During the summer of 95′ I found a new job. In ignorance I applied at J.C. Penney’s for an electronics salesperson position. The part I was ignorant about was the fact that Penney’s did not have an electronics department. However, they liked me and hired me to sell men’s suits. And the was my first exposure to working on straight commission. During that summer not much else happened. I eagerly awaited Tabitha’s return to graduate school, and worked. I believe I might have taken a trip to NC that summer, but my memory is weak on that point. I am sure Tabitha could tell me. Once fall returned so did all the students and my girlfriend. It seems to me that Fall and Winter of that year were pretty uneventful. I did make a trip to Cincinnati over Christmas break to surprise Tabitha at a Wesleyan convention that she and her family were attending (or was that 94′). Who knows? She knows. Anyway it was Easter of 96′ that we decided to get married, and that is when my life began to change forever in every way. We chose the 4th of July for that momentous occasion, so that we would always have fireworks on our anniversary. In just three months the magic that is my mother-in-law and wife managed to organize our wedding, make the wedding dress and a couple of bridal gowns, and make the reception dinner. It was amazing. There were of course things that went wrong but all in all everything went smoothly; and we had a beautiful wedding! We continued to live in Kent for the next month, at which point we moved to Kentucky, because my wife had secured an excellent job with Asbury College. Little did I know of the history and world that I was stepping into.
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Okay, He keeps saying I know, so I’d better set the record straight. 🙂 It was October/November of 1995 when he switched from electrical work to selling suits. I remember this well because it followed a rather frightening week with him in the hospital in the middle of the semester. We had been getting his parents’ house and yard ready for an IVCF Fall party when he got sick. He tried to stick it out but the fallen leaves and the wood smoke were just too much. The evening ended with a trip to the ER and a hospital admittance. Yes, he did make a trip to NC that summer (and got sick then too). And it was the Christmas of ’94 when he made the Cincinatti trip. He’s pretty much right about the rest of it though. Mom sure was magic. Withing five weeks she had made my gown, veil, bouquet and most of the flower arrangements for the church, all while I was in Ohio completing my Master’s degree and she was teaching full-time. She and I spent the next month-and-a-half laying a brick patio, preparing the flower beds, helping build a deck, helping make bridesmaids gowns, assembling my trousseau, and a myriad of other small preparations that still make my head spin. As for not knowing the “history and world” he encountered in Wilmore, I did try to prepare him. 🙂
Chris,
Not one mention of me in your whole personal history?
What’s up with that? 🙂
-Brian Spencer