Thirty one years ago, I had a summer job at Willard Library in Evansville, IN. I needed a job to pay my student loans and I didn't have a teaching job yet. The library is a neat old building and is said to have a ghost, "The Gray Lady". My job was to read microfilm of old Evansville newspapers from the 1860s and record on index cards the names of people as they appeared in the paper. I would have a card for a person and each time their name was in the paper, I listed the date of the paper, page, and column of the listing. I had boxes and boxes of index cards in alphabetical order. These cards were then compiled into a book so that people researching their family history could read about them in the newspapers.
This was long before "modern" technology. I worked in the closed stacks in the genealogy department on the third floor of the library. There was this cute guy in the library who had graduated from college and was waiting to start active duty in the U.S. Air Force in October. He spent a lot of time in the library translating German church records into English. That way, people researching their family history could find marriage, birth, baptism, and death records and read them in English.
Gary actually saw me come in for my interview and asked my boss lots of questions about me. After I started working there, she would often ask me to come out and help on the floor. Amazingly, every time she asked me to come out and help, Gary was there. If there weren't many patrons in the department, she would send Gary back to "check" on me. My desk was located next to the sink where "The Gray Lady" would turn the water on or off. It actually happened a couple of times when I was there. I would immediately go out on the floor to help - what can I say, I am a chicken!
I started my job in June. Gary asked me out in August, and for our first date, he took me to a church stake conference. Since I was a United Methodist girl, I had no idea what a stake conference was. We had some fun dates, miniature golf, movies, and
visiting Angel Mounds - a native American settlement.
Of course we went on several "Winslow Expeditions". My brothers, Bill and Scott, my sister, Susan, my cousins, Hugh and Wendy and I would go out together to movies, bowling, tennis, skating, swimming, etc. A true test of whether or not a date might become part of the family is if he or she could survive a Winslow Expedition. Many tried, only a few managed to make it through the family "test". Gary was the first to make it through.
Gary wanted to get married right away. I didn't. He was leaving for training in Texas in October and then onto his first assignment in Crete, Greece in February. Gary proposed to me many times in person, by phone, and in letters. I turned him down numerous times. I am grateful that he is a very persistent and patient person.
When he left for his training, we wrote letters and he called me once a week. He came home at Christmas and I still told him no when he talked about marriage. Gary invited me to come to his training graduation, but I didn't go. Before he left for Crete, he gave me a beautiful star sapphire ring. I told him I would see him in 18 months. I cried so hard when he left, but was still not ready to get married and move to Greece.
When Gary was in Greece, we wrote letters all the time and he would call me once a month. In 1979, to make a phone call from Greece to Indiana, you had to call the International operator, tell her the number you wanted to call and the number where you could be reached and then wait - sometimes for hours - until finally the operator called you and the phone connection was ready. Those phone calls were wonderful. It was great to hear his voice. After three months, I decided I was ready to get married and move to Greece. I wrote Gary a letter and told him yes. It took him more than 12 hours for the phone call to get through once he got my letter.
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