So David shows up in his 64 Chevy with a bashed in driver-side back door and panel.
Shall I go into WHY the car was wrecked? Ok. The reason was...David was coming home from the bar one night ---yep, that nice Pepsi drinking dude actually was a beer and hard liquor drinker!! He was only drinking Pepsi the night I met him because he had a hangover!!! Anyway, on his way home from the bar he came around Russell Avenue a little too fast and slid right into a tree…smashing the side of his Chevy!!
So...anyway, David shows up and we take off for downtown Santa Rosa Mendocino Avenue . Montgomery Wards was near to where Chevy’s restaurant is now. Sears was across the street from the General Hospital Mendocino Ave. that had .10 burgers and fries for a while. So… we head to Montgomery Wards first…and we go inside so David can pay off a bum check!! YEP…first date was going from business to business watching David hand over cash for bum checks that he wrote. He wasn’t in the least bit concerned about it…it wasn’t his fault… his paycheck had bounced!!! I can honestly say I’d NEVER had a bum check in my life at that point. I had no idea how a person even took care of them…. I found out that back then you just went to the business and gave them the cash and they gave you the check…no check bouncing fees, no banks involved. Anyway…he had like 6 bum checks to pick up. WOW…I must have found Mr. Right!!!!
BUT… I did get a free lunch!! We went to the .10 burger joint for a couple of burgers!!!
Anyway… I can say that from that Monday until David had to go to San Francisco
David was working for Riverview Transportation. He was their mechanic, but he also drove a truck when they needed. The week I didn’t hear from him, he had gone to LA to fix one of the trucks. Most –no ALL of Riverview’s trucks were old, pieces of junk!!! Way beyond their useful lives!! But David could keep them running. Rodney and Larry loved David for that, they loved to take advantage of him and his dedication to the company. They wrote him bum checks, worked him at least 6 days a week and paid him next to nothing (well, less than nothing if you consider most of their checks bounced).
Shortly after we met unemployment sent me on a job interview to some horrible nursing home. Of course the woman hired me. I wore ratty clothes, and tried to act really dumb…but she hired me anyway. I was perfectly happy on unemployment at that point… I sure didn’t want to work in some smelly, abusive nursing home. When I went to work it was worse than I thought it would be. The lady got the poor old people up each morning and set them in chairs…without even wiping their wet and/or messy behinds. She shoved a little food down their mouths and then had me “clean them up” a bit. It was obvious she didn’t care one bit for those poor old people. And it was obvious I was not going to make any difference working there. There were so many old people, and just me!!!
So… one day I called in sick. When David heard that he was very upset with me. He said “if you want to quit, then quit, but don’t be dishonest about it”. WOW…I knew he was really honest and cared about the employer…what a guy!!
So…I quit!!
About that time Santa Rosa General Hospital
David worked 6 days a week, every week. Monday was his only day off. I worked in a hospital, and my days off usually rotated. Of course everyone wanted weekends off, but the only day I really wanted off was Monday. I struck a deal with my boss that I would get Friday and Monday off. She was happy to give me those days. And I was happy to get them…You see, I needed Friday off to FOLLOW David’s boss down to Wells Fargo Bank on Friday. Once David got his paycheck I would follow Rodney to the bank. Rodney would make his deposit and I would be the next person in line…to withdraw cash from the same account!! NO more bum checks!!!
So….one Monday shortly after we met David picked me up and we went over to his apartment. His place was a MESS!!! Dirty dishes everywhere, the floor needed mopping, the living room needed vacuuming…the bathroom---YUCK!!! So, being the rather stupid person that I was, I offered to help him clean the place up. He said he’d appreciate it, but he needed to wash his car. He said if I’d start cleaning he’d go out front and wash the car. Sure, sounded like a good idea to me (like I said, I was rather stupid back then). So…I started cleaning…and cleaning…and cleaning. I was about done and decided to check out what David was up to… yep, out front drinking beer with some of the other apartment dudes!!! AND…I didn’t see any sign of water on the ground. NOPE…he took the car over to Lewis Street to the car wash and just gave it a quick wash!!! BUT…he appreciated what I did for him!!!! And I was STUPID and In LOVE!!!
Another day I thought I’d make corned beef for dinner. I bought one of those corned beef’s from Safeway with all the spices. I put it in a big pot and let it cook. I thought it was going along just fine… but when David came up the stairs at the apartment he started saying he thought he was going to puke…the smell was horrible. No way was he going to try that crap. On and on and on about how horrible my corned beef smelled. So… into the garbage it went! And we went out to dinner to a rather nice place down the street from his apartment. That was probably the first time I saw him being totally unreasonable…but then--- I was in love, so I thought nothing of it.
David moved out of his apartment and into a house in Windsor
I could sit and listen for hours to David and Bill talk about growing up in Jenner. Jenner was and still is a small town. Everyone knew everyone. The only sheriff that worked that part of Sonoma County
So…anyway, David and I dated and both of us knew we’d get married. We were so in love!! I always said I wanted to marry a mechanic…and what could be more impressive than a heavy-duty truck mechanic!!! And David was a good mechanic. He had a lot of friends and a lot of people that ask him for advice and help with their trucks.
We met in September and in November we drove to LA to have Thanksgiving with his parents. I figured they had to be nice people…I mean, look how nice he was!! We got to the parents house and Harold (the dad) was outside working on a vehicle. David started talking to his dad, then decided to take me inside to meet his mom. We walked through the house to the back porch where Ramona (the mom) was cleaning the windows. She came down off the stool, said hi, probably shook my hand or something…and then climbed back up on the stool and continued washing the windows. David said “you two can get to know each other” and went out to help his dad. UNCOMFORTABLE!!!! That woman didn’t talk...she just kept washing those windows. I tried small talk, but she didn’t even respond. VERY UNCOMFORTABLE!! Finally I said I needed to check with David for something and got out of there. I was much happier just listening to David and his dad talk cars.
So… that night we had chili beans and corn bread. Then we all went into the living room and sat down and watched TV. Nobody talked. Nobody interacted. We just sat there watching TV. Mind you, I grew up in a family with NO TV. Sure, by then I had one, but I wasn’t glued to it. And I did have a clue how to treat visitors!!! So..that was Wednesday. Thursday was Thanksgiving and the whole family came over. YIPPEE…talking!!! Socializing, people asking questions, wanting to know about me!! Much more normal.
We ate turkey and then all sat around WATCHING TV!! I talked Joyce into going for a walk with me around the neighborhood…so that was nice. I really liked Joyce, we sat in her room and talked for hours.
Friday Harold and Ramona asked me what I’d like to do. I mentioned that I’d really like to see the Queen Mary. So… we drove to Long Beach
By Saturday I was so sick of watching TV, being bored, not visiting with anyone… so at one point I got up and turned the TV OFF!! You should have seen Harold’s face… you’d think I just hit him with a baseball bat. I said “I’m sorry, but we drove all the way down here to visit with you guys… I have a much nicer TV in Santa Rosa, if all we are going to do is watch TV, then I’m ready to leave” Ramona meekly said, Oh… let’s visit. So…we tried. It was better to just watch TV with those two!!!
I was really happy to leave the LA area and head back to Santa Rosa
At this point David and I were engaged and deciding where and when to get married. David said he was a Mormon, but with the drinking and smoking…I had my doubts!! I knew I wasn’t a Seventh Day Adventist anymore. So we decided to get married at a Methodist Church
I found a beautiful wedding dress at the St. Vincent de Paul used clothes store for $25.00. Perfect!!! I borrowed a veil. Had a friend from beauty school do my hair… It was a very low budget marriage. Just the way I wanted it. Judy was my maid of honor and Bill Von Arx was David’s best man. Only family and a couple close friends attended. We had a small Safeway wedding cake at the house David rented after the ceremony. Perfect!!!
Mind you…that was December 23rd. We were going to get married in January, but being so darn practical we decided we might as well get married in Dec. to save money on taxes!!! Yep…we were both very romantic!!
