22 -- Finding Love and War

Every day began with a tape of a previous year’s lesson.  After class each evening, I would listen to another.  Saturdays and Sunday afternoons?  More tapes!  In short order, I had listened to all of Thieme’s recordings from 1965-71.  I had worked my way through his verse by verse studies for most of the New Testament and large portions of the Old. 

My entire life revolved around Berachah.  My social life was confined to the hour before each class and was limited to those that I knew from this church.  I know this sounds terribly confining, but for those of us who had submitted ourselves to the Colonel’s authority, we were having the time of our lives.  We lived, breathed and slept Bible Doctrine. 

Lest you think that I was some sort of student automaton, I was still girl crazy.  What do you do for an hour while you are waiting for class to start?  You stand at the back of the auditorium and watch it fill with over a 1000 people, many of whom were good looking girls in their early twenties.  It was like going to a huge singles bar every night!  Everyone dressed the part – it was damned entertaining!

After working for a year or so delivering office supplies, I was approached by another member of Berachah who offered me a position in his small company, selling copy machines.  This was a great opportunity for me as I had been involved in sales from my early teens. 

My first sales job at the age of 13 was selling Fuller Brush supplies door-to-door in the wealthy end of Louisville.  At 16, I was selling WearEver cooksets, again door-to-door, but to young single women.  That was profitable and exciting!  My father and mother had both been in sales.  I learned a lot about selling from my father when I spent two summers travelling with him as he covered his territory from Texas to California. 

My purpose for joining him on these trips was vacation as we traveled to our ultimate destination California where we would stay for six weeks.  My father was doing quite well in sales, so we stayed in the most expensive hotels, had filet minion for dinner, visited famous nightclubs in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and visited all the tourist attractions, especially Disneyland.  As we drove or ate each night at dinner, I would hear all the stories about his sales calls.

At 17 I was selling jewelry at my uncle’s store and clothing at one of the best men’s stores.  I knew how to sell.  It was just a matter of exchanging my deliveryman’s uniform for what I wore every evening to church.  My new job also gave me the use of an air-conditioned car!  That changed everything! 

I had upgraded to a nicer apartment, still within walking distance of Berachah.  I had also invested in a bicycle.  But, now I had my own car—no more suffering in the heat.  I drove to class in air-conditioned comfort.

I did pretty well selling copy machines, making a large sale to a local bank.  The commission from the sale alone was $2000.  I used some of that money to vacation in Hawaii.  Of course, that Hawaii trip’s purpose was to attend a bible study conference by, you guessed it—Col Thieme! 

I had become friendly with a doctor and his wife as we set up our recorders in the special room behind the glass each night.  They were insistent on setting me up with their student nurse who also attended Berachah.  I had begun to go on a few dates with girls from Berachah, and frankly the selection was so good that I was really not interested in a “blind date.”  They let it go when they saw that I was determined to make my own choices from the rich pickings at the nightly classes.

When I started selling copy machines, my doctor friend gave me a sales lead with one of the other doctors in his building.  The next week I called and made an appointment.  As I was wheeling in my demo machine, a stunning brunette in a nurse’s outfit held the elevator door for me.  We both got off at the same floor.  As I made my way down the hall for my appointment, I noticed that she walked into my doctor friend’s office.  Could that be who they wanted to fix me up with for a blind date?

I made the sale, and although that was actually my first copy machine sale, I was more interested in speaking with my doctor friend and his wife that night at church than my very happy new boss!  I had just made my boss $500 and $250 for myself, but I disentangled myself from “work” talk and headed for the taping room.

I was very early, as usual, and my doctor friend didn’t arrive until about 15 minutes before the beginning of the study.  By that time, I was pretty anxious.  As soon as he entered the tape room, I went up to his wife and said that I would be interested in that blind date after all! 

A couple of nights later, I took their student nurse, Pegi, to coffee after class.  I think we almost put IHOP out of business as we consumed pitcher after pitcher of their free coffee refills.  I had found my “California Girl” in Texas.

Pegi and I would date “off and on” for three years.  She likes to joke that it was mostly off!”  As our relationship grew, it became obvious to both of us that I was not going to want to be a salesman all of my life.  With the constant military focus at Berachah, we both became convinced that my future was a career in the military.

Of course there was that pesky problem of my reenlistment status with the Navy.  My discharge under “honorable conditions” had a RE-4 code attached to it.  That meant that I was the last choice in time of national emergency for reenlistment.  It was similar to a 4-F draft status.  But, I wasn’t going to let my weakness from my hippie days keep the Army from recognizing that I was a “new creature” in Christ. 

Pegi edited my appeal letter that accompanied recommendations from Col Thieme and Senator John Tower of Texas.   These were presented in person to the chief recruiting officer for Houston by Medal of Honor winner, SSgt Nick Bacon, my recruiter and close personal friend whom I had introduced to Berachah.  In spite of all this recommendation firepower and a personal appearance that I made before three Army colonels in the regional recruiting command, the Secretary of the Army, Bo Callaway, refused my appeal.  [I took some solace when Callaway was shamed by his involvement in a real estate sham a few years later.]

I had found love, but war was eluding me—that was until another Berachah friend of mine returned from a trip to Africa.

Next:  Honeymooning in a war zone.