Bill and Billie's Blissful Blog: 1949 + My Story

I was born in Glendale, California, in 1949 as the little sister to Joline, born in 1943.

Me at one

She was a wonderful big sister, and we had a happy childhood.

I think I was about 3 or 4 here

We moved a lot, living in Glendale, Burbank, Panorama City, Sepulveda, Van Nuys, and Granada Hills where we moved when I was in the sixth grade. There I went to Knollwood Elementary School where I was in the same class with Bill, but we didn't know each other. My first year of junior high I had to walk a little over three miles to school, until we moved to another house closer to my school. My best friends were Ann Aseltine, Monique Chagnon, Julie Clanton, Nina Cesar, and Craig Werner. I spent most of my time with Ann and we often had our special guys over to her house for dinners. We made spaghetti sauce, pizza and our specialty was beef pot pie. We had such fun together. My group used to have parties year round where we would swim, dance and eat, with parental units always nearby. We had lots of fun. Some of the kids I hung out with are my friends on Facebook, Julie Nina, Craig, Kelly Callison and Debbie Tucker (Moreman.)

I wasn't allowed to date until I was 16, but I had a few boyfriends before that. Ann and I would cook wonderful meals at her house, and have our latest crushes over to swim and have dinner. She had a neat mother who understood about romance. My first real date was dinner at The Pepper Tree restaurant in Granada Hills, with Alan Rhodes. I wonder what ever happened to him?

My parents broke up when I was 16 and lived apart for several months. I chose to live with my dad, because my mom had a very bad temper. We lived in an apartment on Devonshire in Granada Hills, just about a block from my high school. They decided to get back together and they got an apartment that didn’t allow pets, so I had to have my dog put to sleep. I never forgave her for that. She could have lived in the apartment my dad and I lived in which did allow pets.

Dating was very different back then. You could go out with one person on a Friday, and a different person on Saturday, and yet another a few days later, and nobody thought it was wrong, because, until you had gone out several times, you didn't do anything more than just a goodnight kiss (and that was only if you liked each other.) So, I went out a between turning 16 and meeting Bill when I was 18 and 1/2.

In November of 1967, I was dating Roger, an older man of 20, and I thought he was "the one." By that time, I had been working at the phone company for a couple of months. I had tickets to go to phone company night at Disneyland, and Roger was going to go with me. I used to go to a Texaco gas station in Northridge on my way to work in Reseda. Roger had just told me, four days before Disney night, that he had to work and couldn't go with me. So, when this cute guy, Bill,

My Texaco Man

asked me out while washing my windshield, I not only said, "yes," I asked him to go to Disneyland with me. I never dated anyone else. He asked me to marry him before Christmas.

On my 19th birthday, April 21, 1968, I moved to an apartment, because my mother was making it difficult to see Bill. I was working a split shift at the phone company, from 8 to 11 and 4 to 7, and Bill worked from 1:00pm to 11:00pm. I couldn't be out past 11:00. So the only time we could see each other was at the gas station, and that wasn't nearly enough. I got an apartment in Reseda, only one block from my work. My dad helped me move. It was pretty neat being on my own. Then the worst thing happened. I think I had lived there for about a week, when the union went on strike. I had no savings, so Bill paid for my food and gas. We decided, after a week, that, since he was supporting me anyway, we might as well get married right away. Also, his brother was going to be home from Vietnam for two weeks in June. We planned our wedding in just five weeks.

June 8, 1968

Our wedding was small. We were married at St. John Eudes Catholic Church in Chatsworth, California.

My parents didn't go because my mother didn't approve of us getting married (we were very young, and Bill was Catholic.)

My sister did go, and was my matron of honor. My bridesmaids were Julie Clanton (Schleining) and Ann Aseltine (Holman.) Bill's best man was his brother Mike, his cousin Norm Garrow and his friend, Don Borwick. Julie's parents gave us the reception and her mom, Katie, let me borrow her wedding dress.

I've kept in touch with Ann and Julie, and we re-connected with Don last year when we saw Tony and Anais in Virginia. Of course, we are close to my sister and Bill's brother. We went to Palm Springs for our honeymoon. Her dad gave me away, and he and her mom were so wonderful to us. Our reception was at Julie Clanton's house.

After my mother passed away, my dad told me that he was very sorry he didn't go to our wedding.

My Mom

He just wasn't strong enough to go against my mother. He wasn't allowed to see me, but he used to sneak away to meet me for lunch. After my mother found out that Tony was on the way, and was due in May, 11 months after we were married, she decided that she would forgive me, and we had a pretty good relationship from then on. She loved Tony, as she did her other two grandchildren, my sister's girls, Cyndi and Terri. She died in November 1970 and my dad remarried, bought a ranch, which was something he had always dreamed of doing, and he lived until 2003.

We wanted kids right away, so along came Tony. He was a joy, and we loved being parents.

Tony at One

After Tony, I had three miscarriages, before finally, Scott came along. We never knew exactly why, but after Scott arrived, Tony started taking food from the refrigerator, and hiding it in his toy box. He only took certain things. If hot dogs or Parmesan cheese turned out to be missing, I knew where to go to find them. We decided that we would stop at two kids, because I wanted to be able to stay home with them instead of putting them in day care.

Our little monster

Tony at 3

Scott almost 2 and Tony almost 5

But, we had a surprise 17 months after Scott, and Kathy made her appearance. We had planned for a girl both other times, even knitting Tony a pink blanket, and, though we weren't disappointed that we had the boys, we really were happy to have our girl.

The boys treated her like a little princess. I made most of her clothes when she was little, and she always looked adorable, until she got old enough to want to look like the other kids. (Of course, she was still adorable.)

Ann with my trio and me

Tony was in regular school when Scott started to go to preschool two days a week. From the time Kathy could understand that Scott went to a special place, she wanted to go with him. She would carry on, so we told her that she could go to preschool as soon as she turned two, as long as she was potty trained. She never asked again, and she went to school with Scott on her second birthday. They were the best of friends. Tony always teased them, being the big brother, but they all got along very well most of the time.

1976 - shortly before moving to Nevada

1979

Scott's 4th birthday

We stayed in the San Fernando valley until 1977, when Tony was in the third grade. It had just been decided that children were going to be bussed from the inner city to the valley schools and valley kids would be bussed to the city, to get integration moving along. We weren't about to have our eight year old ride 20 miles on the freeway so, instead of trying to fight it, we moved to Sparks for a better life. We are very glad we didn't stay. The valley has become a hotbed of gangs and crime. We've been very happy here.

Bill had a secure job with the phone company, and I took care of children in our home, so I could stay home with our kids.


Time out during a call-out at Lake Tahoe

Bill turns 36

Scott made Eagle Scout

After they grew up and were on their own, I started taking odd jobs, to bring in extra money and to keep busy. Mystery shopping was one of the things I did, and now we both take on some mystery shops from time to time.

Me at 51 with flowers from Scott

For a couple of years, we were heavily into geo-caching. We got away from it when Bill was diagnosed with melanoma, but we've been doing a little bit of it in the last few of months.The states we've cached in are Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawai'i and Texas. We also did a lot of it when we spent several weeks in Canada in 2008.

We've gone on quite a few trips. When Bill was working for the phone company, he often went to training classes and I was able to go with him, especially after the kids were old enough to stay home along, or had moved out. We went to Chicago, Raleigh (NC,) Arlington (VA,) Dallas, (TX,) Columbus (OH,) and Montreal, Canada. I would tour the areas during the day and when Bill was finished for the day, I would take him to some special place I had found. We also traveled a lot when Scott lived in Michigan and New Jersey, and Tony and Anais lived in Louisiana and Virginia. We toured Manhattan with Scott and again with Tony and Anais when they surprised us with a trip there. We also visited Bill's dad in Niagara Falls, and once we went to Toronto with Scott.

At Lake Okanagan, Canada

Santa Cruz Calif.

The mountains near Kelowna

Maid of the Mist with Scott

We've had lots of friends along the way. Some of them have come and gone. A few have been very special in our lives.

Ann and John are friends that we have kept in touch with a lot. They finally moved away from the San Fernando Valley several years ago. But, before they moved away, we went to two class reunions together. We've kept up with each others kids and grand-kids. We even stopped to see Ann in Atascadero, after they had moved, on the way to Canyon Country to see my sister, and she got to see Bryanna. Ann came up here for visits a couple of times and we had a big adventure in Napa, involving her son, Michael, who was a lawyer. She also came here to visit after Bailey was born and she got to meet her.

Most notable are Monique and Brian, who are the Godparents to our kids.

Monique and Brian

They stayed in Southern California when we moved to Sparks, so we kept in touch by letters, cards and phone calls. They moved up to Fremont, California in the 70s, which was close enough that we could get our families together occasionally. When Bill went to phone company schools in the Bay Area, he often stayed with them on weekends instead of making the long drive home for just two days. They moved down to Santa Maria in the 90s, very close to where Tony lived after while in the Air Force. After Tony and Anais married in 1993, they all became very good friends. We were so glad he and Anais had Brian and Monique as surrogate parents as well as friends.

Now, Brian and Monique have moved to Petaluma, which is wonderful for us being able to see each other. It is especially good because we have to go to San Francisco about every six weeks to see Bill's oncologist. The drive over from Sparks takes about four hours, and occasionally, we would make the return trip the same day, but it has gotten too hard to do that. I do all the driving and it just exhausts me. We stayed in hotels or our favorite B & B several times, but, not only was that very costly, but we never slept well in strange beds. With them in Petaluma, only about 23 miles from San Francisco, we now have a place to call home while we're there. Even if Brian and Monique aren't home, they have invited us to stay any time. We have been lucky to have such great friends for so many years.

With Great Grandpa in 1999

With Great Grandpa in 2004

Other special friends are Donna and Rollie, who we met when we did the Honolulu marathon

We survived the marathon

in 2000, Sally and John, Louise and Earl, Susie and Kurt (all neighbors who became loyal friends,) Gee and Joe and Ennio and Sherry. We met Gee and Joe and Ennio and Sherry in Maui in 2003, and we just hit it off right away. Gee is the one I call when I need to rant, and she is always willing to listen, even in the middle of the night.

With Susie and Kurt in 2011

John and Sally

With Gee and Joe at the Fern Grotto in Kaua'i 2004

With Rollie and Donna

We love to travel, especially to see the kids in Texas and Virginia, and to Maui. We fell in love with Maui on our first trip there in 1991 with Susie and her former husband. We took Kathy and her friend Kim there for graduation, and we bought our condo there in 1995. We have gone there as often as possible through the years. We even moved there in 2003 for two years.

We are so happy that all three kids are happily married and settled.

Scott and Jenn's wedding in 2002

Scott and Jenn have lived in Michigan, Virginia, and Texas and we've visited them in all three locations. They have only been able to come here once.

Tony and Anais have lived in California, Louisiana
and Virginia, and we've been able to visit them
numerous times and they've been here several times.

Kathy and Rommie have always lived in Sparks, so we see them often.

After we moved back to Sparks, to be closer to the kids and grands, we put the condo back into vacation rental and I have been managing it myself instead of paying a company to do it. We've met some really good people over the years, several of whom are returning guests. One couple, Pat and Leroy, live in Westbank, BC. In 2008, they invited us to go to Canada for the summer and be work-campers at their campground. We had a great time doing that. They gave us a new trailer to live in and on our days off, we went to their cottage on Lake Okanagan to relax.

2012 in Kingwood Texas

After the kids, the grands and Maui, we love cruising. We have been on Carnival (Hawai'i and Mexico,) Norwegian (Mexico,) Royal Caribbean (Hawai'i and the inaugural cruise from New York to Florida,) and Princess (Alaska.) The next cruise we want to take is through the Panama Canal.

We have been fortunate to live close to Bryanna and Bailey, but not to Carson and Brendan. We took the girls on a Mexican Cruise in 2010, when Bill was pretty sick, but we had a fantastic time anyway.