to stop seeing her. This was a hard decision for me because I was really falling in love with Peggy.
My construction business was beginning to take off well, and I was selling and building homes, and I was doing some commercial work on the side as well, around New Castle. Around 1978 my dad and I bought an existing kitchen business, where we had a 'top shop' and made custom countertops. We also sold several brands of stock cabinets and appliances. We called it C & R Kitchens and soon we added floor coverings and that was called The Carpet Gallery. I played around for a while, working during the day and partying at night and on weekends.
One night I was at a night club in Muncie Indiana called Granny’s owned by a radio DJ and Bill Sherk. While there at Granny’s I went over to a good looking blonde and told her that I liked her boots. Of course, I had on boots and she said that she liked my boots. Well, we danced and drank together for the rest of the night. As we were getting ready to leave, she asked me if I wanted to come to her house. I said I would have to think about it, of course, I do. I went home with her, well it was a trailer but a nice one. Her name was Bonnie, a cute sexy little blonde about 110 lbs. and a great body. She did have a five-year-old son. I guess we hit it off as I moved in with her that night and was with her for four or five months.
Chapter Four
Dreaming about things that you really want but not having them.
One day as I was working I got a call, and it was Peggy, she asked how I was doing and she said that she had missed me and I told her I missed her as well and would like to see her. She had graduated, turned 18, and moved into her own apartment.
That was the restart of our relationship the restart I always knew in my heart would happen one day! Her parents remained at odds with us being together and fought it sometimes to the point of coming over to her apartment checking to see it I was there and trying to get me to leave. If you want something bad enough, you will overcome the obstacles. Regardless of their feelings about me and trying to keep us apart Peggy and I agreed to not let them break us apart. It was rough but as time went along; they started accepting me and realizing that I was treating her right and was a hardworking man and would provide for Peggy. I even built her dad a two-car garage. As time went on, we were one extensive family. My family loved Peggy and her family, well at least liked me, I think.
I was building houses and working at C & R Kitchens and things were going well. I made good friends with one of my cabinet salespeople and he was even in our wedding. Peggy moved in with me and we lived in a couple of homes that I built in New Castle. We would live in one of the homes and we would sell it and move into another one. She would marry into the life of a builder.
I proposed to Peggy at a park in New Castle and she said yes. Now I had to tell her dad and mom. Actually, her dad was more accepting the proposal better than her mom, but she soon came around. We sat a date, and it was March 28th, 1981. We arranged to get married in a beautiful church there in New Castle. We had a reception planned at my Mom and Dad’s home and there would be no alcohol, as it was against mom’s religion. That is OK we would have plenty of time to have drinks because we had planned on our honeymoon in Hawaii.
In the winter of 1980, we moved into one of the homes I built. It was a beautiful ranch on Fairway drive in New Castle with a golf course across the street. We set our honeymoon for the following Tuesday to go to Hawaii. The timing could not have been more providential, because I had won the Hawaii trip by selling enough Jenn—Aire Ranges at C & R Kitchens.
The wedding day was here, and it was going to be a beautiful sunny 70-degree day perfect for a wedding and also perfect for laying sod. I had the yard graded but did not get it sodded. This was really the first day since winter that the conditions were good for finish grading and laying sod. So, I had the sod delivered late on the 27th of March, and on March 28th our wedding day, I got a few guys and we sodded the front yard and seeded the back. Then I got ready to go still plenty of time to get married. Peggy was a little worried, but it worked out alright. It was a beautiful wedding at a beautiful church. Peggy wore a beautiful white wedding gown with lace accents and a train, and she carried a lovely bouquet of white roses. She was a stunning bride! My uncle Jay Watson was my best man and Peggy's sisters were her bride’s maids. After the alcohol-free reception, Peggy and I drove to Indianapolis where we shared a casual dinner at a place called “Sambos. It closed now, but we still joke about that place occasionally, because nowadays that name for a business would surely be considered racist. Sambo”s became Denney's.
After dinner, we stayed at the Holiday Inn just down the street on Shadeland Avenue & Interstate 70. We got up the next morning and went shopping and spent some time around INDY before heading back to New Castle.
That Monday night Indiana University was playing in the NCAA National Basketball Championship game, which they won. They almost did not play the game, because that was the day President Regan was shot. But they made the decision to play the game anyway. Tuesday morning, we flew to Honolulu with three other couples who had also won trips as we had. Our layover in Dallas proved to be remarkably interesting. I noticed the actor Charles Bronson and his wife Jill Ireland standing next to a newsstand in the airport. I told my wife, and she started to walk over to him to get an autograph, but his wife gave Peggy a kind of sneer, so Peggy turned around and came back to our seats. Bronson noticed the exchange, then walked over to Peggy and said didn't you want my autograph? " and he smiled. "Oh, yes! Peggy said but your wife did not appear very happy about my intentions to get one. "Don't mind her Bronson said, then he sat down next to us and visited with us for about an hour. The very next night was the Academy Awards, so that explained why we saw many celebrities at the airport. Hawaii was beautiful, and the weather was amazing! We stayed at a pink Hotel called Princess. One of the nights we went to the "Don Ho" show. Don asked how many newlyweds he had in the audience, and Peggy raised her hand. But instead of calling Peggy up to the stage, he called me. He teamed me up with three pretty hula dancers, then had me sing “I Wish I Was An Oscar—Meyer Wiener” which was totally embarrassing for me, but a lot of fun!
After a week of living the "good life" we were back home to New Castle, to reality and work. Now as husband and wife.
Chapter Five
Miracles do Happen
On a stormy Easter Sunday (April 22, 1984) our daughter Shelby was born. We had moved into another new home on Fairway Drive in New Castle. A new baby, a new home. Life was great! The economy in New Castle and the country was in terrible shape though, a recession, and interest rates were at an all-time high at 18% for mortgages. Very few homes were being built. Chrysler had left town as had most other manufacturing businesses. The area was plagued with numerous home foreclosures and the unemployment rate was at a high.
While we were living on Fairway Drive, we became friends with our neighbors Seymour and Betty. Seymour was very wealthy and owned a manufacturing plant in town, where he cut blocks of foam rubber into different shapes for chair cushions, school bus seat cushions, etc. It was big business. Some years later he sold the business to his business partner, Fred, and then he and Betty sold their home on Fairway Drive. They had a home built on the water at Geist, a beautiful man-made lake surrounded by big expensive homes, an elite area of Indianapolis. This was a was an 8,000 square foot home, on the water, with a boat dock, and of course, they had a nice pontoon boat. We still came over to see them occasionally and became close friends. We would usually go to Red Lobster for dinner. I really wanted to stay in the building business, and wanted to build homes in the Indianapolis area, especially
