STARTING FROM SCRATCH - CHAPTER 3

Debbie's homesickness was wearing on me. We met a couple from Kingsport Tennessee named Tom and Janet Blevins and we became good friends. At that time they were the only married friends that we knew. Because our car was so unreliable we never went far from home. Debbie finally wore me down enough that I gave in and agreed to let her go home for Christmas. Her mom sent the money and with a heavy heart I bought her a plane ticket on Howard Hughes Air West airlines. My biggest fear was that she would get home and not come back. I asked my Flight Chief TSgt Bilbry to drive us to the airport which was on the civilian side of Kingsley Field which had a small terminal. We walked alone to the departure gate where I kissed her goodbye and she boarded an Air West F-27 which was a four engine turbo prop. I stood there and watched until the plane was airborne and eventually disappeared from sight into the night sky. Sgt Bilbry drove me home and when I was alone I sobbed uncontrollably. I was totally crushed because at that point in our marriage I just didn't know where I stood with her. I had always believed that I cared more for her than she did for me.

In the end her going home was the best thing for our marriage. The Christmas of 1968 was even worse than that first Christmas after my parents died. It was a very lonely time for me and since television signed off the air so early I listened to Wolfman Jack out of LA on the radio and the first talk show I ever heard called (Night Caps) out of Salt Lake City. The show was primarily people talking about anything and everything in the early hours of the morning and there was virtually no political discussion. Our first snow was on November 15th and we had fourteen inches of snow. I didn't know if my Pontiac would make it to work so I called out. Sergeant Bilbry wasn't happy but I was new and didn't realize just yet that this was the military and wasn't like my civilian jobs where you could just call out when you felt like it. I would eventually learn this lesson the hard way.

One morning while Debbie was away I got off of a midnight shift. It was gray and overcast but to me it wasn't even that cold. Exhausted, I got home and went straight to bed. With the apartment so quite I didn't wake up until about 8:00 PM. and the shades were drawn. I worked on my uniform, shined my boots and fixed something to eat. About 10:30 PM I tried to open the front door to go to work but no matter how hard I pushed I couldn't open the door. I was able to open the back door and realized that we were in the middle of a blizzard. I walked around to the front where my car was and there was a six to seven foot drift against my front door and the side of the house. I was able to get to work because most of the snow had blown off the roads. A friend in my unit lived in Medford Oregon 79 miles away. He knew how depressed I was and offered to take me home with him on our 72 hour break. The snow was deep when we left Klamath Falls but when we arrived in Medford the grass was green and the temperature was much warmer. The weather in Oregon depended on altitude to a great degree. Klamath Falls elevation was 4,099 feet. as opposed to Medford's altitude of 1,012 feet.

After Christmas I called Debbie collect almost everyday and I am sure that her parents didn't appreciate that but I was lovesick and broke. She seemed to be making excuses for why she couldn't come back to Oregon. According to her, the doctor had advised her not to travel and she should stay at home until after the baby was born. I wasn't buying it because the baby wasn't due until April and I didn't want to wait that long. I called Didi and vented to her about our situation one day. Like I said, at that time Didi wasn't all that fond of Debbie and without my knowledge she called her on the phone. Debbie said later that Didi gave her a piece of her mind. I don't know what she said but it was enough to change her mind. Shortly after this Debbie called to say that she was coming home. I was very happy but mystified at her sudden change of mind and I didn't find out until years later what had happened.

From the moment that Debbie returned I noticed a vast change in her. She seemed more mature and committed. She no longer cried for her mother and our marriage seemed to grow stronger. I never again doubted her love after that and she seemed genuinely glad to see me. In March we rode up to Crater Lake National Park with our friends Tom and Janet. Debbie's belly was getting pretty big. Crater Lake is 43 miles from Klamath Falls and the elevation is 6, 178 feet. It was early Spring but the snow depth was incredible. The blowers had cleared the roads but the snow was so deep on either side of them that you couldn't see over the walls of snow. When we reached the visitors center there was a lodge building that looked about three stories high but all you could see was the roof sticking out of the snow. Crater Lake is incredibly beautiful. We saw it in March and again in August 1969 but I was lucky to see it contrasted by the snow and I have never seen water that blue. It was so blue that it almost hurt your eyes to look at it. The lake is in the rim of an extinct volcano and is 1,946 feet deep. I have heard that the deepest part of the lake has never been found.

On the night of April 18th 1969 I worked a swing shift and got off at 11:00 PM. I was tired and not long after coming home I went to sleep. Debbie kept waking me up throughout the night because she was feeling tinges of pain but I rolled over and went back to sleep each time. All night long she kept waking me up and each time I would ask her how bad her pains were. They never seemed to be that bad but she was having them pretty regularly. Since this was our first baby I thought the pains would be more severe if she was in labor. After daylight I finally had enough and I wasn't getting much sleep anyway so I decided to take her to the hospital. My Pontiac was running for a change and it was snowing as we drove to the hospital. Just before noon she gave birth to an eight pound, four ounce baby boy. By that time the clouds had cleared and it was a beautiful cloudless day. We named him Robert Aaron Segroves but I wanted to name him Robert E. Lee Segroves. I couldn't sell her on that idea but she compromised and settled for Robert Aaron Segroves. She liked the name Robert because her first boyfriends name was Robert and Aaron was my fathers middle name. I didn't know it at the time but Aaron was my great grandfathers first name and that is probably where my father got that name. Debbie was a pretty tough cookie when it came to having babies. I crack up when I see women screaming and going crazy giving birth in the movies. She never screamed out in pain or made much noise at all.. Instead Debbie would nearly squeeze my hand off until the pain subsided. After each one of our children she looked like she could get out of bed and go shopping or do housework.

Robbie was born at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital and the Air Force paid for everything but 25.00 dollars. I was so broke that I had to pay it off in monthly payments of 5.00 dollars a month. While Debbie was in the hospital she met a local lady named Colleen Quirk that was in her mid twenties and had delivered a baby girl named Kerry the day before Robbie was born. She was married to Tom Quirk who had been an Airman stationed at Kingsley when they met and they had an older boy named David. We became close friends and still receive Christmas cards and letters from them after all these years. The Quirks were Catholic and like good Catholics they eventually had 8 children.