This is the first time I have ever posted on any blog. It is exciting and intimidating at the same time. I decided I was going to use this site to write my memories of my families life. My memories can be added to by my family; they can post to add their memories as well because we all will have a slightly different point of view about our memories.

I am going to talk first about some of my memories of meeting Papa Bear:
I was in 10th grade when I first spotted Papa, he looked a lot like Elvis Presley to me and I had a crush on Elvis. It only stands to reason that I would also have a crush on Papa as well.

(Flashback) When I was 13 I told a friend that I would marry a Becker when I got married because I liked the name. When I was 12 Mr. Fenstermacher (my choir director) had us write a paper about what we wanted in a mate. I wrote about my future mate and Papa fit that description physically and I thought in other ways as well. Some he has grown into over the years. Like non smoker.

I followed him around the HS campus and searched out his picture in the libraries school yearbooks. I learned as much as I could about him without letting him know, or anyone else as well. That summer he and I both got put in the same car pool for a ride to our summer hire jobs. We sat side by side and he would not talk to me or even look at me. But he would tease and flirt with the other two girls that rode with us. After half the time the driver left for California and we lost our ride to work. Since we worked at Indiantown Gap where my dad also worked, Papa and I started to ride with my Dad and Uncle Tom. Papa till did not talk to me but would talk to Dad and Uncle Tom. I would get so hurt and I dealt with it by dedicating Carly Simon’s song: You’re so Vain to Papa Bear.

The next school year I tried to forget him and even went to the Prom with Scott. I also went to France for 10 days; 6 days on the Riviera and 3 days in Paris. I may talk about that some day. It was quite an adventure. The following summer I saw Papa at the July hometown carnival. Someone told me he was a ladies man and so I was not interested in him because he seamed to live up to that reputation when I remembered how he acted with the girls from the summer before. I told Cindy she could date him when he started to follow us around the carnival. She tried to meet with him.

One evening Cindy and Deb wanted to go to the movies which we often did. But where we usually stood in the back they wanted to sit down this time. Then one went to the bathroom and the other went to get snacks. Then Papa sat down. I told him to leave but he wouldn’t. Over the course of the movie I found out from him that Deb and Cindy set me up with him because I was the only person he was interested in. Then I got an eye opener when he was to nervous to put his arm around me. His arm would jump off of its own volition. Anyway I was so charmed that he and I started to date. In September he asked me to marry him. In January I broke up with him because I thought I wanted to get married so much that I was not sure I really loved him. But by that July we knew we would get married and we did on November 3 1973.

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