My first memories are of our family home on Tibbets Ave. Mart and I shared a bedroom and across the hall Joe and Paul shared a room. Our room had a brass bed, we shared that and also shared the big oak dresser that I still have, we shared a closet, a cedar chest (that was really our mother's hope chest given to her by my dad before they were married), and we shared a dressing table that we had purchased with baby sitting money. It was unfinished and under the critical eye of our dad we finished it. He was a perfectionist and insisted that we keep sanding until it was flawless.It finally passed muster, barely, and ours to share in our room.
Mart was three and a half years older than I so she was the alpha sister! She enjoyed playing with paper dolls and since we couldn't afford store bought dolls she cut the pictures of her "people" out of Sear's and Montegomery-Ward catalogues. She named all of her "people" and placed them around the room, usually on the window sills and provided a life for them. They did things like, going to work, to school,to dances, etc. while we were occupied with our parellel lives.
I was never too big on these 'fake' families but they were my room mates and I adjusted to them. We did move to other houses but I was still Mart's room mate and never even considered any other way of life. We had our differences now and then but being the Alpha sister, she usually won out. When we had words, so to speak, I never got to use mine.
We couldn't very well share clothes because she was about seven inches taller than I and I had to wait to grow into her clothes. I never did get as tall as she so her things had to be altered to fit me. Our shoe sizes were not even close so we couldn't share shoes either.
We moved a few times but still shared our room. I am an auditory learner and Mart probably was too. She studied aloud every night in our room. I could not help but listen, I had no intention of learning all that she did but apparently I absorbed it while doing other things on my own. I would find that when it came time for me to study these same subjects I already know them or could scan the chapters and have it fixed in my brain.
When I started dating Doc, we doubled with Mart and Bill and some of their other friends. I met Doc through Mart. They went through school together.
England had already gone to war with Germany in 1939 and the United States thought it would be prudent to start encreasing the size of our Army so they had a Conscription program. Men were drafted into the Army supposedly for one year for training so that we could be ready if it came to pass that we would go to war. Bill was drafted. The pop song of the day was ,"Goodbye Dear, I'll be back in a year" Pearl Harbor happened shortly after Bill was drafted and that cancelled the 'back in a year' bit. He was stationed in Austrailia and so was immediately in the thick of the war in the Pacific. He did not get back until 1945.
I married Doc in 1942 and a year or two later he was drafted and went to fight in the European Theater of War. I lived in an appartment with my two kids and Mart moved in with me. So once again we were room mates.
Bill and Doc both came home in December of 1942. Mart and Bill started planning their wedding immediately and set the date for October 25. I was pregnant by this time and due on Oct. 1. We figured that would give me time to have the baby and be ready for the wedding festivities. Linda was delayed and did not arrive until Oct. 24 so Mart had the limo driver take her from the church to the hospital to visit me and let me see her in her bridal attire. One of the guests brought me a piece of the wedding cake.
A number of years later, in 1951, we were both pregnant and due on or around the same date.(Before the New Year). Both of our babies took their time about coming and mine arrived on Jan.13 and on Jan.17 th they wheeled Mart into my room to let her say hello to me on her way to the delivery room. I already had a room mate so we did not share a room!
Finally, in 1956 we had to move to Louisville and so ended our closeness. We still did visit once in awhile on the phone and we traveled back to Spfld to visit a few times a year.
We traveled to the beach together one summer. Her family members and some of mine. A good time to remember.We had lots of fun talking over old times,both bad and good.
Mart passed away on December 5, 2010. I spoke with her quite a few times in her waning days. I think of her often and miss her. Sisters forever. R.I.P.Mart. Ciao
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