It was a balmy March in 1970 when I first met her. There was a war on in Vietnam and I had recently received my letter to report for my induction physical. I still lived with my parents who belonged to a Christian pacifistic religion who wanted nothing to do with war, the military or any dealings, direct or indirect, with the government. They wouldn’t even vote. As for me, I was a bone-headed kid who did what he was told...

I left my first wife in 1977 when I was 24 years old. I returned to my home town in Michigan after having been away for ten years. I still had lots of relatives in town and lots of places to crash until I found a job and permanent digs, not as easy as it sounds inasmuch as this was in the throes of the Carter recession and jobs were not to be had for love nor money. I had a few hundred dollars to tide me over for a while....