An Unhappy Marriage (Part Two)

While Sherrie and I were getting to know one another other events were developing which would change my life... our lives. The factory I worked at had been loosing orders. As a result hours were being cut on all shifts. By the first week of December I had been cut back to 3 days a week. A few days later my shift supervisor stopped me on the way into the building and sent me home. The schedule had been reduced again. I had already tightened my belt to accomadate the cut in hours, but a 2 day workweek was not going to keep me going.



I was on my way back to the hotel when I spotted the Navy Recruitor sign outside a small office. Without really giving it a second thought I pulled into the parking lot and went in. The man standing behind the counter was very helpful as he handed me the necessary paperwork to fill out.



After I completed the paperwork he gave me a slip of paper with the date and time they would be issuing the next entrance exam and informed me I would need to bring a copy of my birth certificate with me in order to take the test. I walked out of that office very insecure about what I had just done. But I was sure I had to do something.

Over the next few days I spent a lot of time pondering the prospects and the dread of making such a dramatic change to my life. I wasn't sure the "It's not just a job, it's an adventure!" slogan was what I was really looking for.

The following Monday morning I returned to the reqruitor's office just to talk to one of the recruitor's about what to expect from the Navy lifestyle. It almost seemed he was reluctant to give up a lot of information about it, but in our discussion he never mentioned anything negatively. When I walked out I still had increasing doubts about enlisting. But I did agree to take the entrance exam just to see how I would do.

That afternoon, when I walked into the shoe plant, my supervisor was laughing when he told me that there was rumor of even more hours being cut from the budget. For a moment I was truly upset about his comment, and I think that's when I truly made the decision to follow through with the plans to enlist into the Navy. Providing, of course, I passed the entrance exams, which I had little doubt that I would.

I told Ed that it really didn't matter about the hours because I was in the process of joining the Navy. And with that I handed him my shoeknife and told him he could give my hours to someone else.

"You'll be back!" he said, trying to get me to take my knife back. I just laughed at him and started walking for the door.

"You'll be back Bob!" he barked with a laugh.