MOVING DAY WITH THE ODD COUPLE!

     Two years after my divorce, my good friend, Bob Merritt, and I decided to buy a house together and share expenses. We bought a house in the Rio Valley sub-division that was just being developed in Clive, Iowa. It was, for the time, an upscale development with a variety of  split levels, two stories, and ranch style homes. Ours that was being built was a rather large for the time, a 4 level split and the rear yard backed up to a wooded area that included Walnut Creek.

     We were moving in on November 1, 1976 as I recall and was the day right after Halloween and the day after attending a big Halloween party given by another mutual friend. I was living at an apartment building that I owned near Drake University on 26th street and had the use of a big enclosed truck for the move along with the help of some friends.

     Most of my items were boxed carefully and labeled including as to which room the item belonged after the move. Part of the deal in moving in together was that I would have the master bedroom as Bob did quite a bit of traveling and wouldn't be around much.

     The funnest part of the move was, that when we went over to pick up Bob and furnishings, he really hadn't started to pack stuff and get ready for the move. But, all of a sudden, he grabbed some big black trash bags and proceeded to just throw everything in those bags. This included dishes, silverware, and drinking glasses. Most everything that man possessed was hauled out of his apartment in garbage bags. It was a sight to see!

     Once at the new house, which had been pre-cleaned by the builder, we preceeded to unpack and move in. To make sure things would be arranged in some orderly fashion, my mother and daughter helped with arranging my room and the kitchen. Bob just plugged away and slowly unpacked those big old garbage bags.

     I was forewarned by his ex-wife, Patti, that Bob was, to say the least, a little on the slovenly side. It worked out well though, as we had a cleaning lady, Marge, come in once a week. We lived in that house for nearly five years and our house payment and all was less for each than if would have stayed in our separate apartments and a lot more fun!