Firsts: First Apartment

Oh man - isn't she beautiful!

The photo at right is the first apartment I ever lived in. That's my beautiful bride only a week or so after we got married pointing to the door of our humble first abode, J-110 University Village, which was the University of Georgia's primary married housing area at the time. 

I moved straight from living at home with my parents, to a dorm room for three years (Russell Hall). Donna and I both had jobs in Athens by the time we were Juniors, she in the office of the inimitable Coach Dan Magill in the UGA Athletic Dept, and me coaching at the Athens YMCA. During spring break of our Junior year we decided it would be better to go ahead and get married that summer rather than wait until we graduated and had to worry about marrying and moving and getting jobs all at the same time. Thus we planned organized the whole event and were married three months later in June of 1977. With all the planning and organizing and picking out stuff that happens today, can you imagine people doing all that in only a few weeks? Our rehearsal dinner was at my parents' house, the wedding happened in a church and the reception was downstairs in the fellowship hall of the church complete with punch, cheese straws and mixed nuts. That's about all you got back then. No limo, no fancy reception, no meal, no bar, no videographer, etc... Regardless, our wedding "took" and we're still happily married 34 years later.

Part of getting married meant we could give up our dorm rooms (me in Russell and her in Creswell) and our two separate meal plans at UGA, and we could combine our forces and finances and move into married housing. Boy were we proud of that place! Our apartment cost us $90 a month plus electricity, which rarely ran more than $3-5 a month. The receipt below was for our first full month, July of '77 and shows we used a whopping $4 of power that month, one of the hottest of the year. We were dirt poor, but happy as can be. One of the best things about living in married housing was that most everyone else was in the same boat (poor and happily in love) so we fit right in. By the way, I checked online (click to view) and the same unit currently rents for $600 a month and heaven knows how much the electricity costs now.

The first rental receipt for our apartment - $94

In an odd twist of fate, my parents' house burned in July 1977 a month after we were married. But good almost always comes from bad. Donna's parents owned a rental house next door to their home that was empty at the time so mom and dad moved in beside the Hartsfields and from that day on - even long after my parents moved to Buckhead and then on to Cumming - we have celebrated most of our our holidays and birthdays together.

Sometimes I think of those halcyon days when were were young and newly wed and the world stood before us ripe for conquering. I seem to think of them more in recent years as I've watched my own children grow up and leave the nest and make lives of their own. It's a beautiful plan actually. Personally I feel ever so grateful to be where I am today, sandwiched between our loving parents who provided such happy homes and abundant opportunities for us, and our own children who have turned out so well and made great lives for themselves. Thank you Lord for this wonderful gift. Your grace never ceases to amaze me.