What did you really want to do?

Most everyone knows I have walked many trails in this journey called life. I have friends I consider close, but they may not consider me close. I can only think from my point of view.

My attention span is not very long. In my youth I jumped quick, when I saw a goal I THOUGHT I wanted. Most of them, actually worked out, but after I got a taste, it wasn’t always what my appetite desired. LOL.

Everyone who knows me, knows I have a love affair with Sherry that spans over 57 years. That girl has followed me and my dreams, always believing in me.

It is funny (not haha), I would be doing well at some occupation and woops, I would announce to her, I think I will quit and start all over at the bottom of some other pursuit.

Maybe God does look after fools. Because when it is all said and done, I look back there just now, and she is in a comfortable bed, reading. (I can see our entire home from where I sit) She now lives in a 38’ motorhome. You know what that means? That means that in 57 years we have advanced 12 feet. I married that girl and moved her into a 26’ trailer. That was our teen-age love nest.

(Two of my favorite shots)

Yep, she now lives in a 38.5’ ‘Love nest’. This is a modern mobile home. We love it. But getting here? We accomplished it by not having what our peers had. I actually moved my family into a remodeled chicken house. Another time, I moved them into a house with no inside plumbing (in the 1960’s).

(Sherry comes from TOUGH stock, Deserted by her husband, Sherry’s grandmother raised her mother along with 7 brothers and sisters in this tobacco barn in eastern NC.)

We bought our first house for $3500. That was when I was going to be a civil engineer. That didn’t last long before I decided I wanted to be a sailor, and we moved back into a 42x8 housetrailer.

Finally, SHE asked one day, ‘if we bought a lot, could you build us a house?’ The magic words, my answer, “yes!” (not knowing what I was saying).

(This I call my wild and wonderful girl, don’t she would be like  the little girl ‘skinning the cat’ on Sandie’s blog, she looks sorta adventurous, don’t you think?)

Then I decided to be a builder. Sherry was working and with her help, we built our first real home. On that house I mixed every batch of mortar, laid every block and brick. Made the trusses for the split level home and I had never mixed mortar, laid masonry, or built trusses, in my life. By reading a book, I laid two fire places and a giant chimney, and everything passed city/state inspections.

Finally in my 40’s, THIS IS IT!, I studied and earned my General contractors license, and I could finally be proud, I was giving that girl what I had promised, when I married her in her teens, ‘A mansion on a hill’.

(This is back when we were just out of our teens, and didn’t have the proverbial pot, no smart remarks, yes I had hair!)

Next, she always wanted to live back in the town where she was born. So we built her dream a house on Main street, in the town where she grew up.  We loved the home. It had everything you could want including a heated indoor pool. (Plus a built-in two story playhouse with a fire station for the grand kids.)

I am installing Canadian Cedar in the pool area. I cannot find a shot of the completed house, but this is it being built.

The completed pool. I loved the cedar. The door to the left entered into the dining /kitchen area. My office was to the left looking from this end of the pool.This shot would have ‘about’ been taken from our bed room.

This is my bragging post. My Sister Shirl once told me, “I have never envied you, but I do with this house.” LOL,  She B sweet.

Sherry is a HS grad. That lady has always worked by my side, or on a job.  Without her, none of this would have been possible. She wanted to go on to school and become a nurse. She would have made a good one. But she deferred to me & my goals. Yes, I am bragging. I am a HS drop out. Our holdings are not vast, but  God has blessed us. We could live in one of several homes, but I am just as happy to be able to sit here and type and look back and see my love in bed.

Together we have published 6 books. Looking back, she has said NO twice, that was when I wanted to sail around the world, and second, she says she doesn’t want to proof read my next novel. Hearing NO only twice in 57 years, must be a record, and it proves……. I MARRIED AN ANGEL.

I usually apologize for going so long, but thanks for coming to the log to read.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

If you do not have the courage to start, you have already finished.

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This is what Sherry and I dated in, 1948 Chevy Convertible. I wish I hadn’t wrecked it. Remember the half moons on the headlights? They were cool.