When I fell in Love...

First of all I have to be frank, This is all about me... So , I must let you know who I was at the time. Hardly five years before that, in the summer of '63, I had been let loose from four long years in the USAF. I had served as a Medic as my chosen career path. Of course in those days , I had never heard of the phrase "Career Path...". For most of three years , I worked as a practical nurse, albeit at times I did more than a Registered Nurse is licensed to do. But that's a tale for another time...
As I had signed a paper saying I volunteered to go any where in the World ( and that included Viet Nam... ) My superiors asked me if I would like to go to Italy for a few months? No, it's true ; They actually asked me if I wanted to go !
I have to tell you that at the same time,coincidentally? My gang of five was broken up, and the guy that ran the gambling in the barracks ( a four story concrete block edifice), was assigned to Alaska. I figured John Sevistak would own half of Alaska before long, but Wayne Sayer was sent to Istanbul Turkey ( He called it "The Arm Pitt of The World !") . So I realized much later that I got "The Plumb". I think Paul what's his name , who also was decorated for his save the General actions,was sent to "France", but then he was not in"The Gang of Five...". And that's how Executive decisions are made I suppose.....
Once at Aviano, working as a sort of very junior Doctor, in a Class "A" Dispensary, I learned The Air force mantra of " You see one , You do one , You teach one..."
Upon arrival at Aviano, The First Sargent,and all of the Enlisted Men were very suspicious and unwelcoming of me. They apparently had had some personnel problems a couple of months before I arrived with my Top Secret Security Clearance , my orders to leave in just four months,my sudden midnight arrival from who knew where, all under the heading of " Operation Short Spurt ". And I didn't seem to know exactly how to be a " Junior Doctor " !!! Their Suspicion grew when after a week of menial jobs, I got orders in the Mail promoting me to NCO status... So, then while getting some training in how to take and develop X-Ray plates , I offhandedly said "Howdy!" to a Bird Colonel, who was travelling in mufti ( civilian clothes, speaking Italian). The Crew suspected I was from the Inspector Generals Office,trying to nail someone?!!
As I was already severely clinically depressed upon arrival, The Crews shunning me entirely for the first month led me to stop abusing beer, and to start abusing whiskey;it was cheaper anyway...
Somewhere in the first few days of the shortest month,after far too many whiskey and sodas, I found my way back to my room , with the real Italian marble floors. The whiskey had slid my twenty three year old brain from depressed mode , over to angry mode... Emanating from three doors down, I heard too loud laughter and expressions of amusement ! Like a hot blanket , the concept enveloped me! Then I was there , barging in!They continued to not see me ! They had the Audacity to be talking about who was the baddest ? The guys from the West Coast, or The Guys from the East Coast?!! Well after the semiprofessional beat the crap out of me, they must have put me in my bed to sleep it off, because when I woke up in the morning, all of the lumps on my head were under the hair, but it was hard to keep my head on the pillow...
As I kept my mouth shut at work the next day, The Crew let me know I finally had one acceptance, by ceremonially ambushing me after work and ripping my pants off! All the while laughing with the glee that comes of doing to someone else , what had been done to you! But that's another story...
The depression did not stop, but the shunning did.My psychological state at the time was way to often expressed by inappropriate laughter. My loud guffaws were no joke, and often got me in trouble in and out of the military. Much later I learned the raucous annoyance to many is called a defence mechanism. Lucky as I always have been , early on at the Dispensary, I was able to out diagnose the Head Doctor ( " Oh, that's epididimytis !" ) . When he realized I was correct , he offered me a deal... Tell no one , and I could laugh whenever, and however I wanted to!In no time at all my superiors stopped nagging me.

In the last three months of my service time the Executive officer kept trying to get me to re-up.He kept asking me things like "Well what are you going to do when you get out? I didn't have a clue, but I knew one thing. Someday I wanted to have a wife and family...Maybe a job at the Bud plant, and a nice cozy row home......
When I got home to my elderly parents, I was scared. It was just like getting out of High School all over again. No plans, no direction, no idea about the real world. I had been running away from home for the last four years! Now I had become The Prodigal Son Unrepentant!!!

After about a week of trying to be the ass of the year, I saw an add for entry level linemen over at Bell Telephone in Jenkintown. While filling out the questionnaire, I saw four or five guys with obvious hangovers( it was Monday), that I was sure I went to Cardinal Dougherty with. What surprised me was how dissipated they looked... I was a frequent flyer in front of the mirror in those days, and I was sure I looked much healthier than those guys! Wow!!
By mid September, it was still hot, I had gained employment in the press shop at Standard Pressed Steel. It was some of the dirtiest most dangerous jobs they had, but the work made my arms very strong... To get the job, one had to be able to read and write at an eighth grade level, and be able to lift 75 pounds. It turned out that the latter portion of the equation was the most important, because mostly what you did all day was to lift 75 pounds. Over and over, again and again for eight hours... No union at SPS, but they were a world famous Quaker Family company.
In Horatio Alger fashion? It's true , I found my self in white shirt and tie,working in the Drafting Room at SPS, when the announcement came over the loud speaker.
" The Governor of Texas and The President have been shot...". In a moment a guy in a white shirt came in and asked me to follow him. It seemed that 300 guys and I were laid off...

Bob and I drove down to D.C., and we experienced the funeral very personally. With JFK gone the impending Winter seemed truly bleak.And so looking for a job seemed ethereal , and with unemployment insurance keeping me in cigarettes and gas money, somewhat pointless ? But then Mom saw an add in the Bulletin for an Oxygen Therapist at Lankenau Hospital. She suggested that I get off my lazy behind and see if I could qualify.
Well one thing I learned in the service was how to be a con-man. So by using my well honed skills at getting people to believe that they wanted whatever was best for me, I got this Doctor with the Greek sounding name to hire me over the protestations of the Director of Inhalation therapy.
I used what little knowledge I had, and the See one , do one mantra to catch on fully in a couple of months . Then I heard about a school for Inhalation Therapy at The Hospital of The U.of P. And they actually forked over a stipend for the year! On the way to the interview, I almost blew a high speed turn off the Sure Kill Crawl way, because I was hysterically desperate to not be late for the interview!
As usual my path had a few pot holes, fits and starts, but in the end I got the Diploma...As you may have heard pride comes before a fall. I had to learn that every year or so until I left the work world. After a couple of years, and a couple of jobs , I managed to come back to H.U.P. as a supervisor in Respiratory Therapy, and I was proud...
Infatuations came and went, just like the years...After a while I no longer sought relationships, because like pride there comes the inevitable fall.Falls hurt. Then we hired Clark. Bill was immensely successful in getting dates and invites to parties at high rises down by the river. He had one problem. The girls did not trust him much so they usually wanted him to double date. I think Bill Clark was from Chicago or some place like that. So , I was one of the few single guys he knew, and who had a car...For a week or ten days, leading up to Christmas, Bill was the point man for a blinding social onslaught for me. So, a day or so after Christmas, I think it was a Saturday evening , we were both off. And I said to him on the phone , let's just hang out at Smokey's , and maybe get in a fight tonight ?Now Bill did some bar tending at Smokey Joe's and he had a small apartment above it. So after he gave me a few free drinks, he knocked off work there, and he went upstairs to change . I stepped out front to get some fresh air with my cigarette , and to see if the weather was still mild for December...Chie Wa Wa! Here comes a couple of young ladies! Both blond !! Heres my chance to show Bill I can get Girls too! If memory serves, I had the temerity to speak to them at the door, and then I ushered them to a booth...
Zip I went to alert Bill to The two target's I had found. Bill was coming his thinning hair. He was the first guy I ever saw that used hair spray! But what the Hay! It worked for him.As my patience ran out , he was ready to meet the "Girls". Even though I was intoxicated one gave me her phone number...It must have been my Elvis imitation.
I think she couldn't believe I would call, and I didn't believe it was really her phone number.But it was and I did.Our first date was on New Years Eve. She was my Blond of The Year at a friends party, I always made an appearance at. I dressed for success in my three piece suit,and brought a corsage for her to ware, when I showed up at her end of the world house. I thought I drove so far following her directions that I must have missed her street?!!But lucky me , I turned into her street to make a U-Turn, and there was Windsor Circle , plain as mud... On our second date we saw a new movie at a downtown theater. Don't you know it was "Romeo and Juliet". Margie set up a kind of birthday dinner party(my 28th), with Bill and the other girl at a fancy Sky Line Restaurant in center city . It was fun along the lines of " La Dulce Vita ".
As we both worked the evening shift, it was not easy to see each other as often as I began to want to. I have to tell you we had shared a small kiss only on New Years Eve to this time...One day I got this bright Idea . I could pick her up drive her to work,and then take her home after work? Well Margie thought it was a great idea at the time.I think we were going to watch Johny Carson at her parents house or something...I cant remember exactly... Okay, So I dropped her off out side of Jefferson Hospital , right where I was to retrieve her at 11:15 or so.
As I left her on the side walk, the Winter sun was making vision difficult through the messy windshield . But I definitely remembered the three brass pawn shop balls , over head to my left, and I knew the name of the street...
It all looked so different with the drizzly rain trickling down the buildings ,and these glasses seem to have been prescribed for some one else, because I can't see what I'm looking for... Brass balls aren't so visible without sunshine! No wonder that Cops looking at me funny , I've circled these couple of blocks more than a dozen times ! Where can that entrance be?!!The only thing I can do is get out and walk, if I can just find a place to park! At least it's not raining hard now that I have circled twice around the two or three blocks of Jeff. Look at the time ! She must have called her father to pick her up by now , and she's probably at home now cussing me out... Theres a phone booth, I'll call and try to explain...As her father answered , I put the phone down gently,all at once realizing I wasn't brave enough to tell Margie's father I had failed her ... I can't give up , I'll go around again. Say is that a real Gypsy woman in a night gown gesturing for me to come inside? Wait, I did not see this indentation area of the buildings before, did I ? Theres glass doors! And theres Margie !! But she is smiling! Smiling with bright happy eyes ! She is smiling with the eyes of trust!! Yes, I can see that she believes in me!
That's when I fell in love ! For sure and forever !!

Margie & Ray