Prelude:1970

Never sure about details, such as "One month after we were married, my husband went to jail for a year." Since I said it so often, it must be true, but truly can not say, for instance, "he went to jail March 2, 1969."

For many years I kept paper; the elementary school report cards, what were those slips of paper called? As I recall they were issued four times a year. Perhaps a 4" x 4" certificate to say student was not failing subjects? I had a lot of them. Every paystub from 1965 forward; every income tax return with related tax forms; every canceled check and checkbook pages; my first savings account passbook, tho' the account was closed. Those things would help me re-construct the past, as far as dates things happened.

It may have been 1971 or early '72 when I went out back, tossing all those letters we wrote each other while he was incarcerated, into a bin to burn them. No laws against backyard burning in those days. We lived on the third story of a building that had a tavern/pizzeria at street level. Large parking lot was my "backyard". A stream ran alongside the building, so there was grass that was lined up with fisherman, women?, children on April 15th. Okay there is the memory thing again. Did fishing season open on April 15th?

Beyond the parking lot, as I remember it, was dirt, some trees, maybe a woods. There was also the Rescue Squad siren mounted high just beyond the parking lot. I am guessing the building owner provided the round, metal bin where I burned those letters. Or am I confusing it with the one in my family backyard? Could there have been a fireplace back there? Do not know.

Without the old papers, hard to say if he went to jail three weeks after the wedding or six or eight. I am sure it was not eight. I used to have an excellent memory and if I said "a month" or "four weeks", I am sure that is accurate and close enough for purpose of relating my history.