My Time In Oklahoma

My first husband was in the Army, stationed in Korea. When He came home he was being sent to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. I was 24 and had a 3 year old son. In spite of that I packed everything I could and followed him to Oklahoma.I had a 68 Chevelle that I had bought while he was in Korea. We drove to the Army post in my old car.

We got to Oklahoma and were put into an apartment on post until we could find something else. We were stationed on Ft. Sill Army post in Lawton, Oklahoma. It was a whole new ballgame down there because it wasn't a little farming community. Like we had grown up in. It was my first time away from home and his first time being totally responsible for his family. We had to learn to do it with out calling home for help. It was tough but good too. We were forced to depend on just each other. We were in Oklahoma for a year,when we found out we were having another baby. Our daughter, Kristy.

Oklahoma was very HOT. Temperatures was seldom under 100 degrees even on Christmas day. We finally moved from the cheap trailer we had rented into a bit larger 2 bedroom block house, three streets down from the post gates. We had a fenced in back yard for the kids to play and to keep a dog.. We also had a postage stamp front yard in which we had a tree that we had to pay an extra $10. for. There are few trees in Oklahoma and mostly nothing but sand and rocks and hot sticky winds. We traded our Chevelle for a 68 El Camino.

Being in the Army, Ralph had to be on post for his morning run at 5 o'clock. then his work day in the motor pool where he was Sargent First Class. My pregnancy was rough because of the heat and being sick from morning to night. I was alone when he was out in the field and a lot of the time there were tornadoes or hurricanes out there.The land was so flat that the heat just swirled along the ground over the hot sand whipping it up into mini whirlwinds.

I was very sick and craved spaghetti all the time. Kristy was finally born on March 12, 1982 at 2:30 in the morning and Ralph was in the waiting room with our small 3 year old son, Brad. It was a long hard road to the finish line. When they laid that beautiful baby in my arms and let me see her it was all worth it. Ralph got to hold her and carry her to the nursery.

Before we got to come home a year later we had one more exciting thing happen: Brad was 4, Kristy was 1 and I was pregnant with our last little god send. My baby, Chad was on the way. He wasn't born until we got back to Tennessee.The trip back was a trip too. We came back in a U-Haul loaded to the gills with our stuff and towing the El Camino loaded with a pregnant Border Collie named Lady and a Cat named Love with 5 kittens You can just imagine this trip. It was something I never want to do again.

My husband and I are divorced now and we're both remarried but we are still friends and I get along with his new family well enough to be able to go to their home for holidays and family gatherings. Life has been very good to me.







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