Miss Bee took the old sarge to school

For anyone who did not know, the Old Sarge took a child bride, yep, Miss Bee was 21 and I was 30 when we married.  Being older it only stands to reason that I was the wiser of the family :).  Someone I know would not agree with that last statement.

Yep, that lecherous looking old guy in that stupid looking jacket is the old Sarge with his child bride. I cannot deny that at one time I owned that jacket.  Could  she be wiser than me?

Prior to my assignment to Okinawa in November 1967 I had been a student in Calibration school at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland and Miss Bee lived nearby in Baltimore.  I had met her in Arizona and when she returned to Baltimore I found a way to get myself transferred there.  The rest is history, I went to Okinawa in November, she came in late December after I had found us an apartment and we were married in an Army Chapel on January 2, 1968.

While on Okinawa we eventually were assigned to government quarters and after our tour was completed I was reassigned to the Service School at Aberdeen so here we are back in Maryland.  As soon as they were available we moved into government quarters on APG, Maryland.  Miss Bee told me she wanted me to take her down to Edgewood, Maryland, she had something to show me. Being accommodating, off we went to Edgewood. She directed me into a housing development to a new house under construction. She said "we are going to buy this house"

2510 Thornberry Dr 

 

OUR FIRST HOUSE bought in 1971 (Photo from internet)

Well I got to tell I thought that was the dumbest thing I ever heard of, "I am a soldier baby, you know we just never know how long we will be here. How do you think we can buy a house?" "Besides that all I have to pay is our quarters allowance, no electric bill, no water bill, it is just simpler for us to live on base," I argued. She was just sitting there in the car, listing and smiling while I argued with myself. Seeing I wasn’t getting anywhere I told her "besides that we do not have the money for a down payment." Again she smiled and handed me a pass book for a savings account, she had been squirreling away money for the down payment. I do not know why I tried to argue with Miss Bee anyway, once she makes up her mind to do something, consider it done.

Well folks, about three months later we moved into our new house, the first time we ever owned a home. A year or so later, when I was ordered to Korea for a year, no family move was involved, had we been in government housing, still paying rent, we would have had to find someplace for the family while I was gone. The best part, when I came back to Aberdeen from Korea no family move was involved, we had some roots.

Needless to say Miss Bee was right and the sarge was wrong, home ownership has proven to be the one thing that a working person can do to improve their financial position in life. I soon learned the value of rental property for tax purposes, capital gains, all those economic things that should be taught in school, but are learned mostly in the school of hard knocks.

Over the years I went to that school of hard knocks, I purchased 12 houses, some for rental purposes and have sold all except our condo we live in.  Of the all those properties we lost money  on one and made a nice profit on the others.  On  and off over the years we have owned seven rental units which provided huge tax benefits, yes, real estate can be  profitable.

How could that cute little girl be so smart, maybe it just comes natural.

House #2, 711 Edgewood Road bought in 1977.(internet photo)

Six years later we sold the first house at a nice profit that we used that to buy this nice four bedroom brick rancher where we lived until we moved to Florida.  When it sold in 1981 we had a very nice profit which was used to buy home in Florida.