Love Is In The Air. . . .Sweet, Sweet, Love . . . .#5

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  George served his four years in the navy at the Naval Training Center in San Diego, California. The picture shows him standing watch as a forward lookout aboard the only ship he served on during his navy enlistment. It is a 2/3 scale mock-up of a destroyer. It was commissioned the USS Recruit TDC-1 in 1949 and land docked a quarter of a mile from the San Diego Bay. It served as a Sea Daddy to new recruits and was affectionately known to them as USS Neversail. While in training, each company served one day standing watches aboard this ship. Every two hours, they rotated to a different station.

The next picture shows Ina with her "sailor man" after his graduation from Boot Camp. Isn't he dashing in his Navy Whites?

George left for Las Vegas to join the Air Force almost immediately after we had our "Bare Your Hearts" date. He took the train from Caliente and when he arrived in Las Vegas, went to the Court House where the recruitment offices for the different branches of the Armed Forces were located. No one was in the Air Force Recruitment Office. He waited all day for someone to come in. When he realized he would miss his train if he didn't get things resolved, he stepped next door and joined the Navy. On the way back to the train station, he passed a pool hall. Looking in, he saw several young men he knew shooting pool. They had played basketball against him as team members for the Las Vegas High School Wildcats. Stepping inside to say a quick hello, he saw the Air Force Recruitment Officers who had obviously been there all day shooting pool with them. He said to them, "So, this is where you have been all day while I was waiting to enlist in the Air Force." One of them answered, "Well, here you are and here we are, let's go and get it done." George told them it was too late, he had a deadline to catch a train back to Caliente, and so had gone next door and joined the Navy.

He came to see me when he got back and told me this story. We had a good laugh about it and he said, "Well, so much for my wanting to he an Air Force pilot, I will now be spending my days and many nights in bell bottom pants buttoning and unbuttoning 13 buttons!" He told me he would be reporting to The Naval Training Center in San Diego for Boot Camp in one week. We had several dates during that week and he left with a promise to send me his military address as soon as he was given one and that he would write me as often as he was able. "But", he said hopefully, "you should be able to write me several times a week." Boot camp lasted for eight weeks and when he had time to write, his letters included the usual horror stories about the rigors of it's training. He stood up under it well and seemed to meet the challenges with enthusiasm. However, he assured me that he was "missing me in the worst way!"

In the meantime, I had settled into my job at the Lincoln County Court House and really enjoyed working for Esther Rollins, the Lincoln County Clerk. The work was interesting and challenging. Esther was a wonderful boss and became a very dear friend. In addition to serving as her secretary, I was often called to the District Attorney's office to take depositions and type legal documents. It wasn't unusual for me to fill a complete steno pad with shorthand from a single deposition. I spent many nights working fast and furiously to have it transcribed and ready to type before my notes got cold. Roscoe Wilkes, the DA scared me to death and I suffered more than one nightmare over this. The first time I took a deposition from a witness in a murder case, it was a hair raising experience. Scary or not, Roscoe did teach me so much about how the justice system worked. I came to realize that the reason he was such a stern taskmaster was because he could not afford to get it wrong.

I missed George terribly. Through our correspondence, our love grew stronger and somewhere along the way, we decided to get married when he came home on leave after his graduation. He would have two weeks leave. This didn't seem like a lot of time for all of the preparations and events leading up to a wedding and leaving any time for a honeymoon. Mother and I began all of the preparations for the wedding and I took the train to Salt Lake City to find a wedding dress, my honeymoon trousseau, and George's wedding ring. It seemed fitting for my sister, Theresa, to be with me as I searched for the perfect wedding gown. After all, she was responsible for restoring mine and George's romance and courtship. I knew I wanted a satin gown with long sleeves and a train and that she knew where we should look. She would be making dresses for my two little flower girls. They were her daughter, my niece Lois Marie, and George's niece, his sister Margaret's daughter, Todd Ann. We needed to find the material for their dresses.

The long and busy eight weeks finally passed, and once again, I waited "with butterflies in my stomach", for George to arrive. We were going to go to a movie with Gino and Wanda. They had just recently been married. We would be seeing the new movie, "An American in Paris'', starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron. It was the perfect choice, a sentimental, tear jerking love story. The movie's theme song, "Embraceable You", was a perfect testimony of the occasion. In the back seat on the way home from the movie, George handed me a small velvet box. I opened it and saw a beautiful engagement ring. It was white gold with a large diamond in the center and a smaller one on each side. Actually, it wasn't a very large diamond, as be fits the budget of a "just graduated from Boot Camp "sailor boy", but to me it looked huge. And, I want to say right here, George looked absolutely dashing in his bell bottom pants, buttons and all. We sealed our engagement with a kiss and it was the sweetest kiss I had ever received.

Gino and Wanda then burst into song, singing: "Bell Bottom Trousers, coat of navy blue, Ina loves a sailor man, and he loves her, too. When they walk along the street, anyone can see, they are so much in love, happy as can be."

Gino and Wanda had planned this when George told them he was going to give me my ring. It was a romantic, fun, and hilarious night. Hilarious because neither Wanda nor Gino could carry a tune, but we had to applaud their enthusiasm.

Next up, was to obtain our marriage license. The legal age for a man to marry in Nevada was 21. As George was only 20, he had to be accompanied by a parent in order to be issued the license. Esther came up with what she thought to be an ingenious plan. She affixed the Seal of the State of Nevada to a marriage license application and authorized me to issue and sign it. After doing this, she conveniently went to lunch leaving me in charge. When George came in with his father, I issued our marriage license and his father cosigned with him to make it legal. I accepted his money for the fee and gave him a receipt signed by me. Those remaining in the office, and my future father-in-law, thought it was hilarious and teased George unmercifully.

The next momentous event to take place was George's baptism. Knowing how much it would mean to my parents and I, he wanted it to take place before our wedding. On May 22nd, two days before our wedding, on a cold night when the water in the unheated Baptismal Font at the Pioche Chapel was full of ice crystals, Delores' boyfriend and our dear friend, Peter Horlacher, baptized and confirmed George a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The spirit was strong and it was beautiful.

To be continued. . . .our Wedding Day. . . .