Our First Summer

 

Our first summer was the summer of 1960.

 

 

That's us.  Alan and me.

 

 



 

It was a difficult summer because we didn't know from day to day whether we could see each other.  We had no wheels!

 

Alan out in the boonies (at that time) of Lindenwold, and I lived in Runnemede.  It was a good six miles between houses.  That's a long walk.  I have to say that looking at the picture I have posted that Alan has really improved with age.  I, on the other hand....I just won't go there.

 

I remember a few dates we had that summer, and a few "meetings" as well.  If Alan's dad was driving to any place near Runnemede, say Glendora, Alan would call me, hop a ride with his dad, and we would "meet" about half-way.  Or, if his dad was in a good mood he would drop Alan off and then go to his scheduled activity, giving us from one-half hour to three or four hours of "meeting" time.

 

If it was one of the shorter times, we'd just sit on the front porch and talk.  If it was one of the longer times we would walk west on Clements Bridge Road, up the hill from Second Avenue, and then down the hill to across the street from Mr. Softee, and somewhere in that area there was a miniature golf place and there was also a trampoline place.  Does anyone remember them?  The trampoline place lasted about two years, the miniature golf a little longer.

 

All our date were dutch and we never had more than one dollar each to spend.  Golf was fifty cents a game, that left us with $1.50 if it was near allowance day, or pay day for me (I worked at Mr. Softee that summer) and we could get a snow cone at the other end of DBR at the stop light in town at the Pike and CBR.  Snow cones were $.10 a piece.  I loved the root beer snow cones.

 

We also went bowling a couple of times.  But the real date that I remember the most -- that means HE paid for everything -- was the time we went to Clementon Amusement Park.  At that time there was no one-price-gets-you-on-any-ride-you-want fee, back then you paid for each ride.  You bought tickets and hoped you had bought enough so you could get on your favorite ride.  The picture you see was taken in one of the Park's picture booths on that night.  We had so much fun. 

 

A few short weeks later Alan left for Kenya and I didn't see him for three years.  Oh, that we had Skype or e-mail or Facebook back then.  Mail to and from Kenya was very slow and a phone call would have cost about $50 for 10 minutes.  So we had no voice contact and little mail contact during those years.

 

I am so glad that dating is over and I have enjoyed married life with Alan for almost 48 years.

 

 

ttfn