Our First Apartment

Our first apartment after we got married was over Smitty's Restaurant in downtown Logan, WV. It was a tiny place on the third floor and we had to climb 5 flights of stairs to get there. Bobby would pick me up from work at P.R.I.D.E. (a community action agency - the oldest one in the US actually) and we would head for the park.

We had cookouts practically everyday and usually he would have everything packed and ready to start or he would leave the food cooking with a friend while he went to pick me up. We had some massive parties in that park, full of good food and drink and horseshoes and trails.

We came to know every trail in the park -even the dreaded backbone trail that I got lost on one time before I met him. Since Bobby was a mountain man I didn't ever have to worry about being lost. While I could hike with the best of them for awhile he was in better shape than I (he ran distance runs) and he usually had to take it easy on me. He also taught me how to scout deer and other creatures and tried to teach me various trees and plants but I never did get into botany that much.

We hung out in the Fun Center (arcade). I was a Centipede Wizard and people would actually pay me to play so they could learn my tricks. There wasn't a machine in southern WV that didn't have my name in the top score postion. Sometimes the arcade owners would unplug the machine on me because I could play so long on one quarter. When I complained they would just refund the quarter and tell me to go home.

One day he called me at work and told me he found a puppy but he didn't take it home. I told him to get it and I would find it a home. I fell in love with that pup the second I saw it and there was no way I was going to give her away. We weren't allowed to have pets so we had to sneak her out in a pillowcase (past the old lady watchdog on the first floor) every day. She thought we sure did do a lot of laundry.

I remember the first time it got really cold after we got married my dad called. He wanted to know if I was warm. I assured him that I was. He would also call and ask, "Where you at?" My answer was, "where'd you call me at?" That was in the days before cell phones and he knew the exact spot the phone was sitting in that he called me at. I understood why he called though.

My mom gave us furniture and things to decorate the apartment with. I still have the porcelain Christmas Ornaments that she gave us for our first Christmas Tree. They are 28 years old now.

We were completely in love and took to calling each other "husband" and "wife". Like most newlyweds all we needed to be happy was each other. It was that way for the whole 13 years we were together before I left him.