Ernest Graves
Q:
I imagine that he did. You had your first separation briefly when your husband went to
SHAPE, didn't you?
A:
Yes, that's right. We were married in May and went back up to Boston.
Q:
That's 1951.
A:
We went back for Ernie to finish his thesis. He had originally planned to have it
finished, and then we would be married. However, he came down with mononucleosis
and was in the hospital for eight weeks. So then he had to stay another semester at
MIT.
We were married in May, and he finished his thesis that summer. We stayed in Boston,
and I typed the thesis. That was the first big strain on our marriage because we had an
old-fashioned typewriter which didn't have the keys for formulae. I can remember that
I did not always leave enough space for him to handwrite the formulae.
One particular time, the fact that I hadn't left the space meant I had to redo several
pages. And I thought he could jolly well write smaller and get it in. And he allowed as
how he couldn't. It was probably a good thing that I was a bride at that point, but I
retyped those pages. He finished in September and went to SHAPE.
I couldn't follow until he had housing. He found that all that really meant was that you
could have a hotel room. Although from stateside, they told you that you had to have
housing.
Then it took two months to get my orders, to get my passport, to get all of these things
when I was very new in learning the system. I finally went over the last day of
November.
Q:
But that must have been very exciting.
A:
It was great.
Q:
That was your first experience in Europe?
A:
Yes, that's right.
Q:
And your first experience with the separation which the military imposes, although a
small one?
A:
Yes. That was a couple of months.
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