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of Bob Moats |
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The story continues...
This first month I was back from the service, I came home a bit late from clubbing
and found my Mom waiting up, worrying. I decided it was time to get out of the
house. I was talking to Dale King, who still worked at GM with me and he just
divorced his wife and had an apartment to share. I told my parents about it and
proceeded to move into Dale's building on Hoover Road in Warren. It was a nice
feeling having my own place but shortly after we received a letter that the owners
were in the process of selling the units as condominiums. We couldn't afford to
buy the place so we made plans to move again. I don't remember where I found the
info but there was a small two-room apartment available in my home town about a
mile from my parents. The rent was $75. a month and it had a community bathroom,
located down the main hall that everyone shared. It was a bit inconvenient but
cheap. After a few weeks there, I told Howard about it and he moved in the vacant
room across the hall from me. There were three apartments, if you could call them
that, upstairs over an auto body repair shop and the third apartment was occupied
by an older gentleman, who looked like he could have been Hitler in hiding, same
face and little moustache. His last name was Coddens and he wasn't real happy
with two younger guys living up there, especially when Howard would throw his
wild late night parties. The landlord paid frequent visits but the parties were
worth the warnings of evictions, at least for Howard.
Around this time I was seeing Chris more and along the way I got goofy in the
head asked her to marry me. I also was getting tired of the two-room cell I was
living in so I used my Army VA benefits to buy a house in Roseville on Little
Mack. I moved in and started to remodel this run down but cheap homestead.
Sometime in 1972, I think October, Chris and I got married in her Catholic church.
I had Howard as my best man and the reception was held at the VFW hall where my
Dad was a member. Just before the wedding, I got to the church and found I had
forgotten the wedding rings and had to run back to the house to get them, an omen
I think now. Anyway, we were wed and after the reception headed to my little
rundown but improving house. The first night wasn't as seen in the movies, she
was a bit reluctant to do the wedding night ceremony, hell, she just plain refused
to do anything. We got to the house and she said she wanted to go home and I said
she was home. That didn't go over well. I really forget what all happened exactly
that night, maybe out of mental survival, but the marriage was shaky from the
start. More on that in the next chapter.
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