I married in 1975. My wife is a year younger than me.

Enlisted in the Air Force, I was stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB in Fairborn, Ohio. I drove home to West Virginia when she graduated. I rented a small place off-base for one hundred dollars a month and she moved in with me. Marriage was agreed after a few months because then I would receive BAQ, which was an extra one hundred eighteen dollars a month. We kept a strict budget, saving pennies to buy a treat. We didn’t have a television. Our primary entertainment was playing cards and reading. We went to the library a lot. Mom eventually bought us a small black and white Philco portable television with attached rabbit ears.

We didn’t have a telephone. We’d walk downtown to a phone booth once a month and call our families collect. We wouldn’t talk long because we did’t want to run up their phone bills. Quarters and dimes were saved so we could go to the laundromat to wash our clothes. For a treat, twice a month, we would go out to Dairy Queen and have a Brazier Burger. We didn’t have a credit card because we didn’t qualify.

I had a cheap little all-in-one stereo that I received for a Christmas present a few years before, with two small speakers. The all-in-one meant it had a phonograph that played 45 and 33s, AM/FM radio and eight-track player all in one small unit. We had my old albums and eight-tracks, but didn’t have the money to buy new records or tapes, so we mostly listened to the radio.

Today’s song is from that time. Lionel Ritchie was still with the Commodores, and they were one of the hottest groups around. I used to sing this song to my wife. She loved that.

Here’s ‘Brick House’, from 1977.