Page 170 - People & Places In Time

Interior Dimensions
old Saint Bernard at the side of the highway that had been hit by a truck but seemed OK. We brought the puppy home to Fresno, to Mary’s home. I wound up sleeping outside with him that night. Following cursory attempts at find-
ing the owner and a trip to a veterinarian, we became Barry’s new family, that included Holly’s Poodle, Athena. Another reason to spend time at their Sherman Street home taking care of what soon enough became our one hundred forty- pound responsibility. Believe it or not a few months later we found another Saint Bernard. Holly named this one Metushka and so we had both dogs in the back yard for a while. The owner of Matushka was found and in due time we were back to the just one and the back yard would recover.
Holly and I had graduated from Fresno State and following a honey- moon in Mendocino, we settled into our apartment in central Fresno. Holly be- gan working for the fundraising campaign formed to raise money for a new Saint Agnus Hospital, eventually built in north Fresno. I was finishing some graduate classes and teaching at a private school, the Kelso School.
Being young and newly married is one of life’s greatest adventures. Responsibility lingers but is not yet in the forefront of your future plans. Aware that you’ve taken a huge step, all that’s come before has served only as a means to bring two people to this new beginning. A new place awaits that you’ve only observed through your parents and family, or in the friends who’ve taken this step but a short time before you. The prospect of creating a home and future together . . . to say this isn’t daunting is perhaps naïve, but thankfully the naivety of youth does its job well, in deferring the inevitable difficulties.
One of the most important aspects of a marriage is the shared experi- ence. The common thread created by those things done together. “Young and married” becomes a new file to access in a lifetime of stored memories. Career successes and failures, new friends, travel, building a home . . . everything, when experienced together, will serve to bind two people in ways that time will find increasingly hard to divide.
Our first home on north Glenn, a few blocks south of Shaw avenue, and adjacent to Old Fig Garden, found us managing the apartment complex that we lived in. We had succeeded Chuck and Joyce Aston when they moved back to Exeter. For the effort we had a larger place with a fireplace at half the rent. Our life together is begun.
Working at Kelso School I became good friends with Gene; and for the life of me I have no last name. To say he was a vagabond is not intended to deride but to depict him as such that he could only agree. He lived in a small rented house with barely any possessions save a few books and clothes; next door to the school we both taught in. As best I remember, he had come from Hawaii to Fresno as one of the many places he had lived. One of those people you meet with the look and charisma, such that you accept them at face value and try not to probe the past; always friendly and open and yet, you never felt
Barry, our Saint Bernard.
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Barry, Holly and me