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Forty Three years ago in Grass Valley, California,Kenneth Kinder and Janey Cox exchanged their wedding vows. That was four children, four houses, and four dogs ago.
It doesn’t seem that long ago when as a young man of eighteen, I moved to northern California, from Los Angeles and
met Wes Cox, a fellow who eventually became my brother-in-law. Wes and I became good friends almost immediately. He had a sister that was almost five years younger than me and she proved to be quite a nuisance at times, butting into our business when I came over to visit Wes.
I was driving truck during this time, and Janey told her dad
that I had honked my horn at her. Her father Al replied that I was just honking at a puppy in the street. That was many years ago, and after Wes and I sowed some wild oats, served our
time in the military, and returned home to Grass Valley, I noticed this snotty little pain in the rear had grown up and became a beautiful woman. She still had her mind set on getting
me to notice her; but this time I had a hard time keeping my eyes from drifting in her direction. We both had our bouts of
dating other people but it was not going anywhere as we were destined to get married, and raise a family together.
I wanted to marry Janey but I wanted to wait until I was thirty, and had saved enough money to pay cash for a house and furniture. She didn’t want to wait that long and she was going to become an airline stewardess. She had already taken the in class part of the course and was ready to go to Kansas City to complete the on board the aircraft portion of her course before going to work. I felt if she left home and went to the
big city, she wouldn’t want to come back and marry a mountain boy
like me, so I decided it was in my best interest to acquiesce to her demands of marriage now.
Janey worked for a short period of time for the phone company and was getting one promotion after another, when a strange thing happened on the way to the office. She became pregnant. We don’t know how this happened but it did happen four times, and Janey decided the best course of action was to stay home and raise our four children. For you oldtimers, the picture on the TV screen is, Kukla, Fran and Ollie.
Janey was working in Sacramento and living with her sister Inez during most of the time we were dating. I was driving truck and would be gone days at a time, so it was difficult to maintain a normal relationship under these circumstances. Inez worked evenings and when she came home she would take care of many household chores late at night. I remember more than one time, bringing Janey home around eleven or twelve P.M. and Inez would be out mowing her lawn, holding a flashlight in her mouth, so she could see where to guide the lawnmower. This should have been enough reason to give me pause before joining forces with this family; but I never was all that bright so I just dove in boots and all. Besides after taking Janey for a ride on my motorcycle while I was a little tipsy. I popped the clutch at a stop sign and Janey fell off, and I didn’t realize she was missing until a few miles down the road. By the time I got back where she had fallen, she had already gotten a ride home and after all this she was willing to give me a second chance, so I guess I should be able to do the same.
Needless to say we became engaged, started searching for a home to purchase, looking at furniture and this was the beginning of a long line of loud discussions as Janey called them. I would refer to them as arguments that I usually lost. After we got married, we would settle our differences and usually nine months later a new baby arrived at our household.
Our first home was a model home that was used as the sales office in the housing tract where we decided to purchase. The garage was sealed in completely with finished walls, ceiling, and floor. It was a nice room that doubled for a place to park our car, and give birthday parties for our children. I knew that we were going to spend all the money that I had saved, so prior to our wedding in 1956 I purchased a new Dodge car and B.S.A. motorcycle in 1955. I realized this couldn’t happen again for many years to come, and sure enough history has not repeated.
After many weeks of shopping we purchased enough furniture to get started keeping house. This house had a built in kitchen, so the only major appliances we bought were a washer, dryer, and refrigerator. We also got a master bedroom set. We borrowed a card table and chairs from friends to use as a breakfast set and then bought furniture when Janey decided what she liked. We lived in this house for thirteen years, and after Alta our youngest child was born we needed a house with four bedrooms so we moved a few blocks in the same area to our second home on Goes Parkway.
In this house our family did a lot of their growing and formed a lot of their memories. I added on an entertainment room, and a huge screened in and enclosed patio where we could enjoy the outside year round. We had a nice back yard where I built a swimming pool with a big deck, and play ground. It was while we lived here that as a family we built our home in Grass Valley. We got the land prepared for construction, acquired our permits and started framing in the summer of 1975. I had already trenched and formed for the foundation, and then poured
concrete in the forms, put on mudsill , rim joists, pony wall, and subfloor. So on our two week vacation in July of 1975 with the help of family members we framed, raised walls installed flooring on the second floor, roof beams, sheathing, siding etc. We had it completely enclosed in two weeks. Below, Matt and I framing and roof sheeting.
After that we would go up on week ends as we got a few bucks and finish our retirement home. This was one of the most enjoyable times of my married life. I had heard that a man should get married, have children, and build a house during his lifetime to make his life complete. After having done this I can’t find any room for disagreement, as it gave me personally a great feeling of accomplishment. We enjoyed using our mountain home on weekends until 1981 and then we decided to rent it out as I had to start traveling out of town to work.
Back in 1978 we purchased the home where we presently live. This is the home where our daughters learned to spread their wings and develop into the responsible adults they are today. There were many times the out come eluded me, as they hid their potential very well, but all said and done we have been blessed with a good life, family, and friends. Our children and grandchildren are the joy of our lives, and life would be very dull without them.
All in all I guess if I had my life to live over, there would be very few changes I would make. I would wish for better health for Janey and a few minor exceptions but we have pretty much realized the American dream, and you can’t do much better than that! I am hoping for another forty years to reap full benefit of my labors but that’s not to much to expect for the investment we have made. The picture at the bottom of the page is our present home where we have lived the past twenty years. This is where we hope to entertain many more grandchildren, and we couldn’t ask for a better anniversary gift. Oh yes,about Janey, after 43 years, she is still as cool as the other side of the pillow. As Martha Stewart would say,"THAT'S A GOOD THING!"
