Magnificent Desolation_ The Long Journey Home From the Moon - Buzz Aldrin [100]
Lois and Bryant set up their home in Frankfurt, Germany, in February 1955. Ironically, at about that same time, I had just married Joan, and we were expecting our first child in September of that year. We were stationed at Bitburg, Germany, where I flew supersonic jets as part of a nuclear strike force that could deliver atomic bombs deep into Soviet-occupied Eastern Europe.
Lois and I never met during that time, despite Bryant’s work on several military computer installations. At a reception for some military personnel for whom Bryant was setting up computer systems, Lois was her usual witty and vibrant self. Bryant, however, was not pleased. After the party, he was irate. “Lois, how could you be like that?”
“Like what?”
“You were too much. Too outgoing. You need to be more subdued.” It was the first of many instances in which Bryant attempted to squelch Lois’s lively personality. Lois tried her best to hold back and not overshadow him, but felt stifled by Bryant’s preference that she restrain her enthusiasm. She became pregnant with their first child in 1955, soon after their arrival in Frankfurt, and a daughter, Lisa, was born in November of that year. From Frankfurt, Lois and Bryant moved to England, where, nineteen months later, in June 1957, Lois gave birth to their second daughter, Brynn.
About four years into their marriage, Bryant informed Lois that he was unhappy with his job, that he had to work too hard at IBM, and that he wanted to get out. Lois was his cheerleader, so she talked with her relatives about Bryant going to work for the family business, and they all agreed that he could come anytime he was ready to join forces. When Bryant quit IBM, however, he accepted a lucrative job with ITT in Brussels, Belgium. The family business could wait.
When Lois’s father began to divide up the publicly traded shares of his enormously prosperous business with his children and grandchildren, Bryant suddenly decided he wanted another child. Unfortunately, Lois later felt that Bryant’s main motive in having a third child was to secure another batch of stock from her family’s business.
Not long after signing on with ITT, Bryant tired of the demanding position and yearned to be free of his work responsibilities. He planned to return to Arizona and join Lois’s family business. But first he wanted to take a seven-month sabbatical to travel on an unusual adventure throughout Europe. He bought a twenty-seven-foot Danish cabin cruiser in Copenhagen that he christened Explorer I, and navigated the family through the locks, waterways, and rivers of Germany and France, all the way to the Mediterranean, where they visited the ports along the French Riviera. With two young daughters and a pregnant wife, the boating expedition made for some eventful months before they returned to Arizona so Bryant could go to work for Lois’s family at Western Savings.
Throughout their marriage, Lois never asked Bryant about their finances, and trusted him completely to handle their investments. They lived well, and Lois enjoyed Phoenix’s social life. They now had three children, with the birth of their only son, Bryant Driggs Cannon in 1962. The family business continued to grow, and Lois’s father continued to bless them with more and more company stock.
Their comfortable life notwithstanding, Bryant seemed once again restless and disgruntled with his job. Lois arranged an introduction for Bryant to work as a managerial vice president overseeing the computer operations at another savings and loan, Great Western in Los Angeles. Although the company’s headquarters was in L.A., Bryant was able to set up the computer center in Santa Ana. The family moved to Emerald Bay in Laguna Beach, Lois’s favorite beach community in Southern California, a place where she had spent many a summer day as a teenager during family vacations.
The Cannon family lived in the idyllic private beach community for nearly ten years, and to Lois it seemed like heaven on earth.