Early Married Life

Lee 3/14 7:54pm
I can remember when my first hubby and I married. We lived in one half of a duplex. It had two bedrooms, bath, living room and kitchen with eating area. I loved it. All the rooms were large. I had more cabinet space than I had things to put in them. Wish I had those cabinets in my kitchen now.

We had little money for extras. He got paid twice a month, the 2nd and the 15th. I had to buy groceries to last for 2 weeks. Our grocery bill ran about $20.00 dollars then. Of course we had to buy milk and bread between grocery days. Way before Leigh Ann came along, my hubby splurged and bought me a new sewing, machine. I made so many of her clothes. I cut up my old dresses and such to make them for her. Then when she was 11 months old, I became pregnant with Terri and money really became scarce. How we made it back then, I will never know. I did not drive then either.

Once before the girls came and after I lost my son, all we had in the house to eat was Campbell's soup and eggs, milk and bread. We made do with what we had. I know Momma and Daddy would have helped but they never knew about the food.

When Leigh Ann was born, Daddy bought me a new washing machine so I would not have to take her to the laundromat all the time. No dryer connections but I had plenty of clothes lines. God surely watched out for us back then. How were your first years of married life?

Shirley 3/15 9:46am
MINE WAS QUIET A STRUGGLE TOO.MARRIED AT 18 WITH 2 LITTLE STEP DAUGHTERS 5 AND 7 TO START OUT WITH.MY FIRST SON CAME EARLY I WAS PRE ECLAMPTIC AND ONLY LIVED 2 DAYS.I LATER ON HAD 2 MORE SONS AND A DAUGHTER.I RAISED 5 CHILDREN.I HAD TO MATURE IN A HURRY.I GUESS AT THE CORE THE PIONEER STOCK TOLD AS I WAS EVIDENTLY THE SURVIVOR TYPE.VERY DETERMINED NOT A QUITTER.I HAD PLENTY OF GOOD TIMES TOO OF COURSE.I WONDER SOMETIMES WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE TO BE CODDLED AS SOME FOLKS ARE.GUESS I'LL NEVER FIND OUT.IN SPITE OF ALL OF IT I ENJOY LIFE.

Fay 3/15 9:53am
We lived in a small apt, and I learned how to cook. We were 18 and 21 when we married, but my husband was a real man by then, and took on the responsibilies of marriage. We would walk to the grocery store and bought 2 bags of groceries for $5. Carol came along a year and a half later. When she was 4 months old Jack went to war in the Navy. Soon after he got back I got pregnant with Bob. we bought a home and then 8 and 10 years later we had Jim and Janice. Then started Scouts, etc, We had a magical life, no regrets, just wonderful memories.

Wayne 3/15 7:53pm
I was 21 and was well into the process of flunking out of college because of "Party soul". I worked summers in oil patch to earn enough to pay for college. Caro was 19 and had gotten a job thanks to her aunt.

All my money went to the college and Caro earned $202 per month. Yep paid once a month. She brought home $151 per month. Car payment $57/month, rent $59/month, her bus fare $15/month. That left us $20/month for food. We bought a lot of dented cans and rotten fruit from the backroom of the Safeway. I finally got a job as meat cutter and w kinda got on our feet. Then I flunked out of college, she got pregnant, and I cut off my left index finger.

Those years were so tough we thought we were going to starve to death several times. Now we have a lot more money and look back on those years as some of our best times.

Eileen 3/16 9:58am
It was 1960. We were soooooo happy. First, we lived on the third floor of his moms house. It was built in the 1700's. We then moved to a sweet little apt...then a split level home in a nice development where we raised two great kids...who now have kids of their own and the soap opera goes on and on and on and on.

Barbara N 3/16 8:28am
I wouldn't want to go back but I was happy.We lived in a duplex in back of my parents.When Doug went overseas (air force) I was glad to be close to my parents. The union, we just had here in Tucson--included the man,who lived next door to us.He was in the Air Force with Doug. He has since remarried. I liked his first wife better. We all shared the laundry room.

Sarah 3/17 12:37am
We got married June 19, 1949 and started out in debt. At the time, I didn't know that my "to be" husband had borrowed $600 on which to get married, AND at one of those high interest places to boot. (He never was good at managing money.) We had an apartment above a two car garage at $20.00 a month. We were never late with the rent; it was paid first and we lived on the rest. We had all the comforts of home except I had to go to the main house to use the washer; the clothes were hung outdoors. The outside door to the apartment opened into the kitchen and there was only a path through to the bedroom and into the living room. My cousin had to bend over to avoid hitting his head on the roof. The day after Thanksgiving, 1950, we had 30 to 36 inches of snow. I was pregnant at the time and couldn't get out to keep a doctor appointment.

We lived there almost 2 years when our first daughter was born in May of 1951. That was the year of the 17 year locust. I was horrified when they would stick to Peggie's diapers and I would bring them into the apartment. We lived at the edge of a woods and you wouldn't believe how thick those critters were and the chatter!!!!!

It wasn't until the summer of 1952 that we bought a small house that was 24' x 24'. I thought it was a mansion compared to the apartment above the garage. My Aunt and Uncle financed our loan at 4% interest with no down payment. Our monthly payment was double the rent at $40.00. By the way, this small house was really built for a garage. And it is the same house that I now rent out. Donita, our 2nd daughter, was born in 1954. After she graduated from the crib located in our bedroom, she slept on a sofa/bed in the living room until 1960 when we built our present house. It is located on an adjoining lot we bought at the same time as the small house. The lot cost us an extra $600. My Aunt & Uncle financed this house, too. By the time we built, we had managed to save about $1000. The kids really didn't want to move to the new house even though they would have a big bedroom and Donita would have her own bed. I designed this house using an 8x10 (or something like that) piece of graph paper. Made it to scale and the contractors used it to build the house. We worked right along side of them, hammering all the nails we could just to save as much money as possible. The contractor were father and son and charged $3.00 an hour for each of them. The son went on to become a major home builder in our area.

At the time I was pregnant with Peggie, the bank wouldn't allow me to work after I began to show even though I worked behind a locked door. However, I worked as a party plan Hostess and part time for a local 5 & 10. Then, right after the house was built, I was offered a job in the County Office for the Dept. of Agriculture. The job could last a week, a month or a year. I took it figuring we could sure use the money as our loan payment was now $60.00 a month. It turned out that the job lasted 20 years when I retired.

Pat 3/19 5:42pm
Well, Pat and I were married in Aug 1954...We moved 10 miles away where he had a job at the local newspaper and I worked at the hospital...Working at the hospital was a whole new world for me...I grew up in the country and never went to see a Dr....Now I was working with five of them....I really learned a lot and experienced a lot of things....We could even go in and observe surgery...I remember a hugh tumor taken from a small little woman during one surgery... Pat made 25.00 p week and I made 125 per month....We enjoyed going to the drive-in to watch movies..Seems as tho there was one about every 10 miles around us...The first piece of furniture we bought was a Singer sewing machine...We had no furniture at the time..ha...Our first TV was a Philco...We made it somehow to rear 3 boys...We have been married 50 yrs.

Joan 3/19 8:45pm

Cliff & I married at 18 and 19, he was a laborer in the mill and I was a comptometer operator in a bolt factory. I made more money that he did. We really pinched pennies. Had one chair when we were first married.

We lived with his parents for 2 weeks while we were getting our house all squared away. It was a 4 room cottage with an outdoor privy. You had to hold on the door and swing into it when it was rainy. LOL. Had a 10.00 refrigerator and orange crates for cupboards. The only 2 new things were a hollywood bed and an oil heater. I worked days and Cliff worked 3 to 11's. I would make dinner and put it on top of the oil heater and when I came home dinner was ready. Just like a crockpot.

Then we started working on our house to expand it as I was pregnant. The day we tore the roof off, I had 8 men in my kitchen and it started raining and water came through the tarp that they had stretched right into a chandelier and it overflowed on my bed.

Uuuukkkk!!!!! Oh the joys of building onto an old house I slept in insulation for a long time. Plaster dust, nails, tacks. I never want to do that again. We were also prone to having strikes in the mills just about every 4 or 5 years. Had a tab at the gas station and one at the store. Gosh, do they do that anymore????? One of the strikes, I baked bread and sold it for 50 cents a loaf I ran across the bill for the house, we had bought it from my mom and dad and it was 3500.00 and we later bought the back half of the property for 500.00. One time, I bought a copper pot and it cost me 5.00 and I was trying to think of how I was going to tell Cliff I spent on some foolishness. Well he came in and said, "Darn that Johannson." He lost 5.00 on a bet and I ran and got my pot and said this is what I got for my 5.00.

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