When I arrived in Seattle, Hallie decided to find someone to marry us. He looked in the phone book under “Justice of the Peace” and called the first number listed. She agreed to marry us at 9:00 p.m. that night. We spent the day shopping for a dress. We couldn’t find anything we liked. I ended getting pants and a pullover shirt for the event. We took a taxi to get to her house. We were late. By the time we arrived her husband and son were already asleep. She married us in her living room with the cat watching. She woke up her husband and son long enough to sign as witnesses. After we were married, I realized that I hadn’t remembered to take of my Navy sweater for the ceremony. We have one Polaroid photo and the vows she typed for us to remember the event. We took a bus back to our hotel room.
So we spent three weeks getting to know each other. Five weeks later we were married and spent a week together. In total we have now spent four weeks together. We did not actually get to live together until December of that year. When I changed duty stations from Great Lakes, Ill to Bremerton, WA we decided to find a place to live in Seattle, WA. We didn’t have anything except our clothes, which were mainly uniforms. We didn’t have a car either, so we walked or took the buses around the city looking for a place to live. After several disappointments, we found an apartment that we liked. Twice each day I walked twelve blocks to the Ferry Terminal to get to and from work. After an hour ferry ride, I would catch a bus the rest of the way to and from work on base. By the way, I think I forgot to mention that by now we were expecting our first child. Hallie had a bicycle that he could ride to work when he didn’t feel like walking. It was easier for him to get to work (downhill) than back home at night. We did this for the next 6 months. On May 1st 1983 I gave birth to our beautiful daughter. 30 days later Hallie had new orders again. His ship was moving back out of dry dock to San Diego, CA. I spent the next five months finding someone to swap duty stations with. Finally, in October of 1983 we were able to live together again, this time in Chula Vista, CA. It was one year later that I gave birth to our second child, a handsome baby boy. By now we had a couple of cars and a couple of kids……….
Post written by: Sherri Spivey
