It was 1982 and we had been married for less than a year. I was a secretary at a plastics company and Ken was working at a big telephone cable plant in Norcross, when we decided to do the unthinkable. I quit my job. Ken had been changed over to evening shift (3:30 pm to 11:30 pm). We were going to be two ships literally passing in the night. We wanted to start a family soon and I wanted to stay at home with our babies, so it was prudent to either learn to live on what we made or work and save money until then. We had already seen that we liked spending everything, rather than save, so why not do the former?
I had no idea how strongly the opinions would fly in my direction. The ladies I worked with told me I would be bored out of my mind, that I would be back, that being a homemaker was for the birds. There were mean comments about how I was doing Ken a disservice. A former teacher ran into me at the gym and told me she was disappointed in me, that she saw me doing greater things. There were family members who thought we were going to just go off the deep end. Much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
They underestimated us. After I served my notice, I went through a week of detox. I had a massive headache every day, until I realized I was coming down off a coffee addiction. Then I got to work. Before we had our first baby, I learned: how to paint walls and trim; how to stencil (the current artsy craze of the time); how to cook; how to garden; I painted and drew pictures for gifts and our walls; learned calligraphy; went to Bible study and garnered lots of wisdom from older women; learned how to manage my home (well, haphazardly); how to strip and refinish furniture; read books on decorating, home construction, crafting, as well as all the classic novels I overlooked in school; I began to hone my artistic soul and learn (and experience) the many possibilities where God had gifted me. I didn't watch TV and eat bon-bons, except on Thursday night when Night Court came on at 10:00. There was too much to do to waste time on watching someone else live. Ken trusted and gave me the gift of supporting me while I learned how to support him in what are considered unconventional ways now. We went on to have four children, homeschooled them for nineteen years, and ran down roads less traveled. I continued to learn and add to my skill set. I have had numerous careers within our irregular life together, many lucrative and some of them not, but done in a crazy melding of our Norton world, not a separate boxed-in cage where I might lose my sanity. I have worked in an "official" office for approximately three of our 36 years together and I never felt closer to the loony bin than then. Meanwhile, the incredible value of learning how to do things ourselves has cut all manner of corners and saved us tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds. I am eternally grateful for all the folks we have learned from, both in example and actual hands-on training.
People underestimate the power of this kind of education. I always thought I'd go back to college after my last child finished...go and get an art degree or maybe an interior design degree. I still might. But I've got about 50 canvases to fill up, there's a couple of books I simply have to finish writing, and oh yeah, there's eight grandkids now and we like to hang out and paint in my studio. Too bad I didn't do greater things...
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