Evan was nearly three when I bent to tie his shoe. I groaned, as I knelt, and Evan, always sympathetic to me, said, ‘honey, you too old to cut mus?’ That was when the song, ‘Too Old to Cut the Mustard,’ was popular. While I could not help laughing, I shook my finger in his face, threatening his life. He had no idea what it implied though he laughed as much as I did. I also grumbled, ‘I am twenty years old and my son thinks I am old.’
When Wayne was a year old, Ed decided to work again as millwright in construction. His friend, the supervisor, asked Ed to work with him. We moved to Camden, AR but did not sell our house. Maxine, her husband and baby daughter came to see us and we went to Little Rock for fun. We always had a good time together even though we could not stay long with the boys having to be back at work. The one night we were in a hotel, our babies slept in a drawer from the big dressers in each room. With a nice soft pillow, they were as comfortable as if they were in bed.
Just now, I do not even remember where Mt. Magazine is in relation to Little Rock, and am unsure we went on that one trip, but we did go together. As always, we laughed as we turned hairpin curves and saw cars coming down with smoke billowing from exhaust pipes. In those years of our growing up, we saw one another as often as we could, but the times became fewer as our babies came and as Ed and I were not too stationary.
Ed’s father lived with us a short time when he got a temporary job in Camden. We normally went home every weekend not only to see about our house but also to attend church. Moreover, Ed was a teacher in Sunday school.
Ed’s parents, his little brother and uncle came to visit for a few days. When Ed was at work, we all decided to go to Camden. I drove and as we were going down the hill where a traffic light was at the bottom, the brakes suddenly would not ‘brake.’ Ed’s mother was screaming at me to stop but there was no option, so I hit the bumper of the car stopped at the light. I never drove fast but the incline gave momentum, in spite of taking my foot off everything. It did not damage the car I hit; however, it did damage my car. A worker at the gas station just steps away, drove us back to our house. It was on that same road I had a flat and did not have the strength to raise the car high enough to change the tire. A nice man stopped and changed my tire. If you are wondering how I ever survived, just know I have wondered that same thing over the years.
Several unusual things happened in Camden. Moving was not unusual but while we were there, Ed left for work from one house and returned home to another house. He engaged a company to help me but as far as I was concerned, I moved us. Furthermore, something happened to my feet and for a few months I could not walk. Ed found a woman to come in each day to take care of the boys, house keeping and cooking.
Our neighbor was a beautiful girl who was deaf. She was married with a child and she was a few years older than I was. She was as independent as a deaf person could be and we became friends. When I asked about her spirituality, she was somewhat confused but she wanted to know all about God and His Son. She committed her life to Him and was so happy; her whole family could see the difference even before she told them.
It became evident Ed needed surgery for a hernia so with advice from the supervisor friend, we went back home for him to have the surgery. His friend told him, on recovery, to meet him in Monroe where he was taking on a new job. Monroe was much nearer our hometown than was Camden. After surgery and he was better, we were at his parents one day when a neighbor came over to visit his mother. She was a young girl, probably 18 or so, and I had noticed she was flirting with Ed from across the street. That day Ed’s mother introduced us, and her face blushed. She said, ‘oh, but I thought they were your children. I thought they were brothers and she was their sister.’ Accused of being sister of my sons occurred on more than one occasion; accused of being Ed’s sister and once his daughter, was almost too much to bear. Of course, he got some kind of perverse pleasure from it and held it over my head.
When Ed’s recovery time ended, we leased out our house and moved to Monroe, where we rented a duplex. We immediately joined a church not far from where we lived and soon Ed invited the minister to our house for Sunday lunch. Looking back on such events, that happened more than I even like to remember, I wonder what all those guests thought. We were so young, I barely knew how to cook, and normally the guests were much older. Of course, the history of those years is too much to write, but it was there Wayne had measles and it was there I had a miscarriage. I remember once we were going to see our parents and Ed told me, on the way, he was going fishing with Maxine’s husband. I did not want him to because the four of us had made previous plans and I was looking forward to that. We were silent a few moments and then I said, ‘Well, Maxine and I are going to town.’ That is all I said but it was enough to change Ed’s mind, and Maxine’s husband agreed they had rather not go fishing. The four of us had a good time together and later laughed at my shameful manipulation of the situation. Normally I was not controlling, but that seemed a bit blatant. Ed told me he never minded if I manipulated him just so long as he liked the alternative. He liked the alternative that day.
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