My Beloved – Part 2

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

DiVoran & I became good friends, and when the foursome broke up, Bud went on to girls of another persuasion and the next thing I knew DiVoran & I were going steady.

We went the movies, went to church, went roller skating , and cruised Albuquerque’s Central Avenue my restored 1940 Chevy coupe.  This evolved into our getting engaged.

I joined the U.S. Navy when I was 18 and went on a 6-month cruise of the Mediterranean on the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea.  We wrote letters to each other every day and signed them “All my love…”   After I returned to the U.S. I was transferred to the Fleet Repair ship USS Hector that was stationed at the San Diego Naval Base.

When family friends from San Diego stopped in Albuquerque during their vacation to visit my parents, they offered to take DiVoran home with them to see me.  That was when we decided to get married.  Our fathers were both on trips for their jobs, so our mothers came to San Diego for the wedding.  DiVoran was 18 and I was 19.

The car I owned at that time was a highly modified ’32 Ford coupe, and DiVoran hated riding in it because there was only one bucket seat for the driver and the rest of the interior floor was a sheet of plywood that she had to sit on.   Not long after we were married, I traded my “Pride & Joy” wheels for a nice ’50 Mercury sedan that DiVoran could drive.

 

 

 

We lived in San Diego for 6 months until I left on the USS Hector for 8 months duty in Japan.  DiVoran went back to Albuquerque to wait for me and complete beauty school.

By the time I was discharged from the U.S. Navy, I had finally seen the need for more than a high school diploma to make a decent living.  We moved to Los Angeles for me to attend Northrop University.  DiVoran worked full time with the Magic Mirror chain of beauty salons, and I worked part time servicing airplanes at LAX to help pay for my education.  DiVoran said it was the best investment she ever made.

We lived and worked in L.A. for 8 years where our two children, Renie and Billy,  were born.  We moved to Titusville, Florida in 1965 with the Apollo Manned Space Program.  I worked that program and various other missile programs, through the years, as an Ordnance Engineer until my retirement.

 

DiVoran and I live in the same house we bought new in 1965 and plan to live here together forever.  We are both happy as clams with our favorite past times, R/C model airplanes for me and novel writing and painting for DiVoran.  Our children and their families both live in Central Florida, which makes it great for us to be able to see them and our Grandchildren often.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a side note, DiVoran and I both learned to type in that high school typing class, and that is one of the things that is helping us write these weekly blogs.

The story of “My Beloved” and me will never end.  However, that’s all for now folks.

Proverbs 5:18