After a euphoric start 1970 settled in to a more of a routine.
A long distance relationship with Ann had its rewards and burdens. She came to visit me every chance she could get. I went to visit her once to get proper engagement and wedding rings. Ann, like me, was not particularly religious but still wanted a church wedding. We had to find a church as most churches are not open to outsiders. After visiting several churches and getting unreasonable demands, we got lucky. We found an Episcopalian Church, Ann’s denomination, with a priest I happened to have had made friends with. I used to play tennis with my friends in a public park. An elderly couple used to play on the next court and they would request a doubles game from time to time. That elderly man was Father Whitehead of the Church of the Intercession, in Wilton Manors, a suburb of Ft Lauderdale. He readily agreed to marry us! I still had to do rest of the arrangements. Flowers, reception, staying arrangements and sundry other things.
During all this I got laid of second time from my job. SEL was a big supplier to NASA. By 1970 economy was going south. Having put a man on the moon, NASA was was winding down the space program. Nixon’s Vietnamization of the war resulted in hundred’s of thousands people coming back home from the war. This time I found a new job very quickly and not too far from Ft Lauderdale. I went to work for RCA Computer Systems in West Palm Beach, about 40 miles north of Ft Lauderdale. I did not want to move as the wedding was going to be in Ft Lauderdale so I commuted for several months.
During this time I also got my draft notice. Even though war was winding down, they were still drafting 50,000 people a month. I tried to enlist in the Air Force and Navy (Ann’s brother was in the Navy) but neither Air Force nor Navy would take me, they had enough US volunteers so did not have to take foreigners, but Army was hot after me. I fought very hard to stay out of the army but I got my summons for the physical before being inducted. I was very desperate when I got the good news. I was rejected because my left deltoid muscle had atrophied and my shoulder would dislocate from time to time. For once in my life I was glad to have this physical affliction.
Needless to say my father was not too happy with any of this. He had not gotten over my cutting my hair and now I was marrying a foreigner (for him!). We had a small and intimate wedding. My IIT friends Umesh Malhotra and Bhopi Dhall attended it. Ann’s father was not too happy either so he did not attend it but her mother and sister were present. Her brother Mark was on an aircraft carrier off the coast of Vietnam so he missed it. We had a small reception at my friend Jeff Katz’s house, where we had platters of kosher cold cuts and punch. A very inexpensive and elegant affair.
We had a simple honeymoon in Key West. After the wedding Ann got her discharge from the Air Force as we were more than 50 miles from the closest base. We moved to Palm Beach Shores and rented a nice cottage on the beach and decided to live happily ever after, until I heard on NBC News (NBC was a RCA subsidiary at the time) that RCA was pulling out of the computer business. Soon after that, I got laid off third time from a job.
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