Saturday, June 28, 2008

A trip to Colorado

Susan and I spent a lot of our time alone. I didn't like to drive with her in the car, this was before car seats and seat belts. I didn't want her crawling around in the car. We had a good neighbor next door that had a little girl her age. We put up a swing set and they played
together so well.
We went to the LDS Church but didn't get very close to any of the members because we lived so far apart. Mo was gone so many Sundays we didn't go very often.
I found out I was pregnant again and was sick all day every day.
When I was about four months Mo had to go to a school in Denver, Co. So we packed the car and headed out for a month. The Johnsons went too. We rented a motel room and ate out every meal. Mo and Kay were gone all day so Jenae and I had to entertain each other. She didn't have any children so she helped me with Susan. We usually lay in the bed and watched her play. Janae was a real trooper, I really liked her a lot.
It was late in the season but we had had the biggest snowstorm in the history. We had so much snow we couldn't open our motel door. Janae and I would go out and play in the snow with Susan.
Throurgh the whole trip I was so sick. I had this weird thing happen, I would get all this saliva in my mouth that I couldn't swallow, so I went around spitting all the time. Mo just didn't understand why I couldn't swallow it. If I did I would get really nauseated. He said I should start playing baseball. How I wished he could have experience that wonderful malady.
When the month ended we headed back to South Carolina, and our little pink house. We got a new bed for Susan and prepared the nursery for the new baby. In those days we couldn't find out the sex so we had to pick out two sets of names. When Susan was born we had planned to name her Susan Michelle and he was fine with that as far as I knew. But when it came time to choose the name he told them her name was Susan Kristina. He said she was Danish, not French.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Valentine's Day

Mo loved all holidays, especially Christmas but he liked any excuse to celebrate. On Valentine's Day he would get cards and flowers for me and Susan, he'd ring the door bell and run. He would write wonderful messages on the cards and maybe, just maybe we would get a baby sitter and he would take me out to dinner. We enjoyed a little time alone for a change. I think I still have that first card he wrote to me and Susan. I kept my flowers but she ate hers. He make everything fun and his enthusiasm was contagious. In my family we hardly ever celebrated anything except Christmas, Thanksgiving and the 4th of July was a big celebration.
I can't ever remember having a birthday cake, but maybe I did, it's been a long time
.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Susan's First Birthday

What a big day, Susan's first birthday, we can't wait for the party scene. Mo made sure he had it off and we sent out the invitations to all the one year kids we knew. For some reason we thought everyone was going to have a blast, not!!!!!!. It was a blast all right, a room full of crying or should we say screaming babies. Everyone always tells me I teach the word "hot" to my grandchildren by burning them. Well this time it wasn't me. Mo stuck her in her highchairs, put the cake in front of her and promptly lite the candle. I can honestly say that I said, "That isn't a very good idea." She touched the candle flame and joined the crying throng. The kids didn't have a good time, we didn't enjoy it and swore that would be the last one year party we would ever have. Of course it wasn't. When Jeff came along we did it again and believe it or not he had a ball and the kids did too. Maybe we were more experienced party givers by then. To prove what a great success this party was I am going to post a picture in the future. I think Susan would have enjoyed it if her dad had not burned her. Maybe that is how I learned to teach the word hot.

Susan's

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

This and That

I forgot to tell that we went to West Palm Beach , Florida when Susan was about sic weeks old. It was beautiful there,we would go to the beach and spend the day. We were so careful to keep her out of the sun. That was before the sun screen days. She was very fair and would have burned easily. One day we were at the beach and there was a little baby lying right out in the blazing hot sun. No one was around and we could see that it was getting burned but we didn't know what to do. We tried to cover it with a blanket but we couldn't cover it's head. We were only there six weeks. Mo was going to a school. It was good for us to get away. Susan was so little but we managed okay.

It has been so long ago I'm sure I have forgotten so much interesting stuff, I think this is pretty boring. I did like West Palm Beach, but it was a town of old people, most of them from up North. It was interesting to see so many old brown dried up people that spent most all of their time out in the sun. They looked very hard and I swore I would never get out in the sun again.

We went to St Augustine and had some good sea food. I think they have the best sea food in the world. We found the Fountain of Youth but alas it didn't work on me. Mo loved everywhere he lived, he could always find something good about everything.

He was extremely popular in his squadron . Everyone liked him. He was involved in everything except happy hour, he just came home to his family. He always liked to go to the squadron parties and most of the time he was the MS. He was a take charge kind of guy. Does that remind you of anyone you know? We had a baby nine months and twenty-one days after we were married, and he thought that was just fine. Our friends had a baby when they had been married eight and a half months. He came home one day and said, "Smitty was so depressed today because it was his one year anniversary and he had a three and a half month old baby. It was hard to adjust to married life and parenthood all in one year. We all had babies about the same age and it was fun.

We had four couples that we ran around with, the Eldridges, the Smiths, Huffakers and the Johnsons. I've kept in touch with the Eldridges more than any of the others because they lived in Orlando and I went there sometimes. They had two boys when we knew them and after they got out of the service they had a baby girl. One day they were visiting some friends that lived on a lake. Their little girl got out of the car and ran down to the lake where the other kids were. Somehow she got in the water and drowned before they realized she had disappeared. It almost killed them, we cried together for many years after that happened. Coleen went on to have two more boys but she never had another little girl. They have been good friends. When Steve and Susan were little we decided they would grow up and get married. It didn't happen.

The Johnson's got divorced. The Smiths moved back to Alabama and got involved in the community. Katie had a heart attack and died a few years ago. The Huffakers had a little girl Susan's age and they were best friends. Pam and Susan played together and went to the same preschool. After they moved John would call me every now and then. He became an alcoholic and died too. His wife Pat could never could quit smoking, she was a nurse. She is in a wheel chair now and Pam is taking care of her. I suppose the Eldridges are still in good shape, I think a lot of them. She just published a cookbook and sent me one.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Our first Christmas

We were very proud of our little girl. She brought us a lot of happiness. We loved having daddy home and he was hom more than usual. Life was good for us and we were so thankful for our blessings.
WE were so excited for our first Christmas together and especially for Susan's first Christmas. Mo simply loved everything about Christmas, from decorating to shopping. He shopped for the tree and decorated it while I made cookies and hot chocolate. He had Susan help and she loved every minute of making the tree pretty. Every light had to be evenly placed and we always had to have icicles. You've probably guessed that his family always put icicles on their tree. Needless to say she didn't know much about what was going on, but he still wanted to buy her everything. Our first Christmas was a happy time. I thought I was the luckiest person in the world.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Life Disrupted Again

We had only been in our pink house for a little while when we found out Mo had to go to Europe for three months. He didn't want to leave us alone so I had to go to Florida to stay. He didn't have time to take us so my brother Howell and his son Francis came to get us. Francis drove my car and Howell and I went in is. It wasn't an easy trip nor was it an easy three months. Susan was given a lot of attention but she missed her dad, so did I. She had to sleep in the room with mom and me. I was so afraid she would disturb someone that I stayed by her bed, patting her all night. If I quit patting she would start to cry. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep for three months. When Mo got home he said, "This is a lot of nonsense, just let her cry. Of course he was right and it only took one night before she was sleeping all night.

Life got back to normal, although Mo was gone a lot. He was gone more than he was home. I didn't go anywhere and we were so broke I didn't get one thing new for two years. We hardly had anything to live on. Mo had so many bill. He had borrowed money to buy his uniforms, buy my rings and to get a new car. Then he went out and charged a stereo and a television. And of course he had charged all the furniture we had bought. After paying our bill we had very little left for food. One time it was ten days to payday and we did not have a penny of money nor bread and milk. One night Mo came home with two bags of groceries, I noticed he had hocked his watch. We never ate out and didn't go to movies. We did have parties with our friends and I enjoyed them. They had different standards but were good people. They got such a kick out of giving their toddlers beer and watch them stagger around drunk.

I had a neighbor down the street, he was in Mo's squadron. She was a beautiful sexy blond and drove around in a convertible. They were both from wealthy families that didn't let them lack for anything. She was always wanting me to go out with her but I didn't seem to fit in that convertible. He was not at all good looking but she was a real looker. They had a little girl that looked just like him. She was not too cute. I did not ever see them again after we went to Japan. Maybe she turned out beautiful when she got older.

Friday, June 13, 2008

A New House

We didn't know how much room it took for a new baby. My mom came our for a week and she was a lot of help. We didn't really have room for company in our two bedroom apartment. S00000 we went house hunting. We found a "beautiful " pink house in a pretty good neighborhood a little closer to the base. It had three bedrooms, so we had room for a nursery and a guest room.

We went shopping at Sears for furniture. To Mo Sears was the best an only store in the world. I didn't much care about the way he decorated our house but he was pretty sure about what he wanted. Our living room looked just like his mother's living room. not my taste in the least. What a good wife I was at that time, he wouldn't get away with that today.

We had pretty good neighbors, a little girl Susan's age. They had a dog and Susan was deathly afraid of it. It almost drove Mo crazy that when would scream if it came within twenty
feet of her. Every day he would try to get her to touch it and he finally did.

Susan became quite chubby, my pediatrician said I had no idea how much milk she was getting. He called me a jersey. She had beautiful blue eyes and blond curly hair. Mo thought she was the most beautiful baby in the world. Everyone did. She was a good baby and she got a lot of attention. She would coo for hours, Her Aunt Onita love to talk to her because she would talk right back. I have never seen a baby coo like that. She acted just like she was talking, she'd get different expressions on her face. She was a funny little thing.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Our First Child

I never liked being pregnant. I was sick for nine months and always hungry. Since the doctor screamed at everyone if they gained weight, I was terrified if gained a pound. He only wanted us to gain twelve pounds and that wasn't easy. After I prepared dinner and as was clearing the table I would eat everything everyone left on their plate. Two days before I went to the doctor would starve myself. Then I would hold my breath as I heard him scream at all the other ladies that had gained weight. I only gained about eleven pounds and was thin when I came out of the hospital Mo made me drink a milkshake every night. Wouldn't you know it, I lost my appetite and couldn't drink but half of it.

Susan was due on February 24th and she was born on the 20th. I didn't realize I was in labor and almost had her on the living room sofa. She came at 11:23 and we got to the hospital at eleven. Mo was so upset, I squeezed his hand so hard on the way to the hospital I cut his fingers where his ring was.

Susan was a real blond and didn't look at all like her dad. I just knew she would be dark and have dark hair. She weighed seven pounds and three ounces. He thought she was perfect and was happy that she looked like me.

After she was born I began to hemorrhage and they kept kneading my stomach. I was so tired and my stomach was so sore. The blood kept filling my uterus and they had to get it out I guess. I lost so much blood they began to fear for my life. I was rh negative and they didn't have any on hand. They had to fly it in from another hospital. Mo said he sat and watched me getting weaker and weaker. My whole body was ice cold and the doctor kept pacing the floor. He finally took Mo out of the room and sat with him in another room. I don't remember anything but being so tired and they wouldn't leave me alone. I just wanted to sleep. I suppose the blood finally arrived because I lived. I stayed in Greenville General Hospital longer than usual.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Family Picture

Welcome Family

My brilliant granddaughter helped me start this blog, I am such a dummy when it comes to technology. I do want to keep a record of my family to share. I guess it will take me a little while to get the knack of it but I am going to give it a try.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Marge!!

YAY!! It looks like Marge has made it over!!

 
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