El and I had finally made it to the next “upgrade,” from college student to degreed professional. Bear in mind that El’s family resided in Tallahassee and we’d been in Gainesville for three years, which meant semi-frequent trips to Tally town to maintain her family connections. The new job was in Newport News VA, which held unpleasant memories for El since right after we got married it was off to Norfolk VA to live while the ship was in a “short” yard period. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the new income ($25k/year) and the opening of a new chapter in our lives. We had put off starting a family until I graduated (and got a job), so now was the time to make a grandkid for the folks. We had flip-flopped about kids for a while – which was strange (in ways) for me since being around her family (and brothers) was part of what drew me to marriage.
I hired on as an entry-level engineer and wrote test procedures for submarine overhaul. It was OK, but I got a self-important attitude that I didn’t spend three years in school to be a glorified tech writer. What held me back was the good ole GPA. I lobbied (heavily) to get a trial shot at working in the analytical group; I did well enough to be allowed to stay and actually enjoyed “number crunching.” Surprisingly, I can’t remember the perversity surfacing during the three years at the shipyard, although there were several (probably continuous) instances of coarse humor while in the analytical group. The guy I sat next to was just as crass (if not a little more) as I was, so the two youngish admin ladies bore the brunt of our off-color comments. I’m sure the office gals were glad that the overhaul group was broken up as the shipyard continued to lose overhaul contracts. I think moving on to a brief stint of work on an Ohio class, then moving to fast attack hydraulic support helped to keep my mind off of sexual stupidity.
Another influencing factor was the “family creation” experience that El & I had. I was all inspired to further my degree and pursue a Master’s at ODU (Old Dominion) in the field of computational fluid dynamics. Big dreams for someone that had to take the fluids class twice. El’s pregnancy put an end to that effort since she was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, so I had to stay close to home with her being relegated to maximum bed rest. Our first son was (and still is – to me) an absolute joy. Fatherhood floored me. I never imagined the profound effect of holding a little one in your arms and having “your baby” just look at you. In writing this…I think my son was the primary reason that perversity was absent from the time in VA.
Although fatherhood helped dispel the dismal gray VA skies, it didn’t take much convincing to follow a co-worker and pursue a job in Florida and the opportunity to work the space shuttle program. Of course, El was all for it since it put her closer to Tally town and her family.
So we were off to the next chapter…in Return to Florida.
Or back to the previous blog Gator Country.
babychristian55 