When I grew up (a long,long time ago) My Daddy made a really big deal about VALENTINE DAY. The first year of Floyd and my marriage, I bought a really nice leather wallet for Floyd. On that day in 1955, we went to work as usual, ( nothing said about VALENTINES) We came home and I had fixed an extra special dinner, the evening went by as usual and we went to bed. I kept waiting for Floyd to say something (didn't happen). I waited til he got to sleep and threw the :(expensive leather wallet) I had bought him, and woke him up screaming HAPPY VALENTINES
GO WITH YOUR GUT
I have had many experiences with Doctors . This particular one makes me strongly instill to my Children and Grandchildren- if you don't feel good about it, keep pushing. GO WITH YOUR GUT.
In October, I started breaking out with a rash. It itched terribly and kept getting worse. I went to my primary care Doctor who said it was eczema and gave me a cream. It did not help; it was getting worse by the day. It felt like I was waking up at 3am in a bed of fire ants. I couldn't sleep and I felt awful during the day. I went back to see him and ended up seeing a PA. Later, I got an appointment with a dermatologist, who just looked at my back and said eczema and prescribed another steroid cream. She also ordered a chemical peal for my face. The rash kept getting worse and you cannot imagine the pain I was in. I went to the USMD EC in Cleburne- twice. The doctor there ordered a prescription for the itch. I took 1 pill and slept 2 days. Went back to the dermatologist in Ft Worth, same answers. NOT ACCEPTABLE.
It was now March. I had an appointment with another dermatologist in Ft Worth. I was playing bridge and a friend heard me say the doctor's name and she said, "Don't go to him. I went to him and really didn't like him." She gave me the name of the one she found and really liked- Dr. Harrell in Ft. Worth. Robert went with me. She took a couple biopsies and ordered blood work. The results come back that I was allegoric to my blood pressure medicine. I went back to see her last week and she said it takes 3 months to get that out of my system. I'm in the third month now. Things are much better. I'm not totally cured, and I still get itches until I get it doctored in the mornings.
In my opinion it looks like ordering blood work would be a pretty simple thing to do. I did go to my primary care doctor on Friday and I feel like I impressed on him that my GUT kept telling me to find another doctor. I do like Dr. H, but I feel that he didn't do a good job. NOT ACCEPTABLE.
As far as the chemical peal goes, I got word this week that I have to have two facial surgeries, with two different Doctors- one is a surgeon and the other will be Dr. Harrell, the dermatologist. I'm not sure what I will be facing in the future, but the rash is just about cured and I will follow up on this at a later date.
It is now July 19. I had the surgery on my left cheek in June and it went well. It has pretty well healed up and did not make a bad scare. The dermatologist burned the ones off my back. I did not feel that the spots on my face were healing, so I asked Robert to call and see if she would order more blood work. She said NO. That was the end of June. She said she wanted to see me, so he made me an appointment July 7. She took 5 more biopsy's and burned one off right cheek by my eye. She said that she had no clue as to what was causing me to still be breaking out in itchy rash (a new pimply type that felt like a bee sting) At this point, I made the statement that I was writing a Blog, called GO WITH YOUR GUT. She looked kinda funny and said "what does that mean?" I explained that when you don't feel like everything is right, stay on top of it. She said "is that how you feel now and I said YES. She said she would call Dr H and ask him to do a follow-up/with blood work. She called Robert friday, July 15th and said Dr H said he would do that. She had no results on the biopsy's and we haven't heard from Dr H.
I am spending more time in the pool when I take my morning swim, that is the only time I don't itch. Guess we will see what next week brings.
Today is August 9th. Life has not gotten any better. I went back to see D the third week of July. We had a long visit and he went over all the tests he would order, some of which started that day. Blood work, Kidney, Monogram all came back ok. He had also said he would make appointment with an Allergist (which didn't happen until I had Robert call about). In the meantime I went back to dermatologist. She removed some cancers on my arm, face and leg. She burned some of these and used a liquid chemical, inserted with a needle (she said "this is going to hurt" and she was right). She told me that she nor Dr H had any idea what has caused my situation. She said they had a long talk and basically said everything that I had said to Dr H, and then said "I hope you like me" .
Back to the Allergist, When Robert was trying to make an appointment for me--they had all information for the Dr wrong. He finally was able to get me an appointment on August 27, and I can't get back in with dermatologist until Sept. 1st.
So I still can't wait to get into the pool every morning and scratch my way through the rest of the day.
Today is November 23. I still have the itch. I have thought many times that I could close this particular story, but No, it is still ongoing. I have had many Dr appointments. My visit with the dermatologist in November was very short. She said that she felt sure that my blood pressure medicine should be changed to another family and I should quit taking Nexium. I quit taking that the next morning. We were finally able to get a telephone DR Visit with cardiologist and he changed prescription Nov. 12, 2020. I am told that sometimes it can take 2-3 months to get the old meds out of you system, so that is why I am still itching. I'm not sure that I will ever get to close this story, so I am going ahead and publish this and still insist that you should ' GO WITH YOUR GUT'
_________________________________________________________
What happened in Longview, TX.
I don't remember the dates, but it really doesn't matter. My sister, Winona, and brother-in-law, OB, moved around quite a bit due to his jobs. They eventually settled in Longview.
My first encounter with their doctor was when OB was in the hospital. OB had really bad arthritis, and was going to be put into a rehab facility the next day. I went in to see him, at dinner time, and the meal they had in front of him was awful. About that time the doctor came in, and I said, "I am going to be gone for 30 minutes and when I come back there had better be a steak dinner for OB to eat." And there was.
Life on Bellevue and MOVE TO KILGORE
We all loved our new home. I made drapes for the windows, we put the yard in and settled down to ENJOY.
Linda found two new friends. Gay Bailey and Tommy Pernell. They were a happy threesome and played and played and played.
It became time for Butch to have his tonsils removed. Also is was deemed that Floyd needed his removed. Dr John Rice was to do the surgery. He did Butch first and things went well. Then there was Floyd. I had Butch at home and went to get Floyd and the Dr. said that he couldn't get the bleeding to stop. I had found a sitter, Laurene Vandergrift, and she came to stay with Butch and Linda and I went to sit at hospital with Floyd. He was out there a week before they finally go the bleeding stopped.
Floyd and I started a tradition of live Easter Bunnies at Easter time. The first year on Bellevue, Floyd fixed a "cage type thing" in the back yard and we put 2 bunnies in it Sat. nite. The next morning, excited Butch and Linda got up and ran outside to see the Bunnies. They were in the cage, DEAD. NOT A GOOD THING. Seems the neighbor had a dog that killed them.
Life continued at an even pace. I was invited to join a bridge club. Two tables. They served desert on china, crystal and silver. I had crystal (Wedding gifts), but no china or silver. NOT A GOOD THING. Floyd insisted that I get some, so I did. Still use it. The first night for my turn, the sewer stops up. NOT A GOOD THING But I got through the evening and members of that club became life long friends. I am the only one out of the group that is still living.
Sometime in 1958 Floyd came home and said that 2 City Councilmen from Kilgore were coming over to meet with him. They came to the house and at the end of the visit they said they wanted Floyd to come to Kilgore as City Manager. NOT A GOOD THING Floyd accepted and he was to start new job first of Jan 1959.
We put the house on the market, Butch took the mumps and I was left to deal with LIFE ON BELLEVUE. Floyd found a 2 bedroom house for us to rent. Activity on selling the house was not happening. Butch got over the mumps and Linda didn't take them, so movers came and we moved to Kilgore.
The house we rented was pretty bad, on a busy street and no children around. We stayed there about a month and found a new house on Dogwood Trail. It had 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen and small den. The needihood was full of kids. A GOOD THING The kids played from daylight til dark.
Life for Floyd and me became something to behold. We were invited out to dinner the first 30 days we lived in Kilgore. Everyone wanted to get to know Floyd. We made some lifelong friends there and a lot of special things happened.
The Mayor of Kilgore was a member of the family that owned the land where the original oil wells were drilled. (very wealthy). There came a time for a meeting in Galveston that Floyd and I would attend/ with the Mayor and his wife. They were really nice and I enjoyed being around them (which didn't happen much), but on this trip, the Mayor decided we should go fishing. (Not on a normal rental boat) He chartered a hugh vessel, and we were out in the Inter coastal channel and the motor stopped. The Captain was working on it, but couldn't get it to start. We looked up and there was a HUGH freighter bearing down on us. Very Frighting. Somehow the freighter missed us and we got back to port after dark.
Floyd was a member of Rotary Club in Kilgore as was Van Cliburn's father. We went out to eat every Sunday after church. One Sunday, Van Cliburn, his Mother and Father were there. They came over to our table to say "hello". Van was at home because his finger was infected and his arm was in a cast. He complemented that Butch and Linda were beautiful children and he would like to make a painting of them, but couldn't due to infected finger. MELT MY HEART
We settled into our new home and life. We were able to buy a cabin on Lake Cherokee about 15 miles out of Kilgore. I loved it and so did the kids, not sure about Floyd. We bought a boat, I loved to water ski, had Linda riding surf board by age 4, Butch loved to fish. Floyd said best day of man's life is when he get rid of boat. I loved to fish and met a new friend, that loved to fish. Butch and Linda rode school bus, picked them up in front of our house. After they left for school, I would go pick my friend up and we would go fish until time to get back home after school.
Linda took dancing from Gussie Nell Davis, Leader of the Kilgore Ranger ets She did learn to skip in that year, but wasn't interested in taking any more dance.
We stayed in Kilgore 5 years, Really had a wonderful time, Then one day, Gene Roberts, owner of Rangaire Corp, called Floyd and asked him to come back to Cleburne and work for him. Floyd said about 5 years in one city, as City Manager, it was probably time for a move.
Here again, the house market was not good. We put our house one the market and rented a house on Bellevue.
When we were closing the Lake property up (to put on market), Floyd was trying to find me and I was sitting on the diving board crying. (I REALLY LOVED THAT LAKE HOUSE)
So now it is a move back to Cleburne.
THE VALUE OF A DOLLAR - IN MY LIFETIME - So Far
My first experience that involved my own money started when I was about 11. A preacher and his family moved into a home down the street. They had three small children (all under the age of five). Needless to say, the housewife had her hands full. She told my Mother that she really needed to get out for a few hours and that her house was a mess. Mother said, "Nita Grace will keep your children and clean your house for ten cents an hour." I went over at about 10am the next morning and the mother left. The children were napping, so I started cleaning, and when they woke up we had the lunch she had left for them. We played some more, then they napped and I cleaned again. The mother came home at three and I was exhausted; I had earned fifty cents.
I had never worked when school was in secession, but always worked otherwise. When I was 13 (I think), I got a job in a five-and-dime store in downtown Amarillo, Texas. Now remember, I never had access to a car, and the bus service was ten cents a ride. I worked five hours a day, Monday through Saturday, and my paycheck was thirteen dollars a week. At this point FW Woolworth- also in downtown Amarillo- was hiring, and at a slight increase in pay, so that's where I headed next. I really don't remember what I made there, but I liked the work. I ended up working there for three years, eventually working my way up to "floorwalker" (I carried a key to the cash registers around my neck and if a clerk got cash over $5.00 they rang a bell and I went over and made change for them... I was good in math).
Life went on. I continued working.
When I was a senior in high school and it got close to prom time, my Mother and I went shopping for a dress. I found just what I wanted... for $80.00. TOTALLY OUT OF THE QUESTION. Mother was a very good seamstress (actually had made most of my clothes my entire life). She said she thought she could copy the dress, and she did. I felt beautiful at the prom and then my sister (Winona) wore the dress as Matron of Honor at my wedding.
Life went on.
Fast-forward to when Floyd and I were renting where we lived until 1958 when I drew up house plans, we found a really nice lot, and proceed to build the house of my dreams (3/2/2, brick, double detached garage). We built this home for $13,500. At one point, our expenses changed: Butch and Floyd both had their tonsils removed, Floyd ended up in the hospital for a week, unexpected babysitter fees, putting in new yard... all the stuff that comes with a new home and young family life. I sat down on about the 10th of that month to pay bills and when I finished, I had twenty dollars left to feed a family of four for the rest of the month.
Life went on.
I will stop there about the value of the dollar in my life, because I have survived with a wonderful life, but what brought all this to mind is the fact that I am about to write a check for nearly $18,000 to replace the roof on my house. MIND BOGGLING.
But life will go on.
I had never worked when school was in secession, but always worked otherwise. When I was 13 (I think), I got a job in a five-and-dime store in downtown Amarillo, Texas. Now remember, I never had access to a car, and the bus service was ten cents a ride. I worked five hours a day, Monday through Saturday, and my paycheck was thirteen dollars a week. At this point FW Woolworth- also in downtown Amarillo- was hiring, and at a slight increase in pay, so that's where I headed next. I really don't remember what I made there, but I liked the work. I ended up working there for three years, eventually working my way up to "floorwalker" (I carried a key to the cash registers around my neck and if a clerk got cash over $5.00 they rang a bell and I went over and made change for them... I was good in math).
Life went on. I continued working.
When I was a senior in high school and it got close to prom time, my Mother and I went shopping for a dress. I found just what I wanted... for $80.00. TOTALLY OUT OF THE QUESTION. Mother was a very good seamstress (actually had made most of my clothes my entire life). She said she thought she could copy the dress, and she did. I felt beautiful at the prom and then my sister (Winona) wore the dress as Matron of Honor at my wedding.
Life went on.
Fast-forward to when Floyd and I were renting where we lived until 1958 when I drew up house plans, we found a really nice lot, and proceed to build the house of my dreams (3/2/2, brick, double detached garage). We built this home for $13,500. At one point, our expenses changed: Butch and Floyd both had their tonsils removed, Floyd ended up in the hospital for a week, unexpected babysitter fees, putting in new yard... all the stuff that comes with a new home and young family life. I sat down on about the 10th of that month to pay bills and when I finished, I had twenty dollars left to feed a family of four for the rest of the month.
Life went on.
I will stop there about the value of the dollar in my life, because I have survived with a wonderful life, but what brought all this to mind is the fact that I am about to write a check for nearly $18,000 to replace the roof on my house. MIND BOGGLING.
But life will go on.
The Beginning...
I will start with Floyd.
January, 1951- Floyd had just graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in Civil Engineering. He attended school on the GIBill and also tottered Aggie football players for $1 a lesson. He earned his degree in 3 1/2 years, which was pretty amassing. He was offered a job with Silas Mason, at Pantex Ordnance Plant, 25 miles east of Amarillo, TX. Pantex was operated by the Atomic Energy Commission, Silas Mason doing the construction. He arrived about 10pm and had not made any arrangements for spending the night. When he saw the 12-story Santa Fe building, he thought it was a hotel. He quickly figured out he had to get a motel room, and reported for work the next morning. He later found out that a family member of some friends in Bonham ran a boarding house, so secured a room there and roomed there until we got married. His work place was huge- Civil Engineers, numbered 8 and Mechanical a few more. I don't even remember how many acres the plant covered (it is still there and I think under operation), but it is HUGE.
It was June 1, 1952, the start of summer between my Freshman and Sophomore years of college at Amarillo Junior College. I had been elected President of my sorority, I played 1st chair Viola with Amarillo Symphony, and I had a job with Commercial Credit Corp. I went to work one morning and at about 10am got a call from a classmate... she said Silas Mason was paying top dollar for secretaries taking shorthand and typing. I called in sick at noon, went for an interview, and was hired "on the spot." I was secretary to the head Civil and Mechanical Engineers... Floyd's bosses. Part of my job was to keep time tables on the "under engineers," which included Floyd.
July 4th was coming up and the company was having a July 4th picnic. (I would add that I was dating someone at this time.) Floyd asked me to go to the picnic with him, and I said "It's going to rain" -he never let me forget saying that. It didn't rain and I ended up going to the picnic with him. One of my childhood friends (Jean King) was dating one of the engineers (Kenneth Kelly) and we double-dated.
The end of August came and Floyd asked me to marry him, I said "YES," and he took me to Bonham on Labor Day weekend to meet his folks and family. We set the wedding date for October 19, 1952, and that was just the beginning.
My Mother got busy and made me a beautiful wedding dress. My sister, Winona, was my matron-of-honor, and she wore a dress that my Mother had also made. Floyd's twin brother, Lloyd, was his best man, and we had identical twin ushers. Floyd didn't think his parents would get to come to the wedding, but they rode the bus from Bonham to Amarillo and got there just in time.
After the wedding, we rented an upstairs 1-bedroom apartment. The kitchen was an add-on and it sloped pretty bad. I never did much cooking at home and Floyd got pretty tired of spaghetti and meat sauce and strawberry shortcake. We decided to find a better place to live, and the opportunity to rent a house came up. The owner of the house was going to have to work in another town and stored personal stuff in a locked room, which left us with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. One of the bedrooms had an outside entrance, so we rented that room out to be able to afford the rent... then I came home and found her in bed with a person from the Air Base. NOT ACCEPTABLE. That left us in a bad shape for rent money, but then on July 4th the owner knocked on the door and said he wanted his house back and would refund the rent.
Amarillo had an area called Green Acres that had 4-plexes, so we applied there, but it was going to be a couple of weeks before we could get an apartment, so we moved in with Mother and Daddy.
We soon got settled in a nice 1-bedroom apartment, and Butch was born in August. At this point, the apartment was not furnished. We bought a lime green couch, 1 chair, a bed with a mattress, and a lime green chrome dinette set. The job at Pantex was completed and Floyd- along with 4 other engineers- were transferred to Los Alamos, New Mexico. They set up a car pool and left every Sunday evening about 5pm to drive to Los Alamos, and they came home to Amarillo every Friday evening. This lasted until January and then Silas Mason wanted to transfer Floyd to California. NOT ACCEPTABLE.
At that same time Lloyd was pipelining in Victoria, Texas, so Floyd applied for a job there. My Daddy made a trailer for us which had a rod to hang clothes at the back and space for other necessities like dishes. We packed no furniture except the baby bed, and we put the rest of the furniture in storage, not knowing how long it would be before we would be able to get it. Thus I could pack to move in a couple of hours- and that was Pipelining.
We left Amarillo with 1 car, the trailer, and our 6-month-old baby. I had never lived any where else and moving to Victoria, Texas was NOT ACCEPTABLE.
For part of our journey we were to go to Bonham and I was to stay with Floyd's parents while he went to Shreveport to pick up a company car. (I had never had a car.) So we left Bonham with 2 cars, the trailer and the baby. Back then, baby Butch was in a bed-type infant car seat that hooked on to the front seat, so there I was driving down the highway, pulling a trailer and feeding Butch a bottle. NOT ACCEPTABLE.
Eventually we found a nice 2-bedroom upstairs apartment in Victoria. Butch weighed 30 lbs and when I took him to a Doctor for a checkup, he put him on a diet, and he was not a "happy camper."
Later, Floyd's Mother died and Floyd's brother, Walter, and family decided they would bring Mr. Carroll to see us and let him stay a week. Afterwards Mildred, his sister (they lived in Houston), would take him back to Bonham.
Two months later the pipeline moved and we had to move to Falfurrias. We found a house in nearby Beeville that had been a garage (400 sq ft) and had a bedroom, a living room, a kitchen and a bath... all small. The couple that owned it lived next door and they were really nice. Floyd was working 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. NOT ACCEPTABLE. I cried a lot.
By this time Lloyd and Jackie were married and living in Victoria. Her Daddy became very sick and she went back to Tennessee. Lloyd soon quit and followed her to Tennessee.
The people that owned the "garage" we rented were the only people we knew in Beeville (I can't even remember their names, but they were nice and kept Butch occasionally). About a block away there was a housebound lady with a sitter that sat in a sunroom and faced our house. She discovered that I had a "peeping tom" that was watching me (while Floyd was working 14 hour days), so when it got dark, Butch and I had to get in the car and ride around until Floyd got home. NOT ACCEPTABLE.
One night about 9pm, we got a call from Bonham that Floyd's Daddy was dying. We immediately packed the car and left Beeville about 10pm. At about llpm Floyd said that he could not drive anymore because he was sleepy. I had night blindness. Mind you, this is long before highways were marked like they are now and I really had no idea what to do. Floyd said, 'Just stay on this highway and go North.' God was really watching over us- there was no traffic. We drove all night without any stops, and finally the sun came up and we were about 15 miles south of Bonham. We arrived just a short time before Mr. Carroll died.
Finally Floyd's work in Beeville was finished and the Texas Eastman Transmission transferred him to Shreveport, Louisiana. We found a 2-bedroom apartment in a development called Plantation Park in Bossier City. Butch was a toddler now, and there was no place for him to play, so I put a rope around his waist and tied it to the clothesline and fixed him a play box. I could watch him as I washed dishes or cooked. NOT ACCEPTABLE.
Floyd was not happy with the office work and I hated our living conditions. One Sunday the Dallas Morning News had an ad that stated, "Small Central Texas Town seeking a City Engineer." I said let's see about this! He even asked his boss, "What does a City Engineer do?" The man said he thought Floyd could handle it. So Floyd made an appointment for an interview. We spent the night in Dallas with CW and Frances. They kept Butch while we went to Cleburne for the interview. His appointment was for 10am. The wife of the City Manager took me on a tour of the City while Floyd interviewed. Floyd picked me up about 2pm and we headed back to Dallas. They ended up offering him the job, but they wanted an answer by 7pm the same day. We were not happy with our situation in Louisiana, so he accepted the job... ACCEPTABLE.
On the morning of July 4th, 1954 (a Saturday), we left Shreveport-1 car, 1 trailer and a nearly-two-year-old-Butch. We had rented a 1-bedroom upstairs apartment at Jamestown on North Main Street in Cleburne. Our furniture (the wonderful lime green stuff) was going to finally get out of storage. In the meantime we had an apartment, but no furniture delivered yet. We discovered that the couple in the apartment under us happened be someone Floyd had know at A&M- Charles D. and Carolyn Kirkham. They were going to Dallas for a few days and insisted that we stay in their apartment until our furniture arrived on Monday and we could officially move in.
It was July in Texas and hotter than HADES in that apartment. We bought a swamp cooler and Charles D. helped Floyd install it in upstairs kitchen window. It really helped. There really wasn't a good place for Butch to play, however there was a little girl about 3 living downstairs, and she and Butch played together a lot.
The laundry facilities were a washer and dryer in a small building out back. The night that Floyd had gone to his first City Council meeting, someone had left some bleach in a small open orange juice can and Butch decided to drink it. I really panicked, and Charles D. heard me and was able to rush Butch and me to the hospital. They pumped his stomach and I made an effort to keep a closer eye on him after that!
We settled in to our new life, and by October I was pregnant with Linda. We found an apartment on College Street owned by the Graham's with two bedrooms and a bath upstairs, a living room, and a kitchen-eating area downstairs. It also had washer space on the back porch, so that year I got my first washing machine. Linda was born on my birthday, May 28th. (Dr. Wright had predicted that due date, but I really didn't think it would happen.) After the birth, the doctor told Floyd that I was to stay upstairs for 2 weeks (LOL now). We later found a wonderful lady that ended up being our sitter for over a year.
Another help was Wilma Reed, who lived across the street and had a daughter Butch's age. They played together a lot and were really good friends. Wilma and I would swap out keeping Butch and her daughter, Karen. She and I are still good friends to this day- Wilma is in her middle 90's now.
The day Linda was born, the Cleburne City Council appointed Floyd City Manager. We decided to build a house. I got busy designing what I wanted. We found a lot on Bellevue Street and proceeded. It was wonderful. I put the washer and dryer in the bathroom, I had a beautiful hutch in the kitchen/eating area, 3/2/2; just what I wanted. Cleburne was going to be our Home.
January, 1951- Floyd had just graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in Civil Engineering. He attended school on the GIBill and also tottered Aggie football players for $1 a lesson. He earned his degree in 3 1/2 years, which was pretty amassing. He was offered a job with Silas Mason, at Pantex Ordnance Plant, 25 miles east of Amarillo, TX. Pantex was operated by the Atomic Energy Commission, Silas Mason doing the construction. He arrived about 10pm and had not made any arrangements for spending the night. When he saw the 12-story Santa Fe building, he thought it was a hotel. He quickly figured out he had to get a motel room, and reported for work the next morning. He later found out that a family member of some friends in Bonham ran a boarding house, so secured a room there and roomed there until we got married. His work place was huge- Civil Engineers, numbered 8 and Mechanical a few more. I don't even remember how many acres the plant covered (it is still there and I think under operation), but it is HUGE.
It was June 1, 1952, the start of summer between my Freshman and Sophomore years of college at Amarillo Junior College. I had been elected President of my sorority, I played 1st chair Viola with Amarillo Symphony, and I had a job with Commercial Credit Corp. I went to work one morning and at about 10am got a call from a classmate... she said Silas Mason was paying top dollar for secretaries taking shorthand and typing. I called in sick at noon, went for an interview, and was hired "on the spot." I was secretary to the head Civil and Mechanical Engineers... Floyd's bosses. Part of my job was to keep time tables on the "under engineers," which included Floyd.
July 4th was coming up and the company was having a July 4th picnic. (I would add that I was dating someone at this time.) Floyd asked me to go to the picnic with him, and I said "It's going to rain" -he never let me forget saying that. It didn't rain and I ended up going to the picnic with him. One of my childhood friends (Jean King) was dating one of the engineers (Kenneth Kelly) and we double-dated.
The end of August came and Floyd asked me to marry him, I said "YES," and he took me to Bonham on Labor Day weekend to meet his folks and family. We set the wedding date for October 19, 1952, and that was just the beginning.
__________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________
My Mother got busy and made me a beautiful wedding dress. My sister, Winona, was my matron-of-honor, and she wore a dress that my Mother had also made. Floyd's twin brother, Lloyd, was his best man, and we had identical twin ushers. Floyd didn't think his parents would get to come to the wedding, but they rode the bus from Bonham to Amarillo and got there just in time.
After the wedding, we rented an upstairs 1-bedroom apartment. The kitchen was an add-on and it sloped pretty bad. I never did much cooking at home and Floyd got pretty tired of spaghetti and meat sauce and strawberry shortcake. We decided to find a better place to live, and the opportunity to rent a house came up. The owner of the house was going to have to work in another town and stored personal stuff in a locked room, which left us with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. One of the bedrooms had an outside entrance, so we rented that room out to be able to afford the rent... then I came home and found her in bed with a person from the Air Base. NOT ACCEPTABLE. That left us in a bad shape for rent money, but then on July 4th the owner knocked on the door and said he wanted his house back and would refund the rent.
Amarillo had an area called Green Acres that had 4-plexes, so we applied there, but it was going to be a couple of weeks before we could get an apartment, so we moved in with Mother and Daddy.
We soon got settled in a nice 1-bedroom apartment, and Butch was born in August. At this point, the apartment was not furnished. We bought a lime green couch, 1 chair, a bed with a mattress, and a lime green chrome dinette set. The job at Pantex was completed and Floyd- along with 4 other engineers- were transferred to Los Alamos, New Mexico. They set up a car pool and left every Sunday evening about 5pm to drive to Los Alamos, and they came home to Amarillo every Friday evening. This lasted until January and then Silas Mason wanted to transfer Floyd to California. NOT ACCEPTABLE.
At that same time Lloyd was pipelining in Victoria, Texas, so Floyd applied for a job there. My Daddy made a trailer for us which had a rod to hang clothes at the back and space for other necessities like dishes. We packed no furniture except the baby bed, and we put the rest of the furniture in storage, not knowing how long it would be before we would be able to get it. Thus I could pack to move in a couple of hours- and that was Pipelining.
We left Amarillo with 1 car, the trailer, and our 6-month-old baby. I had never lived any where else and moving to Victoria, Texas was NOT ACCEPTABLE.
For part of our journey we were to go to Bonham and I was to stay with Floyd's parents while he went to Shreveport to pick up a company car. (I had never had a car.) So we left Bonham with 2 cars, the trailer and the baby. Back then, baby Butch was in a bed-type infant car seat that hooked on to the front seat, so there I was driving down the highway, pulling a trailer and feeding Butch a bottle. NOT ACCEPTABLE.
Eventually we found a nice 2-bedroom upstairs apartment in Victoria. Butch weighed 30 lbs and when I took him to a Doctor for a checkup, he put him on a diet, and he was not a "happy camper."
Later, Floyd's Mother died and Floyd's brother, Walter, and family decided they would bring Mr. Carroll to see us and let him stay a week. Afterwards Mildred, his sister (they lived in Houston), would take him back to Bonham.
Two months later the pipeline moved and we had to move to Falfurrias. We found a house in nearby Beeville that had been a garage (400 sq ft) and had a bedroom, a living room, a kitchen and a bath... all small. The couple that owned it lived next door and they were really nice. Floyd was working 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. NOT ACCEPTABLE. I cried a lot.
By this time Lloyd and Jackie were married and living in Victoria. Her Daddy became very sick and she went back to Tennessee. Lloyd soon quit and followed her to Tennessee.
The people that owned the "garage" we rented were the only people we knew in Beeville (I can't even remember their names, but they were nice and kept Butch occasionally). About a block away there was a housebound lady with a sitter that sat in a sunroom and faced our house. She discovered that I had a "peeping tom" that was watching me (while Floyd was working 14 hour days), so when it got dark, Butch and I had to get in the car and ride around until Floyd got home. NOT ACCEPTABLE.
One night about 9pm, we got a call from Bonham that Floyd's Daddy was dying. We immediately packed the car and left Beeville about 10pm. At about llpm Floyd said that he could not drive anymore because he was sleepy. I had night blindness. Mind you, this is long before highways were marked like they are now and I really had no idea what to do. Floyd said, 'Just stay on this highway and go North.' God was really watching over us- there was no traffic. We drove all night without any stops, and finally the sun came up and we were about 15 miles south of Bonham. We arrived just a short time before Mr. Carroll died.
Finally Floyd's work in Beeville was finished and the Texas Eastman Transmission transferred him to Shreveport, Louisiana. We found a 2-bedroom apartment in a development called Plantation Park in Bossier City. Butch was a toddler now, and there was no place for him to play, so I put a rope around his waist and tied it to the clothesline and fixed him a play box. I could watch him as I washed dishes or cooked. NOT ACCEPTABLE.
Floyd was not happy with the office work and I hated our living conditions. One Sunday the Dallas Morning News had an ad that stated, "Small Central Texas Town seeking a City Engineer." I said let's see about this! He even asked his boss, "What does a City Engineer do?" The man said he thought Floyd could handle it. So Floyd made an appointment for an interview. We spent the night in Dallas with CW and Frances. They kept Butch while we went to Cleburne for the interview. His appointment was for 10am. The wife of the City Manager took me on a tour of the City while Floyd interviewed. Floyd picked me up about 2pm and we headed back to Dallas. They ended up offering him the job, but they wanted an answer by 7pm the same day. We were not happy with our situation in Louisiana, so he accepted the job... ACCEPTABLE.
On the morning of July 4th, 1954 (a Saturday), we left Shreveport-1 car, 1 trailer and a nearly-two-year-old-Butch. We had rented a 1-bedroom upstairs apartment at Jamestown on North Main Street in Cleburne. Our furniture (the wonderful lime green stuff) was going to finally get out of storage. In the meantime we had an apartment, but no furniture delivered yet. We discovered that the couple in the apartment under us happened be someone Floyd had know at A&M- Charles D. and Carolyn Kirkham. They were going to Dallas for a few days and insisted that we stay in their apartment until our furniture arrived on Monday and we could officially move in.
It was July in Texas and hotter than HADES in that apartment. We bought a swamp cooler and Charles D. helped Floyd install it in upstairs kitchen window. It really helped. There really wasn't a good place for Butch to play, however there was a little girl about 3 living downstairs, and she and Butch played together a lot.
The laundry facilities were a washer and dryer in a small building out back. The night that Floyd had gone to his first City Council meeting, someone had left some bleach in a small open orange juice can and Butch decided to drink it. I really panicked, and Charles D. heard me and was able to rush Butch and me to the hospital. They pumped his stomach and I made an effort to keep a closer eye on him after that!
We settled in to our new life, and by October I was pregnant with Linda. We found an apartment on College Street owned by the Graham's with two bedrooms and a bath upstairs, a living room, and a kitchen-eating area downstairs. It also had washer space on the back porch, so that year I got my first washing machine. Linda was born on my birthday, May 28th. (Dr. Wright had predicted that due date, but I really didn't think it would happen.) After the birth, the doctor told Floyd that I was to stay upstairs for 2 weeks (LOL now). We later found a wonderful lady that ended up being our sitter for over a year.
Another help was Wilma Reed, who lived across the street and had a daughter Butch's age. They played together a lot and were really good friends. Wilma and I would swap out keeping Butch and her daughter, Karen. She and I are still good friends to this day- Wilma is in her middle 90's now.
____________________________________________________________
The day Linda was born, the Cleburne City Council appointed Floyd City Manager. We decided to build a house. I got busy designing what I wanted. We found a lot on Bellevue Street and proceeded. It was wonderful. I put the washer and dryer in the bathroom, I had a beautiful hutch in the kitchen/eating area, 3/2/2; just what I wanted. Cleburne was going to be our Home.
_____________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
Happy Mother's Day
For the Keeper Of Our Stories
Who through love and life does know
All the ways of joy and happiness
That make a family grow.
Though the many sturdy branches
Of the family tree extend
Through counties, states and continents,
On our roots we still depend.
Through the lessons and the stories
Of the ones that came before,
We connect to one another
Then and now, forevermore.
Happy Mother's Day, Nanny.
With love
Kyle, Courtney, Audrey and Henry Ware
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)