To my Dear Friends,
Our life has had many recognizable coincidences and synergistic events which go beyond our own doing. These I want to describe and share.
How I met Art, my husband now of 73 years.
It was the day I was to start work, at GE, in Schenectady NY, where I had been accepted for a job as soon as I had turned 18. It was Oct. of 1942, after the US had declared War against Japan and Germany. Men were being drafted for military service, and women were being actively recruited for being trained to take their jobs. Even my mother worked there for one year, but soon returned to the lesser paying job as a teacher.
On the day, and afternoon I was to report in, there was a bus within GE, taking me from the entrance to the buildings along the main road in, to building 89. The bus had people reporting to many buildings. One young man stood close to where I sat, we spoke to each other, and we were both going to building 89. Yes, it was Art, of course.
We worked second shift, 3:30 to 11 pm. It was not a full 8 hour day for either of us by law, as we were only 18 and 19. He was an Electrical Technician then, graduating with a 2 year degree from Alfred, NY. earlier that year. We were almost at once a couple, having lunch together, and at closing time he also walked with me, probably a half mile, to building 52, where my Dad worked, for my ride home. Dad worked 3:30 to 11:30.
It was Feb of 1943 that Art was drafted, and he was selected to train me to take his job. Of all the people on the GE bus, and working at building 89, there had been many coincidences, without our own planning about this. But, it was meant to be. I think we both did a lot of our “growing up” together. We were married at my home, in Central Bridge NY. on Oct. 4, 1944. I went back with him to the Army-Air Force base in Georgia, and lived with him starting then.
I did take the Civil Service exam, and was hired at the post, Warner Robins Army-Air Force, I was trained to check “in-going and out-going mail” for the Adjutant General’s office, a good job, with a still higher security clearance than I had at GE.
One PS to this part of my descriptions is that when Art and I had a much later vacation in Holland, we toured an underground museum of the WW 2 Dutch secret underground fighters. We saw the same radio transmitter-receiver that we both had tested. We both remembered how to operate it, and could and did show the staff of the museum how it worked. We had our pictures taken with each and all of them, with their excitement and thanks.
I will use this as a first installment of our mutual story. I keep thinking of more, and what order things happened.
Next is either our second Christmas, with a baby, or when I had a train ride home. ???
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