Before Buying The House

This is a short back track leading up to the birth of our son, while we stayed in my parent’s house for those few months. We had privacy and Ed paid them rent as long as we lived there. It was during that short while that my father was appalled at my affinity for new shoes and apologized to Ed. In later years, many of my dad’s friends related that he thought Ed was the best man he had ever known. My mother said Ed was the son she never had and she loved him. During the years of her life when Ed and I had a rare disagreement that she was privy to, she never failed to take his side. It never offended me; indeed, it made me secretly happy, though I never told Ed.

The small settlement included my grandmother, both her daughters and their families, which was my mother and her sister, and their husbands were brothers. Maxine was the daughter of their sister and brother. They had a son, and my parents had two girls, my sister and me. Maxine and her husband built a house down the road and her brother, Jack and his wife built a house there. My father’s younger brother and his wife built a house, which completed the little settlement. In those days when we first returned from Texas were happy days for me. Most afternoons the women met at my mother’s or my aunt’s house for coffee, which was a highlight of the day, even though I did not drink coffee.

Mother took me to the doctor she and my dad went to. He was about 65 years old and while he did deliver babies, he was by no means an Obstetrician. He did not examine me. The only clear rule he gave me was I could not gain weight. I was 5 foot tall and weighted 104 pounds. He was an old-fashioned doctor and a time or two he made a house call on my mother’s behalf. Both times, upon sight of me, he stood still and looked me up and down in silence. Then, shaking his finger before my nose, he would say, ‘young lady, if you gain five more pounds I will not deliver that baby.’ It scared the living daylights out of me. However, not even knowing, he had the support needed in keeping my weight down. When coffee hour was at my aunt’s house, I would await my chance to slip out without attracting attention. Running as fast as possible, I went into our back door and as I was dipping into a dish of left over lunch, my mother would say, ‘Susie, put it back,” giving me a fright bad enough for a coronary.  Of course, there was no option; I would groan, ‘Oh, Mother,’ and put it back. I gained 17 pounds and Evan weighed 5 pounds and 15 ounces.

Maxine and I took on the task of washing the clothes of our parents as we washed ours. None of us had a washing machine in 1948 so Maxine and I used a rub board, as well as heating our water outside in a big pot over a wood fire. We were quite happy doing this and hanging clothes on the line and then getting them in as soon as they dried. For my birthday in May, Ed gave me a beautiful washing machine. He purchased it on credit. In June, someone in the family asked Ed to loan them some money.

My aunt and I were going to town and he gave me the money to pay our washing machine off; he did not like debt. Before I left for town he changed his mind to say no, just keep the money and we will pay it off next month. He said the money he had given me would go to the person who needed a loan from him. I went with my aunt and the moment we got there, I went directly to the appliance store and paid off the machine. I got to the door and stepped out when I realized what I had done.  Cold water dashed in my face could not have been more of a shock. Turning around, I rushed back into the store to ask for my money back, of course, to no avail. The remainder of the day passed in a slow daze because I had no doubt I had done the unforgivable.

When Ed came in, I told him what I had done. My aunt, seeing how it affected me, walked over to our house to tell Ed of my reaction after I had paid off the machine.  He told me he had no problem with me paying it off, blaming himself for changing the plan so quickly. It was events such as this that made me trust him so implicitly all the years of our marriage.

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