Seventies Memories

I do not remember much about the 1970s. What memories I do have are spotty - somewhat like childhood memories. I think childbearing and child rearing causes amnesia.

Taken at the old church. Our pictures got lost in the
mail. Glad we had Polaroids.

Although I do not recall a marriage proposal, I do remember a wedding ceremony. Daddy asked if I just wanted to go out the back door. I did not. I remember Hubby being at the church before I arrived. That was the first time he had ever been on time and possibly the last.

We did not have a television when we first married. We went to Mama and Daddy's house to watch Marilyn in the Miss America pageant. It was the first time I did not have to argue with my brother about whether we would watch the pageant or a football game.

We did have a washing machine though. Grandpa vouched for us with Mr. Hammond to get a new washer and pay it out. It was a Whirlpool washer that lasted about twelve years and was our first purchase on credit. I washed my dry clean only dress on the gentle cycle. It shrunk to about two feet long. Same width but really short.

I remember having all day long morning sickness for nine months. I lived three blocks from Grandma and walked to her house every day. She made me baked sweet potatoes. The local radio station played Quartet Time around noon.

I remember moving to our own house in 1973. It did not have inside doors and we could walk through the walls. The first water well they drilled was a dry hole. The second one was artesian.

I was afraid to stay there by myself when Hubby had weekend Guard drills. A scorpion crawled up the drain pipe and into my hair as I was washing it in the kitchen sink. We had a lot of scorpions there.

I remember Uncle coming to build my cabinets - in one weekend. He cut his thumb on the table saw and poured salt in the wound. It stopped the bleeding and he kept on working. I remember how proud I was to have them.

I remember we finally were able to buy a black and white console television. I cried as I watched the Vietnam War POWs return home. That was in 1975.

I remember not being able to swallow my birth control pill and it dissolving in my mouth. It was very bitter.

I remember going to Fort Smith with a full bladder when an ultrasound was new technology. They said my second baby would arrive mid-October.

My daughter was born mid-September 1976.

Probably the reason I do not remember much after that is I am trying to block out having this baby take out the scraps. Look how far it was up to the fence line. I would not make her do that now.