Marriages are funny things.  I don't know what a normal marriage is.  I do know that I didn't have one.  Ken was gone all the time.  To the desert, overseas, or in the air.   The Marine Corps' mantra was that if they had wanted you to have a wife, they would have issued you one.  I learned pretty quickly that if I was going to make it, I would have to learn to take care of myself.  I had never done that before.

 I came from a strong Christian family that didn't have very much, but that took care of my every need. I've told you before that my mom had a passion for reading and made a rule that if we were reading something on her "approved" list, we didn't have to do housework.  Needless to say, I read all the time.  She also didn't want anyone in the kitchen with her.  My life was pretty well charmed.

When I got married, all of that changed.  Ken brought the paycheck in and said, "That's what we make.  You have to learn how to spend it.  You'll have to pay the bills because I won't be here most of the time."  I had never written a check.  I didn't even know what you would write checks for.  My folks never talked about rent, electricity, water, garbage, car payments, gas or anything else to do with money.  I had never thought about those things.  But I could quote Hamlet.  I could sew pretty things.  I could sing, play the piano, marimba and drums.  I could memorize and quote poetry.  I entertained the Lions club, Rotary club and various women's organizations on a regular basis.

It wasn't like I couldn't do anything.  It was just that the things that I could do served no purpose in a marriage.  It's a good thing that a guy looks at the outside package when they marry because  I came in a nice package--which I didn't know at the time, because Seventeen Magazine came every month to tell me what was wrong with me.  And according to Seventeen, that was everything.   But looking back at old pictures I am amazed that I was a pretty girl.  I never knew that.  Probably a good thing.  Pretty is as pretty does and I couldn't do much of anything useful.