We honeymooned in Sault Ste Marie and down the middle US back to Houston and moved into an apartment not far from the University. He continued to work as announcer and cameraman at Channel 13 and I was at AS Black Advertising.
As part of his agreement with the US Naval Reserve, two years of active duty was next on the agenda and shortly after discovering that I was pregnant his call came. I was pretty excited when he said "Galveston" but not so much when it turned out that he was being assigned to the USS Galveston, CLG3, currently docked in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyards. CLG meant Cruiser Light Guided (as in missiles).
He requested and received permission to come home for the birth of our first baby. She, due on July 14th, chose to arrived on June 30, 1960, just in time to meet him before he headed back to the ship.
Laura Lise English was born at Hermann Hospital in Houston and we went home five days later to Lindsey's "parents" home in Southwest Houston. I put parents in quotes because to this day there is serious question as to their actual relationship to him, but it is likely that he was the son of Pop's unmarried sister. We will never know. Anyway, Lindsey flew back to Philadelphia and we (I) learned all the correct ways to take care of a new baby girl. She was very cooperative.
When she was five weeks old we flew to Philadelphia to join her daddy. Quite an experience that was. Lindsey had rented an apartment on 39th street in Philly, very near the University and on a major bus line. It was such a new world! We took a bus downtown to Gimbel's dept store to buy a stroller. Used the stroller to walk several blocks to the washateria and later to walk all the way to the zoo. Sadly, zoos in both Milwaukee and Houston had been free, so the 75 cent admission meant we didn't have enough money to go in.
By the end of August we found out that our apartment was U of Penn housing and we would have to leave. Lindsey was Chaplain's Yeoman aboard the Galveston. Chaplain was Samuel R. Hardman. Sam arranged to bring his son's car up from Virginia for us to use in our search for a new home. We never did find anything and so we packed everything we owned into the trunk and backseat of the 1951 Ford and headed off to Virginia Beach to camp out with the Hardmans, Trudy and the three boys.
On September 12, 1960, we encountered Hurricane Donna in Washington DC. We parked in the Marriott Hotel parking lot while it blew across the city. It was just us, our earthly belongings and our 2 1/2 month old baby girl. I looked it up, Donna was the only hurricane to touch every state on the Atlantic with hurricane force winds, quite a storm.
So we finally got to Virginia Beach but we didn't find Trudy and the boys. They had evacuated the flooding there and were staying with Navy friends in Norfolk. It was eventually sorted out. Lindsey went back to the ship and Laura and I found a great little tourist court cabin/home in Little Creek, VA. We had a view right out to the ships leaving the Chesapeake Bay and heading out to sea. We made friends and spent a lot of time with Trudy and the boys, Robbie, Joe and Alfie. Trudy's older son was already away at school. Great family and so generous and kind to us.
My most memorable Laura moment of those months in Virginia: I awoke one morning to the sound of her shaking her crib side. She was four months old. I turned my head and opened my eyes to see her standing up, yes, standing up smiling at me and having a blast. I, however, new mother who'd heard you mustn't let babies stand because their little knees couldn't take it, jumped up and put her back down in her bed. She didn't try that trick again for a couple of months.
Talk about learning curves! Every few days brought another. Fortunately Chaplain Sam was free to do supply preaching and one of his spots was a beautiful old little Episcopal Church on the Eastern Shore. Their only music was provided by an elderly violinist and he was wonderful. We chose that church for Laura's baptism, Sam officiated and he and Trudy were her godparents. Somewhere there are pictures of the event. It was special.
However, by December the orders had come for the Galveston to head to the Caribbean and we thought it was time for Laura and me to head out as well. My folks had kindly offered to have us there in Wauwatosa and so we were on the road again, in mid December, in a snowstorm, with a Wisconsin bound shipmate of Lindsey's to help with the driving.
Laura and I lived with my family, Mom, Dad, Mary and Royce, until the next fall. Currie was born in Milwaukee in August of 1961 and we rejoined Lindsey back in the East, Woodbury, New Jersey, for the remainder of his Naval duty.
Here's a shot of Laura and me, in Milwaukee. Happy Birthday Laura!
