First, how we met was totally controlled by fate, fortune and dumb luck.

I was a rookie, Air force lieutenant, finishing Navigator Training in Texas. The system in place in 1962 allowed us to select from available assignments based on our academic standing. I was number 4 of 25 in our class. Good but not number 1. For our class there were 6 airlift assignments. The top 6 of us selected those rather than going to B-52 Bombers. I wanted Dover AFB Delaware cause that was near DC where my mom was. Tough break, Don. Number 1 took Dover. There were 3 assignments available to Charleston AFB. I happily took one of them.
There would have been no Us if I got my first choice. Not only would we not be Us if I was smart enough to be number 1.  We also would not have been Us if I was dumb enough to be 7 or lower.

Ok so I arrive at Charleston Aug 1962. In my first week here I was invited with several other young officers to my first house party. That was the primary way to meet people ( ladies) in Charleston, a dry town, in 1962. BYOB house parties. (bring your own bottle/ booze).
I shortly started a conversation with one of the hostesses, Anne, and we danced a time or two. At about 11pm Anne asked if I would do a favor. It was to drive her to pick up a friend who was a nurse and didn’t get to go to many parties due to crazy work schedule.
Her friend was Marjorie, a nurse at the medical College Hospital (now MUSC).
My first sight of Marjorie was her walking down the front steps of the hospital in her beautiful, white nurse’s uniform. I met her in my Bermuda Shorts and a loud blue and white Aloha shirt. She later told me she thought my taste in clothes was in my mouth.
Little did she know that we would be married in about two years for at least 60 years.
It may have been love at first sight, but both of us had other things to do. I dated Anne, the hostess for several months and Marjorie was busy with Orangeburg relationships and dating Navy Lt Commanders (old guys)

In that fateful year my mom was diagnosed with cancer, and after a long illness in the DC area, I brought her to Charleston to better care for her. Not easy to be a care giver while flying all over the world as an aircrew navigator.
I was reluctant to accept help, but Marjorie, who I was now dating, stepped up and helped me in spite of my reluctance. I think that’s when I fell in love. My mom was hospitalized and passed away in May 1964.
BTW I received orders to Hawaii while I was caring for my terminally ill mom. I got a humanitarian deferment and canceled that assignment. Another bit of fate. Had my mom not been ill. I would have been off to Hawaii and there would probably be no Us.
Instead, Marjorie and I were engaged in June and married on Aug 29, 1964.
So… after a wonderful short honeymoon in New York City, we started our life together as Lt and Mrs Scooler.
After about a year, we fleetingly thought about adoption cause there was no sign of a little one yet. However. we soon learned that our first was due in March 1966. Kind of a surprise cause I was flying my ass off to preserve democracy. My scarce time at home was productive I guess.
So Christine, our beautiful daughter was born on March 15, 1966. She conned us. She was so easy to care for, we, as young folks with heads full of mush, forgot for a moment she was with us and left the house for a movie with her in her bassinet. We got to the end of the block before doing a quick U-ee and going back to our beautiful baby girl.

Speaking of being conned, Marjorie was nursing Christine. We thought we would wait a while before having another (baby that is). Marjorie said, “Don’t worry we can’t get pregnant while I’m nursing“. RONG. In less than a year, our second , a premature baby boy was born on March 6, 1967. OMG. I got a beautiful family. Boy am I something.
OK. Major change coming.
In August 67 we left Charleston and went to Columbus, Ohio. I had been assigned to Ohio State to earn my MBA and a directed duty assignment to Financial management. ( but foist, I had to spend a year paying back in a place called Vietnam). Marjorie and kids went back to Charleston while I vacationed in Nam. Rearing a one and two- year old by herself for a year was no vacation for her.
So now it’s 1970 and Vietnam is behind me and I got an Air Force paid for MBA degree. We move to Denver, Colorado and I’m assigned to the Air Force Accounting and Finance Center(AFAFC). In July of 1971, our peace and quiet was permanently eliminated by the Caesarean birth of Jeffrey Paul
Just a few years ago my daughter, Christine, who was struggling to raise my outstanding grandson, asked me “ What were you thinking? Having three.“
Who says we were thinking.