Our next stop was in Northern California at a military base where Bill’s brothers family lived. It was a 15 hour bus ride from Tucson. It was grueling. Bills brother Morty was an Air Force colonel serving a tour in Vietnam. It made for an interesting dynamic because Bill was vehemently totally against the Vietnam War. Most of the people we knew felt the same way although few were as vehement as Bill. Morty’s family consisted of lovely wife Ricki, eldest daughter Laurie and the two boys Matthew and Michael. We would go to the beach with the family a few times, took a trip to Yosemite, and spent one day and night in San Francisco. We did the touristy things in San Francisco; Alatraz visit, cable cars, up and down the hills and at night we went to the Hungry I, a famous joint for entertainers. We saw Richie Havens perform, this was before Woodstock, and the comedian on the bill was Stanley Myron Handelman, a fairly popular comedian of the times. Great set by Havens, a fellow Brooklynite. I sent Kat the following postcard on June 16, 1968:
“Dear Kat, Billy, Ricki, Lorrie, Michael and Matthew all say hello from sunny California. Was at Yosemite National Park today. (see picture on reverse). Will tell you all about it in a letter. I’m getting darker and darker. Love Bob” I never did find a letter. I guess I wasn’t a very good writer.
I was really beginning to miss Kat.
We left Ricki and family around June 21when we took a bus to Beverly Hills, California where we would spend two weeks carousing around Beverly Hills and Hollywood.
We stayed with Bill’s uncle and aunt in Beverly Hills. They owned a small apartment building and had a spacious apartment in the building. I remember we went out every night to clubs, entertainment spots, a few TV shows and generally got to bed between 2 and 3am. Once or twice we went to Disneyland which wasn’t too few away. When we got up in the morning , around 12:30pm, Bill’s aunt would make us steak and eggs along with fresh California strawberries. We were living large and the two weeks went by quickly. In spite of my young and, what appeared to be idyllic life, I was missing Kat more and more. Bill wanted to stay and we probably could have stayed with his aunt and uncle until we figured out what we wanted to do. Bill tried to talk me into staying but I knew what I wanted to do. On a hot July 4, 1968 we flew back to New York City and I would continue my life with Kat; now unquestionably in love with her and ready to join two lives that would be filled with love and joy for 47 years.
The one inaccuracy is that Jeff did not break up with me. I broke up with him. When he returned to NY while I was still in Tucson, I started dating someone else because I felt he and I would never get married. We had been going out for something like 4 years. My dating someone else really shook him up. To make a long story short when I graduated from UA and returned to NY, he asked me to marry him. Unfortunately, I had fallen out of love with him and could not get back into the old emotions I once had for him. It was shortly after my calling it quits that I think he left NY.