Dad was stationed at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida in 1952 and was friends with Calvin Padget who was a friend of Alice McGhee. She invited them to come to Georgia for a family birthday part and that is where Mom and Dad met each other. They started writing each other and he was invited to Georgia again and soon began spending more time with Mom. They soon fell in love (though Mom always said it was love at first sight for her).
They made plans to marry in August. Aunt Alice had married Calvin Padgett in June and came to visit in July. Mom and Dad wanted them to be their matron of honor and best man, so they decided to get married immediately.
Mom and Dad were married on July 28, 1951 at the home of the Justice of the Peace. Uncle Calvin and Aunt Alice drove them to their wedding after borrowing Granddaddy McGhee's car. They spent their honeymoon at the home of Uncle Grady which was next door to Grandmother and Granddaddy McGhee's home. They left the next day on Sunday for MacDill AFB for their new home on the bus. (They didn't get a car until September 1953 when I was a baby and Dad had come back from TDY in England. It was a 1946 Dodge). When they got to Tampa, they went out to the base Sunday afternoon to look around and to see where Dad worked.
They spent their first night in the Hillsborough Hotel for $13.00 a night. Mom stayed in bed and slept while Dad went to work. When he got off work, he borrowed a car and they went looking for an apartment. They found and rented a furnished apartment for $33.40 a month at 214 W. Platt. Mom had brought mainly her clothes, a skillet that had a handle "two times too long", a couple of pans, towels, etc. Thankfully payday was on Monday, so they went and brought some groceries and other necessities. Dad's paycheck had been $76.00 per month, but it went up to $135.00 after they got married.
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