My Harold

Harold would not likely ever write about himself, but I would!

Actually, he’s not much of a reader or a writer but he’s good at math. He can add up numbers in his head faster than I can find a calculator. I’m just the opposite; so goes the saying, opposites attract.

Fun fact: Harold lived the first part of his life as “Bernard,” which is actually his middle name, and that’s what his family and old friends still call him.

Growing up in Madison, Indiana in the late 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s he was the third child born to his parents, James and Mildred. His sister, Marilyn, (1943-2024) was five years older, and his brother, Kenny, is 2 years older than him. Kenny’s given name is actually James Kenneth, but just like his brother he went by his middle name.

One of Harold’s favorite childhood memories was when they’d go to the Friday night sprint and stock car races in nearby Kentucky. They went fairly often as it was just a short car ride over the Milton-Madison Bridge. It was there he began his lifelong love of car racing.

His favorite vacation memories were at Indiana Beach. They and several relatives from his mom’s side of the family would rent a large house on Lake Schaefer where they enjoyed fishing off the docks, riding the rides on the boardwalk, and swimming on the beach. They liked it so much they returned to Indiana Beach several years in a row.

He played school basketball and intramural basketball in grade school up through high school, either as a forward or center. He was tall so that worked out in his favor.

As a teenager he helped his uncles put up hay and tobacco, which was common work in rural southern Indiana. The tobacco work required several different steps: cutting and hanging, waiting for it to dry out, striping it, then tying it into bundles.

It was in his junior high school years that Harold first came to faith in Jesus Christ. He was baptized soon after at Madison Baptist church.

In his junior and senior year of high school he worked as a lot boy at Bennett Motors. Working at this car dealership was the beginning of what would later become one of his two main occupations in his life.

After graduating from Madison Consolidated High School in 1966, he married his high school girlfriend, Linda, in 1967. Their first child, Kimberly Ann, was born in 1967, and their second child, Kevin Harold, was born in 1970. Linda filed for divorce in 1975, they separated, and then reconciled. They separated again in 1976, she filed for divorce again in 1977, and it was finalized in early 1978.

During their 10 year marriage he worked installing terrazzo flooring and he also opened up his own flooring covering business. While installing terrazzo flooring he traveled to various job locations, including a large job in Homestead, Connecticut, where he stayed for several weeks. He also learned how to do tile installation while working with terrazzo flooring. After around 4 years of working for someone else he opened up his own flooring company, Crandell Floor Covering, on West 16th Street in Indianapolis.

Harold and I met in late September of 1976 while I was working at the airport Rodeway Inn. He was friends with the hotel manager and had been staying at the hotel due to the separation. The manager introduced us to each other one night while they were in The Library Lounge talking about the carpeting job he was doing for the hotel. We just so happened to see each other again later in the lobby hallway as I was getting off shift. He asked me if I was hungry and if I’d like to go nextdoor to Denny’s for breakfast. Actually, he likes to tell the story that it was me who asked him to go out to breakfast. I’m pretty sure it was the other way around, but he’s told that story for so many years now that he’s almost got me convinced that it was me who asked him!

Long story short, after a while we fell in love with each other. I was attracted to his heart, his humor, and his good looks. We married three and half years later on my mom and dad’s 41st wedding anniversary, March 15, 1980. We traveled to London, Paris, and Rome for our honeymoon.

At this time in our lives, Harold worked at a local car dealership, and I worked for Sky Harbor at Eagle Creek Airpark.

We lived in Indianapolis, first in a Westlake apartment and then in a double (duplex) that my mom owned on Harding Street. God blessed us with our first daughter, Michelle Nicole in 1981, and also our second daughter, Megan Renee in 1986.

Although Harold had closed his flooring company in 1977, he still had an interest in flooring. So, in the mid 1980’s we started up a small business of manufacturing carpet tack strips, aka tactless strips. We also sold floor installation supples. It was a short lived business, due to low profit margins, so we sold the equipment and Harold went back to work at a local car dealership. I worked at Sky Harbor Aviation and then American Trans Air during this time.

Kim and Kevin were very much a part of our lives back in the 1980’s. They came to our home on a regular basis and they both came to live with us for extended periods of time and at various times. We were a family of six and continued being a part of each other’s lives for several years after we moved away from Indianapolis. Sadly, our relationship deteriorated over the past few years to the point of estrangement; Kim first and then more recently Kevin.

We moved in 1988 from Indianapolis to Brandon, Florida. I wrote about this move in my story titled, “The Land That I Will Show You.” Harold worked at a local car dealership, and it was here I began working at Delta Air lines in their Tampa office in 1989.

In 1990 we moved to Torrance, California where I worked for Delta Air Lines in their Los Angeles office, and Harold worked at a local car dealership. I wrote about this move in my story titled, “The West Coast.”

In 1991, we moved to Orange Park, Florida where I worked for Delta Air Lines in their Jacksonville office, and Harold worked at a local car dealership. I wrote about this move in my story titled, “Johnny Walker.”

In 1993, we moved to Lewisville, Texas where I worked for Delta Air Lines in their Dallas office, and Harold once again worked for a local car dealership. I wrote about this move in my story titled, “Green Acres.” It was here that God both blessed and surprised us with our third daughter, Mackenzie Anne, in 1996.

We still call Texas home today. We moved from Lewisville to Krum to Denton within a 10 year period, and have been in our Denton home for over 20 years now. Some of our favorite family memories in Texas include vacations, holidays, and watching the grandkids grow up and play sports. 

In 2003 Harold opened his own car sales lot and then a couple of years later he transitioned it into RV sales. I helped him in the RV business while still working for Delta Air Lines,  and then more so after I retired from Delta in 2009.  Each of our daughters, and Kevin, helped and/or worked for Harold in one way or another and at different times as well.

Megan first helped Harold open the Lewisville car lot and worked with him in the car sales business for around two years.  She also helped him transition to RV sales in Denton. Michelle helped transport RV’s and even helped sell a couple of them. Mackenzie, who as a child said she’d never work in the RV business, ended up being very knowledgeable about RV’s and the RV business in general. She worked for us the longest, sold more RV’s than anyone, confidently ran the business while Harold and I were out of town, and stayed with us until the day we decided to close up the shop.

After a long and successful career in the car and RV sales business, Harold retired at the age of 75 in December of 2023. These days we’re enjoying retirement and are looking forward to whatever God has in store for us. We’re thankful for the gift of faith, the gift of family, and His providence and guidance in our lives throughout our years together. By the grace of God, we celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary on March 15, 2024. We’re still in love, and I’m still attracted to his heart, his humor, and his good looks.

And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12