California Dreamin'

When I was first married I was only 18 years old.  I married a guy I had gone "steady" with for four years...all through my high school years and almost a year more.  I actually met him through a guy I was dating...he was his best friend!

Anyway...we were married in April of 1964.  He had joined the Navy Submarine Service and we were married five days after he was released from boot camp.  We were poor and in love.  We quickly set up residence in Oakland, CA since he was going to "ETA school" on Treasure Island.

Long story short, after a stint in Bainbridge, Maryland, we ended up in Southwick, Massachusetts while he attended "Submarine School".  By then I was pregnant....something we had "worked on" for over a year....

Southwick was different and difficult for me.  It was a small town...and MUCH different than San Diego where I had spent my youth on the beach... and we lived in what they then called  "an efficiency apartment" called Mountain View Manor (thanks Dad).  Actually...it had been a motel someone had converted into apartments.  I was homesick and the long hours my new husband worked and the cold winter snow didn't help much....

As I said, we were poor, the military didn't pay much then.   However, we got a tax return big enough to allow us to buy a combination record player....in a CABINET!  We set it in front of the big window that looked out onto the parking lot of our  complex.  We were up a little off the main road, College Highway, so we had a bit of a view as well.  I could look out and see the snow all over the ground.....certainly strange for a California girl.

Now comes the purpose of this blog.  At the time we lived in Southwick Massachusetts...and I was pregnant...and homesick...3000 miles away from my parents (I'm an only child) ...and the Mamas and the Papas had a hit song on the radio called "California Dreamin'".

Each time...to this day...when I hear that song...I see myself...standing at the window of our "efficiency" apartment...pregnant...and lonely...and wishing I was "home" and longing for the warmth of California!  You would think that after about 45 years the "feeling" I get when I hear that song would have subsided...I can't explain why it hasn't.  The song nearly makes me cry because it so takes me back to a time long ago when I was young, in love, newly married, and expecting my first child.