Martha was eighteen and I was twenty when we were married. I had to get written permission from my parents and from my commanding officer at the base so I could get married. Needless to say, they all tried to talk us out of it. When my parents found out that Martha was a Native American (Apache-Pima) they were not too happy. They didn't want me to marry a non-Caucasian. But we were in love and this wasn't going to keep us apart! We kept our marriage a secret from Martha's parents until the first of March. During this time Martha still lived at home with her parents, Manual and Marty Burruel, her younger sister Marion and older brother Manual Jr. while I was living on base. On March 1, 1964 we told her mother that we were married. Martha, her mother and I were standing outside in the drive-way when we told her mother that we were going to move that night to our new apartment. Marty gave me a slap across the face and told me that this was "my wedding present!" That night we moved into our first apartment, which was located on West 4th. Street in Santa Ana California, nearby to where the Orange County Jail is today. Martha only took two or three cardboard boxes of clothes and things with her when we left her parent's house that night.

Since we didn't have much money I brought home blankets and silverware from the base to use in our apartment. Things were very tight for us so we took a trip to Palo Alto to visit my folks. While we were there, they gave us a lot of canned foods, money and a lot of other things. Good thing we got the money because I didn't have enough to buy the gas it would take to get back to Santa Ana! Some of my folk's neighbors pitched-in too with goodies for us.

In mid April 1964 we moved to a very small upstairs apartment on East 5th. Street in Santa Ana so we could have some extra money to spend before I was to leave for Japan in October. Our apartment was small and we had to share a bathroom, which was located down the hallway, with the other upstairs tenants, Our apartment was so small that only one person could be in the kitchen at the same time! That August we drove to Salt Lake City Utah in our 1957 pink Plymouth hard-top to visit with my parents. It was while we were in Utah that Martha conceived our daughter. We lived in our small apartment until Oct 1, 1964, when I flew-out of El Toro for Japan. When I left for Japan Martha moved back in with her parents and, since Martha didn't drive, my father took our Plymouth to keep for us until I got back home. This turned out to be a mistake which I'll explain why later. We already knew that Martha was pregnant and we had bought a lot of baby clothes and things. I had picked-out the outfit our baby was going to wear home from the hospital. Of course we didn't know at that time that our baby was going to be a girl so I chose a yellow outfit.

The day I left El Toro for Japan on October 1st 1964 was a real heart-breaker for the two of us. We both cried that day as we had to say good-by for a whole year. After a refueling stop in Hawaii we flew on to Iwakuni Japan, where we were to be stationed. A few months later we boarded a LST and sailed north to Yokuska (near Yokohama) to unload and truck our equipment to Navel Air Station Atsugi where we were then to be stationed. On May 10, 1965, while I was stationed at NAS Asugi, our daughter Vivian Lee was born. I was notified by the Red Cross that I was now the father of a beautiful little girl and that mother and daughter were doing fine! Being the proud father I passed out cigars to everyone I could find in the barracks! I was so proud and excited to be a new father!

I was overseas from Oct 1, 1964 to Oct 1, 1965, stationed in Japan, Viet Nam (photo 1 photo 2) and Okinawa. When I got back home Vivian was five months old. She was such a beautiful little bundle of joy! After I had returned home I found out that while I was over-seas my father had sold my beautiful pink Plymouth and had bought an ugly brown one for me. When he delivered it to me my heart sunk! We had to now drive this ugly brown car!

When I got home from overseas we moved into a nice one bedroom apartment in Anaheim but lived there for only one month. We then moved to base housing behind the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro, which was where I was then stationed. After living there for seven months we moved into an upstairs apartment in Anaheim and stayed there until April 1968.

We then moved into a rented house on 900 block of south Cedar street in Santa Ana. When we rented this house there was a dog that the prior tenants had left there. His name was Oliver and I came to love this dog. Two years later we were given the chance to buy a house in the 700 block of south Cedar street, without any down payment or any other cost. Good thing too because we didn't have the money it normally took for a down payment!

Our first house! Wow! Were we happy to be home-owners. I had gotten out of the Marine Corps in September 1966 and had many different jobs during this period of time. In October 1969 I finally settled-down working for a company called ORCO Alarm Company in Santa Ana. Some years later Honeywell bought ORCO and I changed positions from an alarm serviceman to being a residential alarm system salesman.

During most of this time Martha worked at different jobs, helping to support our family. She had grown from that eighteen year old girl I had married into a beautiful young woman. She loved our daughter and me with such a strong love.

Not long after I went into sales with Honeywell in 1977, Martha, Vivian and I were camping with a couple we knew from work who lived in Riverside California. They told us about some new homes that were being sold in the low 40's in a small town called Sunnymead, now called Moreno Valley. We decided to stopped by to look at the new homes on the way back from our camping trip with our friends.

Martha and I found one that we liked on Vought street and made an offer to buy it. In March 1978 we sold our home in Santa Ana and moved to Sunnymead into our new house. We had to put up a fence, plant grass and all the other things you need to do when you buy a new house. Martha worked side by side with me to do all these things. Together we made this house into our home and filled it with love.

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