Today we have a story with a happier ending, Ann runs away from home with her stuffed animals and ends up getting married.
THE GOD GAMES: Heaven & Hell...Chapter 19...HELL
To Charley and me it (our parents struggles) meant that suddenly there was no food in the house. We went back to rice and pancakes. I wrote a letter to Charles and asked him for ten dollars to buy some canned food with, he wrote back that I was not his problem and he wasn't going to send any money. I considered the engagement off. My love for him disappeared.
Over the next six months I had two love affairs; one with a Mexican boy named John, and one with an American Indian, named John also. The first John disappeared in two weeks, but the second John was a terrific guy, in the Navy, and just as nice as you could be. I wanted him to marry me and take me away from my mother, but he declined saying that he wanted to see the world and have many, many women in his life.
Well, my birthday loomed, my 18th birthday. I knew that once I was 18 that my mother couldn't put me in jail for running away. I had no money and no job. I had graduated from High School in June-in the top ten percent of a class of over 600 students. I had a girlfriend, named Tammy, who offered to let me stay at her house until Charles came back from overseas. Yes, Charles. He never knew that I was fooling around on him and still thought I was engaged to him and I let him think so.
On my 18th birthday mom took me out to eat at Ceasar's in Tijuana, and I had my first daquari as well as their famous Ceasar's salad. Then we went back home. At 9:00 p.m. I crawled out my bedroom window with my favorite stuffed animals and went to Tammy's house.
Mother was distraught, but could do nothing to get me home. Charles came home a week later and we went to my pastor-by then I was going to the Church of the Nazarene with my maternal grandmother, Pansy Berle-but the pastor refused to marry us until I made peace with my mother. Of course I did, and Charles and I made plans to marry on July 30th, 1962. I went home to mother until the wedding day.
Trouble was I no longer loved Charles the way I had. I didn't know what to do. I had to get out of my mother's house and marriage was the only way I could see to do it. Charles and I rented an apartment in downtown San Diego and I would slip out my window at night and go to visit him there.
One night, after Charles had gone to sleep, I went up to the roof of the building to talk to ONE. I asked ONE what I should do. I wasn't "in love" with Charles anymore, although I did love him in a way. Was it fair to him, and myself, to marry him, or should I call off the wedding? I heard a voice inside of me that said, "Ann, Charles is meant to be the father of your children. he will take care of you and want to have children with you. Marry him." Of course, I did.
My wedding was small and was held in the Nazarene Church, on 41st and University Avenue in San Diego, but it was quite beautiful-trust my mother to do things right.
The day of my wedding, before the wedding, my neighbor, a Jewish woman, came over to see me. She seemed quite disturbed, "Ann," she said, "does your mother know that you are marrying a Jewish man?" I said to her that Charles had told me that he was German Luthern. my neighbor said that yes, he was German all right, German Jewish. I thanked her for telling me, and in my heart I rejoiced because I had asked ONE that if I should ever find out who my real parents were, that they would be Jewish. You see, all of the pastors I had listened to all of my life had said that the Jews were ONE'S chosen people. I kept what she said in my heart and married happily.
Tomorrow, Ann has married a bigot and faces her first pregnancy with fear...
THE GOD GAMES: Heaven & Hell...Chapter 19...HELL
To Charley and me it (our parents struggles) meant that suddenly there was no food in the house. We went back to rice and pancakes. I wrote a letter to Charles and asked him for ten dollars to buy some canned food with, he wrote back that I was not his problem and he wasn't going to send any money. I considered the engagement off. My love for him disappeared.
Over the next six months I had two love affairs; one with a Mexican boy named John, and one with an American Indian, named John also. The first John disappeared in two weeks, but the second John was a terrific guy, in the Navy, and just as nice as you could be. I wanted him to marry me and take me away from my mother, but he declined saying that he wanted to see the world and have many, many women in his life.
Well, my birthday loomed, my 18th birthday. I knew that once I was 18 that my mother couldn't put me in jail for running away. I had no money and no job. I had graduated from High School in June-in the top ten percent of a class of over 600 students. I had a girlfriend, named Tammy, who offered to let me stay at her house until Charles came back from overseas. Yes, Charles. He never knew that I was fooling around on him and still thought I was engaged to him and I let him think so.
On my 18th birthday mom took me out to eat at Ceasar's in Tijuana, and I had my first daquari as well as their famous Ceasar's salad. Then we went back home. At 9:00 p.m. I crawled out my bedroom window with my favorite stuffed animals and went to Tammy's house.
Mother was distraught, but could do nothing to get me home. Charles came home a week later and we went to my pastor-by then I was going to the Church of the Nazarene with my maternal grandmother, Pansy Berle-but the pastor refused to marry us until I made peace with my mother. Of course I did, and Charles and I made plans to marry on July 30th, 1962. I went home to mother until the wedding day.
Trouble was I no longer loved Charles the way I had. I didn't know what to do. I had to get out of my mother's house and marriage was the only way I could see to do it. Charles and I rented an apartment in downtown San Diego and I would slip out my window at night and go to visit him there.
One night, after Charles had gone to sleep, I went up to the roof of the building to talk to ONE. I asked ONE what I should do. I wasn't "in love" with Charles anymore, although I did love him in a way. Was it fair to him, and myself, to marry him, or should I call off the wedding? I heard a voice inside of me that said, "Ann, Charles is meant to be the father of your children. he will take care of you and want to have children with you. Marry him." Of course, I did.
My wedding was small and was held in the Nazarene Church, on 41st and University Avenue in San Diego, but it was quite beautiful-trust my mother to do things right.
The day of my wedding, before the wedding, my neighbor, a Jewish woman, came over to see me. She seemed quite disturbed, "Ann," she said, "does your mother know that you are marrying a Jewish man?" I said to her that Charles had told me that he was German Luthern. my neighbor said that yes, he was German all right, German Jewish. I thanked her for telling me, and in my heart I rejoiced because I had asked ONE that if I should ever find out who my real parents were, that they would be Jewish. You see, all of the pastors I had listened to all of my life had said that the Jews were ONE'S chosen people. I kept what she said in my heart and married happily.
Tomorrow, Ann has married a bigot and faces her first pregnancy with fear...
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