Weddings

The weddings of all our children were especially fun to remember. Ken, Jr. and Nancy Lindstrom were married first, in October, 1954. Barbara married Norman Mitchell in 1956; Susan married Ron Beisler in 1957, and Karen married Jeff Baker in 1964, I think.
Ken and Nancy divorced in the late 60’s. He later married his present wife, Shannon. Susan and Ron divorced and later on she married Kelly Douglas; they are doing fine in Venice, Florida now. Karen divorced Jeff and has had a couple of different husbands, but is single now.

Sarasota

In 1965 Ken and I went to Sarasota, Florida for a little vacation. My sister Gwen and her husband Stewart, who came with us, stayed in a motel on Longboat Key and we stayed at a motel on Lido Beach. We had a wonderful time!!! The following year things were very difficult for Ken at the paper. He had been circulation director of the Chicago Daily News since 1952 and many things had changed there. For example, the paper had been sold again, this time to Marshall Field, who also owned the Sun Times, I think. Ken had had the circulation up over 600,00 (a record) for some time. Anyway, Ken was very upset about his working situation and said let’s take a vacation and go to Sarasota again. I said OK and we went there in the height of the season in 1966, so we could only have so many days at the Mara Beach and the rest next door at a smaller motel. We were having a very good time and Ken said, “Why don’t we retire down here?” So, after 36 years of work, Ken retired and we bought a lot in Unit 5 of Country Club Shores, on a canal. We paid $9,000 for it. We met a builder and ordered the three-bedroom house with pool ($41,000 for a total including lot, of $50,000). These homes are currently selling for $300K to $400K each. After settling on a place to live, we went to look at boats. Ken found a used boat that looked good to him. He told the salesman he was just looking, but the man took our phone number in Chicago. The day after we got back he called, making a special offer to Ken, which he accepted.

When we got back to Sarasota — six months later and the first day in our new house — they called and came over with the boat. Ken took the salesman back across the bay and the man jumped out; Ken was on his own!!!! I was waiting in an empty new house (empty except for the new bedroom set we had purchased in Sarasota, plus a television). Ken didn’t come back, and we didn’t have a phone connection. That was the first time I saw the difference between Sarasota and Evanston, IL; the services are very much different. Meanwhile, Ken was stuck on a sandbar out in the bay.

When he realized he couldn’t get the boat off, he called on the boat’s telephone. Someone said “St. Petersburg Coast Guard.” Ken said that he didn’t want them, but wanted the Sarasota Coast Guard. The man answered that there wasn’t any Sarasota Coast guard. Meanwhile, other boaters had been listening, and this fellow — a doctor — came up to Ken’s boat and broke two of his own lines trying to pull him off. So the doctor brought Ken home in the doctor’s boat. Before they arrived, however, a lady from the real estate office came to my door with a bottle of whiskey and a bag or oranges, saying “I came to sit with you through your ordeal.” After a little chit-chat, the doctor mentioned that the tide was coming in and offered to take Ken back out. A little later they came back, each in his own boat. They tied Ken’s boat up and we went to bed, to our only room with furniture. The rest would arrive later. What a day!

Ken and I had many good trips in our boat for the next few years. But he never really liked that boat, so he bought another. That wasn’t any better so he finally got the one he should have purchased in the first place — an 18-foot Wellcraft. He could handle that easily. We joined Bird Key Yacht club and we would go on trips with the other boaters every once in awhile. One time we went to Naples. When we all got there we had lunch some place, then all the men went to their boats, each to work on what wasn’t right. All the ladies went shopping!!! Fun!

We lived in our house on Longboat for five years, then bought an apartment in 1972, in Sarasota Harbor East, across from the Sarasota Yacht Club, and facing the bay. I’m still here today and will continue to live here as long as I can.

We have wonderful neighbors and nice people in all the buildings, so we feel very fortunate. We are right on the water. It’s fun to watch all the boaters as well as the tides as they come in and go out. We loved Lake Michigan when we lived up North, but the sea water here is fascinating with its changes.

The 50th Wedding Anniversary and Travel

In April 1979 Ken and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary, with all our children, and many other friends and relatives. Gwen came from California, my brother Lou came from Minnesota, Marilyn and Pleto came from Wisconsin. We would have 16 more years together, although I couldn’t know that.

Over the years Ken and I took many interesting and exciting trips to all parts of the world — Egypt, Hong Kong, Japan and so on. I was most adventurous, even riding a camel on one trip. These trips were arranged through the Press Club, so we often traveled with Ken’s old buddies from the Chicago Daily News. We brought back a Mercedes one time, from a trip to Germany. Even though my heritage was English and Welsh, I had never been to England. In 1989 Ken and I took that trip, with Ken, Jr. and Shannon. Karen was in London at the time and she and her husband Gideon met us there. We spent a little time in Ireland, and some in Scotland, as well.