Within our first weeks of marriage I sent Bob to the store for Wax Paper and he had the gall to come home with WAX PAPER…. That is when I learned he could not read my mind as I wanted Saran Wrap and Bob being the guy he is took the Wax Paper back to the store and exchanged it for the Saran Wrap. What a start to learning to not be kids and act like the adults we thought we were.
Looking back over the years I realize that we were just kids and why our parents were not as pleased as we thought they should be when we told them “We are going to get married”.
Hindsight is 20 20 and we could have done things a little easier but at the ripe old age of 17 we knew it all and we knew what we wanted! Probably the trait that we both had is that we are stubborn and we were going to prove every one wrong that said we would not last a year.
The best thing for us is that we struggled hard to make ends meet and now thinking about some of our meals I laugh. I learned budgeting the hard way. By the end of the week money was gone and looking in our bare cupboards for something to serve for dinner often consisted of a can of vegetables and one notable night a jar of home grown pickles.
My kitchen for the first year consisted of a folding outdoor table, folding chairs, and an electric skillet. The house came with a dishwasher but no stove. Our furnishings were minimal but what we had we appreciated. For Bob’s 18th birthday in 1978 I ordered him a water bed kit. Now remember that was when water beds were just coming on the scene and they sounded awesome. That first water bed consisted of a bladder, bed liner, and a heater. Bob built a frame for the bed, many years later he built a head board, and we added drawers under the bed. Guess what we still sleep on 40 years later? We did get rid of the water bed and put a mattress in the frame and the bed is still as solid as the day he made it.
Being cash poor meant we had to be creative to stay entertained and all of our time was spent together after Bob got off work. We played a lot of card games and when we got a crazy idea we did that together. After our girls were born we got into racing that we really could not afford but oh did we have fun. This was also a family event as we sure could not afford a sitter. The girls went to all of the races and since we both raced they were with us in the pits. Nicki and Brandy very seldom saw us race as Bob and I raced against each other and the girls had to stay on the trailer till we crossed the finish line. We had a great time but as the girls got older we had to make some choices and racing had to go.
The family that plays together stays together habits were pretty engrained by this time. Our girls were very involved and we enjoyed watching them mature and become confident young women. As they both flew the coop for college they left a huge whole in our lives and the future looked bleak.
Bob decided it was time to crawl out from under trucks as a mechanic and start driving them. No way was I going to be left behind and we started the next chapter in our lives. Now for the past eighteen years our lives have basically revolved around driving trucks. In 2005 we bought our first Freightliner and started driving as a team. Now thirteen years later we are still a team and driving Freightliner’s.
Often, we are asked how much longer are you going to drive? Both of our answers “we will continue driving as long as our bodies will allow and we are having fun”. When Bob and I first got our CDL’s back in the 80’s the trucks were not as smooth riding as they are today. The past thirteen years as owner operators have been exciting and we are always ready to see what the next day, month, and year will present. Trucking still runs in our veins and it is something we are sure not ready to even consider giving up.
As I look back over the forty years we have been married I see we have not had the typical marriage. We have done some crazy things over the years as neither one of us wants to be left out when there is an adventure. Both of us have our own interests and are perfectly comfortable when the other wants to do something on their own. Being together all of the time sometimes means we have to find ways to be apart.
The future looks bright and we are still proving the naysayers wrong… Yep we are still married forty years later and looking forward to where our path will lead next.
