So back in 1945 I was a librarian for Tuskegee. That’s also when I got married. We got married the day they dropped the atomic bomb, or maybe the day after. That was August, 1945. My husband-to-be called on a Tuesday and we got married that Friday.

I had known him and as long as I can remember. His brother and my sister went together for thirteen years. Then they each married someone else!

This fellow was named Reginald. Reginald used to drag Stanley along because Stanley was four years younger than Reggie. So that’s how I met him. I never paid any attention to him go. But when he got into the service he wrote to me and one thing led to another. I was in my last year of college when he asked me to marry him. He had not finished college; he didn’t finish until he came back. I had known him all my life; I just never thought much about him.

Then we had eight kids, six boys and two girls. The girls were at the beginning and the end, bracketing the boys. They’re all wonderful kids, just wonderful. I have no complaints about any of them.

Back to Tuskegee for a moment I worked as a librarian in the institute. We came in August and I think Stanley got discharged in about February.

We got married in Saint Paul, which was our home. We went back and Stanley finished at the University of Minnesota. He was an electrical engineer.

I was born and raised in Saint Paul. At that time my husband was working at Honeywell and we had been thinking about moving. In about 1957 a recruiter came through offered Stanley two jobs. One was for the Boeing in Seattle and the other one was for Lockheed down here in Saint Paul.

My sister at that time lived in Los Angeles. She was the closest one to me. I said since we’re going so far away let’s just go to other in California. I didn’t want to be too close, but I didn’t want to be too far either. That’s how we picked Lockheed. It was just luck of the draw. Stanley stayed there for 37 years. He retired from there sometime in the nineteen nineties.

I saw Silicon Valley grow up. Right out to the fire station there used to be nothing but cherry orchards. This was a great place to raise kids. The kids could go to school right around the corner and the park was open and managed until 9:00 every night.

The man who lived at the head of the court had two boys who were the same age as some of my kids. They cut a hole in the fence and made a gate. The kids used to walk through his yard, through the gate, and into the park. It was nice because we never had to worry about where they were. When we moved here there were about twenty kids living in these eight houses who were all twelve years old or younger. We had five recreation leaders at the park at that time. We kept good track of those kids. It was fun. They had a good time.

I was helping my son would be here so that he could tell us about those times.