This one, for instance. It was in the year of 1986, taken at our very small church gathering to celebrate something or another. I think we looked for things to celebrate back then. 😁
This was taken about 3 months, or so, after B.F. Goodrich closed their doors in Miami, Oklahoma, and Dennis had just landed a job at Walmart that paid $11 LESS (on the hour) than what Goodrich had been paying him at the time they decided to get rid of one of their tire manufacturing places. His beginning pay at Walmart was a mere $3 (and some odd cents), per hour. Miami took a hit that almost turned them into a ghost town when B.F. Goodrich closed its doors. Seriously! It took the town a few years to recover, because many of the residents of this small Northeastern town worked for B.F.Goodrich. They were the highest paying employer for miles around and it kept our economy booming.
After the loss of that job, our backs were up against a wall, so-to-speak, so I had to reopen my salon, known as Mary's Place. I cried for a solid week. Every day, as I prepared the relaunch of the salon, my heart broke into a million pieces. I had closed the salon just a few days before Lindsey made her way into this world, and we had decided I should be a full time mom. Now, 4 years later, I was having to choose business over cuddling and playing with my girls. Still, the added work just wasn't enough, even though we had been humbled as we accepted Food Stamps to provide the bare necessities of life with 2 little people depending on us. Dennis needed a job! It took a while. Yet, while others were claiming bankruptcy, losing their homes, divorces invading the once secure families, and men refusing to work for under $14 an hour (that was a lot back in the day), Dennis was protecting his. As was I.
The girls were just getting used to their dad without all his facial hair, when the above pic was taken. "No beards," was one of Walmarts rules if you wanted to work for them. That changed over the years, and D.W. grew his beard back to look more like himself, as the first "okay" came down the pike. I remember the tears coming from Lindsey and Meg when they first saw his shaven face. I think they must have been a bit confused as to how he sounded like their daddy, but looked nothing like him. His (now gone) prickly whiskers caused them to doubt his words. Meghan cried a little harder, as Lindsey took a couple of steps back away from this strange looking man, that looked more like a very tall boy, who claimed to be her daddy. If Lindsey wanted nothing to do with him, Meghan sure didn't! She wasn't falling for that bag of tricks.
It's been said that pictures are worth a thousand words, and that pictures don't lie. Pictures do lie. We were just holding it all together, smiling as if nothing was wrong, when the above picture was taken. But, we DID get through that very trying time, and many other trying times (with a different twist) have come our way since then. I suppose the moral of this story would be to always look forward, pull yourself up by your boot straps, and forge onward, until that brighter day comes towards you. Reach for it, pray for it, stand steady while waiting, doing all you know to do, and grab it when it comes! Because it WILL come!
See? We made it!!!
Until then, here you will find me...in Mary's World.
