In The Begining

Fred & Patti began their journey after a whirlwind courtship. We met in May, had our first official "alone" date in July, engaged in September and Married on December 19th of 1981. Like most teenagers we were in love and we just wanted to be together. In hindsight I would not recommend that teenagers get married. It has worked for us but statistics show otherwise.

Our first years of marriage we lived in Plattsburgh, NY. on the military base as Fred was serving in the Air Force at the time. During our 3 years there our first two beautiful children were born, Rick and Rachel.

The AirForce then transfered us to Portsmouth, NH. the and the first 2 years there produced 2 more beautiful children, Robbin and Benjamin.

For those of you who are not keeping tack thats 4 kids in the first 5 years of marriage for 2 teenagers. I was 23 when Benjamin was born and Fred had just turned 25. By this time Fred's mom had moved in with us permanently and the military had given us a bigger house as she was requiring much care. Fred's mom (Dorothy Carlson Douglas) had scleraderma and in June of 1988 Grandma Douglas went home to be with the Lord. She was extremely talented in painting and quilting and we will treasure those things forever.

WE stayed in New Hampshire for a short time longer and in the summer of 1989 the Air Force transferred us once again to Clovis, NM. I think we have all the "NEW" States covered now. This was a very big adjustment for us as this is the first time we were really far from home. I grew up in NY. and Fred grew up on the Cape. We will always be "New Englanders" regardless of where we reside. The Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics are the teams we will forever root for. Anyone following the Red Sox history knows it takes a true fan to hang on that long. Go SOX's!