IMMIGRANT DAUGHTER 30

In the last post I mentioned the boardwalk in Atlantic City and I didn’t mentioned the Easter Parade the way it use to be. Hollywood made a few movies about the Easter Parade and the song in Your Easter Bonnet was quite popular. As the holiday approaches you will see on the movie channel some of those vintage movies back in those days when ladies wore new outfits with new bonnets and to parade on the boardwalk showing off their outfits. Ladies wore hats to church so it wasn’t a waste of money with a onetime wear. My oldest sister loved big brimmed hats,

This all changed because the media has taken the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ out of the holiday. There were no family gatherings anymore and that is too bad for them because like it or not going to church, to worship as a family cannot be replaced.

The Easter Parade was a big event on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, people from all over the state and elsewhere came just to off the new bonnet on that day. This is me on the boardwalk one Easter. Photographers from the newspapers all over were there snapping pictures for their papers. Now people don’t rely on newspapers anymore. They didn’t take my picture. In N.J. it was still coat wearing weather and especially on the boardwalk than ran along the coast.

There was a shop on the boardwalk that served fresh strawberry shortcake. After our restaurant closed at night we use to go down to Atlantic City just for shortcake I think the place was called Lindys. At that time I was in high school and my sisters’ friend use to drive the four of us there just for shortcake because their family owned a house they used in the summer. Theyowned the ladies millinery Shoppe in town that sold silk stockings, under garments, hats and purses. The few pictures here are the four of us girls in my family in different hats.

Here is a picture of C in his hat just hamming it up. Also this is earlier in our life and our kids were very young and we are visiting dad. This picture is of dad playing solitaire in the kitchen. I just have too many pictures I would like to share so I will bunch them together because I know my girls would enjoy having them showing me oh so young.

This Easter is going to be really quiet from past ones. Living out in the country makes it difficult for the girls to visit. My DIL is cooking dinner for her side of the family and me so I won’t be entirely by myself. I will attend Church by myself and come home and read the paper and then go down the driveway to eat with DIL and her mom and family.

Greeks make bread at Easter that is delicious and my youngest can really do a fine job at making it. I will attempt to make my Koulouris cutting the original down to fourths because it takes so long to make them. These are the holiday cookies that are very popular in our family. I guess the most famous dessert is baklava even the large grocery chain are selling it. That is one thing I never made it is too hard.

I am so thankful to be able to remember some of these times I lived through.

One of the jobs I had was selling expensive ladies shoes in a large privately owned department store in Little Rock. I had a lot to learn about the different brands of shoes and how to measure the feet and get the right size for the customer. Learning was how to fit in with the old timers who resented new sales people, was the biggest challenge facing me. The one thing in my favor was the manager who hired me told me of what I had to overcome. They would have customers come in that didn’t ask for them and if anyone sold them shoes they would raise a ruckus. Or if you sold shoes to them they tried to bully you to get the commission they thought they deserved. I work there I year and one day my pastors wife came in and while I was fitting her with shoes he came in and sat down to talk. He offered me a job to be his secretary. I said your joking and he said no he meant it. I said I am no secretary oh I took typing in school but not shorthand and said again I’m not and office worker. He said he too would be new because he was assigned as an archdeacon and this job was in the diocesan office under the bishop.

The main part of my job was to get along with the bishops’ secretary who already ran off two, receptionist. He felt she wouldn’t run me off. And he was right she couldn’t. She was felt she owned the place and would give orders to anyone. I just wouldn’t obey because she wasn’t my boss.

One day she told me you are no secretary and you can’t even type. I looked at her and said “you are right” and it shocked her. I told her she was so good at her skills no one could match her shorthand or typing besides I wasn’t hired for those skills. I was the front office receptionist answering the phone besides being the archdeacons’ secretary. I was so kind to her she didn’t know how to handle me because no one ever said nice things to her. She left after her vacation that year.
That was the best job I ever had, not money wise but people wise. I nice met people from all over the State and when I asked how could I help to direct their call. They reported that it was such a pleasure to be asked how I could help them and not trying to find out their business by asking, “What do you want to speak with the Bishop?” The business that comes to the Bishop is personal and no body’s business and before me the people use to have a hard time getting through just to talk to him.

I listened to Greg Laurie this morning and he said a friend heard two atheists talking that said the Christians have Christmas and Easter to celebrate and Jews have Yom Kippur and Hanukah and we don’t have any special day. Some one close by heard said yes you do its’ April 1st, that’s the day fools celebrate.”

I see this is a good place to close so I will say Happy Easter from Immigrant Daughter.

IMMIGRANT DAUGHTER 29

All three of our children married and started their own families and we never insisted that they spend all their holidays with us. They had to establish new relationships with their in laws and we tried to encourage this because they had to start their own holiday rituals within their families.

C and I were always going to dads as long as he was alive. My dad became a grandfather late in life and we taught our children their grandfather was an important part of our family. We spent many Christmas’ at dads and if we live too far away C always made sure he was off at that time so we could get home and back in time for work.

My third sister was home with dad because she worked in the restaurant and didn’t marry until dad gave the business to my brother. She had decided she needed to get out on her own. My brother’s wife could work by his side being the restaurant was part hers’ now. My sister was seven years older than her and she did not take it to lightly at her younger brothers wife being her boss. After all when she worked for dad he really did not pay her much because it was an allowance in his mind and she knew the amount probably wouldn’t change unless she just left.

She got a job in Philadelphia working for the government in the Treasury Department division. I mentioned before that CB was a Treasury agent for the government and he arranged for her to take the government test. She passed having the highest grade of all those taking the test. Of course she wasn’t married to him at the time. He was a family friend and one of our customers in the restaurant. So she got the job and rode the train to work and back. This was the first time she ever worked anywhere away from the family business. Back then the bus and train, catered to workers by having their schedules coordinating their time going to and from work between Philadelphia to Atlantic City stopping at all the little towns in between.

My oldest sister who was nine years older married an army man and moved to Boston where he was a commercial fisherman after the service. That was one of the places dad had me drive him when I got my drivers license. We surprised her and we sure did. Her husband was out fishing so we didn’t get to see him. My sister had taken a job in the factory and at night she like to party and her place looked like a hurricane hit it in the inside. After we visited a little while she offered to make us supper, her specialty was meat loaf I know she didn’t like to cook much. We left for home that evening because dad had enough traveling.

I can remember the first Miss America Pageant that was held in the convention center on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City. It was a big deal and brought lots of people to N.J. from all over. Business was good for everyone because then the pageant lasted longer than it does today. People enjoyed the pageantry of competition between the states of the girl that was representing them. It was the swimsuit division that was actually held on the boardwalk. The judges were local dignitaries who supported the pageant with dollars.

One year my third sister and I got to attend the last night because CB the man she married got us tickets. He was in local politics in N.J. and was able to get favors. We never did pick the winner in all those years we lived there. I can still remember Parks singing: “There she is Miss America” and after he died the Pageant seem to go down hill because he was the only one that could sing that song with meaning and his personality was the Miss America pageant. This is a picture of Yolande Betbeze, who won the year we attended.


There was one attraction N.J. had that will never be seen again in person and that was the Diving Horse on the boardwalk. At the end of the Labor Day weekend every year people would see a horse and rider climb a large scaffold to a high diving board and jump off into a large round tub of water. It wasn’t until years later the people were told that the rider had become blind. Some years back our son and his wife gave us a video of this attraction that I still have.

N.J. is famous for its’ blueberries and we lived right in the middle of the area where they are grown. Home made blueberry pie made with fresh berries can’t be beat. My one daughter still remembers the pie her aunt made for the kids when they stayed with my sister. She learned from my mother. The other fruit that N.J. is famous for is peaches.

One year when C and I lived in Rhode Island my dad sent us a bushel of peaches. Unfortunately they arrived on the weekend and the the railroad people didn’t work on weekends in the office so we weren’t called until Monday and by the time we received them they were a bit too ripe. When C picked them up and brought them to me I had to sit outside to peel them. Of course there were quite a few we had to throw away.

As you can tell I am reminiscing and feel like the kids growing up today are missing something. We were allowed to use our imagination and today nothing is held back. The kids have the “internet” that opens up everything and anything to their eyes without ever having to leave their home.

One of the most delightful things I remember was going to the Saturday afternoon matinee at the theater that always hadcartoons and a western; The Lone Ranger, Tom Mix, Hop Along Cassidy and with a Hi Ho Silver and Away,

Until next time, I am Immigrant Daughter.

IMMIGRANT DAUGHTER 28

 

C loved animals especially cats and I came across these pictures of a cat we had called Ralph. Ralph was a beautiful cat we picked out at the Humane Society. We had this cat less than a month when we changed its name to Rotten Ralph because it had a mind of its’ own he was plain rotten.  He would climb on things he shouldn’t and into things to sleep such as hide in the closet.

One of C’s men that worked under him liked to do wood stuff from wooden crates that were thrown out from beverage companies and he would collect them and make wooden mangers. We had a large floor model television and I asked for one to fit on the top. Rotten Ralph would climb up the Christmas tree and jump from the tree to the manger and lay down in it knocking the figures down. These are a couple of pictures of Rotten Ralph in the manger.

The next picture is C holding a cat my DIL had at her house that loved to be on your lap curled up to be petted and C would provide. It seems the cats would migrate to him and he would oblige even though he would suffer with allergies. I loved cats too and I didn’t have allergies but they didn’t like my lap.

 
When we lived in Muncie and C was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and it lasted for ten years. His doctor had a good rapport with C and that was a big help to me. I had many crying visits to the doctor because he was my doctor too. It is so frustrating to have your loved one deteriorate in front of your eyes and there is nothing you can do about it.

C’s whole life he knew just vanished.  Night time was the worse time he use to tell me people were looking in our the windows, and one day he was convinced the sheriff moved this young couple in this rental across the street from us just to spy on him and no matter what I did or say could not convinced him otherwise. He couldn’t remember anything but the present ten minutes or so.

In the early years of this disease we moved south and attended an information meeting about Alzheimer and C was interested in attending because of his knowledge of pharmaceuticals. The doctor was excellent and I learned then what faced me in the future because the disease starts at the base of the brain on the right side and works its way up until it destroys the brain. He had a plastic model of the brain and was taking pieces out as he spoke.  C was fidgety and couldn’t sit for very long and just stood up in the back. In the early stages the patient seems normal but argumentative and this was C to the tee.

One of the hardest things for me to do was to ask the doctor to tell him he shouldn’t drive anymore. He said he would notify the proper authorities and he would have to take a test to make sure he shouldn’t drive. C has an excellent drivers record never having had an accident all the years he was driving.

Now I have to tell you all of our married life I was content to sit back and let C drive all the time. We always had a large van and I did not particularly like to drive it. Oh I could if I had to but preferred not to. I always had my car C bought for me to go to work when I worked. He had purchased my daughters Volvo for me while we were car sitting it for them when they were in Germany on another tour of duty. It was a great car and I felt safe in it because I was able to see out all the windows easily. The van had a lot of blind spots for me because I was too short and the van didn’t have many windows.

 
When C didn’t pass his test, he had to go to court for the judge to explain why his drivers license was revoked. The judge asked him if he understood and he said yes and they took his license and gave him a identification card. When we got him home he ranted and raved that they plotted against him and blamed our DIL that it was her fault.

When he came home he took his keys and put them in his nightstand where they didn’t belong and then couldn’t find them. Talk about the good Lord watching over me because I knew he was going to blame me. Before they took his license we always took an hour to find his keys, wallet and glasses before we were able to go anywhere.

Because I was going to be the driver from now on I traded the 12 year old Volvo on a year old Chevy Malibu. I took C with me to pick it up and I made arrangements ahead of time with the company that I wanted him on the title with me so he wouldn’t feel left out. I had to constantly remind him he couldn’t drive because he didn’t have a license and he would argue and show me his identification card as his license. He got so bad whenever we had to go town he would ride in the back seat and tell me it was safer there. So it was like driving Mr. Daisy whenever we went anywhere

We had a large dog what was part Australian Shepherd and part Collie that he wanted he named him Sport. We still had our smooth hair fox terrier called Perky that would follow him around when he was outside cutting the grass. We had a riding mower that w as not too powerful but he kept stripping the gears because he tried to shift the gears without the clutch. If you have never been around anyone with Alzheimer’s believe me its heart wrenching. I felt I just couldn’t take away those things he thought he could do.

C wore hearing aids and he was always loosing then because he would take them out and couldn’t remember where he put them.  One day when I sat him at the table for supper I gave him water to drink while I was fixing his plate. I looked over at him   and he was looking in his water glass where he had dropped his hearing aids in because he thought they were ice cubes.  I couldn’t just put food down in side dishes like I use to because it overwhelmed him and would tell me “I can’t eat all that” he had forgotten how to serve himself. 

Thank you for listening to this sad part of C ‘s life. He had such a rough beginning and a very hard ending. But now we know it is hereditary because his mother died from the same thing. But I am convinced that the Lord brought us together and blessed us making his life in between great and I was an instrument he used. C was a good man and until next time I am Immigrant Daughter.

IMMIGRANT DAUGHTER #27

I am trying to figure just where to pick up the story of our life together. The brothers wouldn’t have anything to do with us at that time but C was satisfied with that and it was okay with me because my family loved him and filled the gap that was missing. This is a picture of C with his newfound aunt VM in front of her house in Indianapolis.

The aunt that brought this about was set in her ways and was used to bossing people around and she had never been up against anyone that had to fight for whatever he needed. In other words she just couldn’t boss her nephew around. We had moved to Muncie after she had suggested Indianapolis to be close to her. We wanted to be close but not that close.

As she grew into our family she experienced many things she hadn’t done before. She had never tasted lobster cooked at home. C had always had a New England boiled dinner shipped to us from a fish house from the east coast in the spring because we liked fresh seafood. The company would package it with seaweed and all. If you never tasted seafood from Maine then you are missing something delightful.

This is a picture of aunt VM holding a cooked lobster waiting to see how to start in to eat it. Didn’t take long for her to learn. C did this periodically because he liked to cook them outside on the pit he had built.

That pit was something we will never forget. C had arranged for it to be built with the mason man who was working on the house. He just couldn’t be there to start it but would have his workman put the foundation down so it could set and he would get back to it.

We were closing in our carport to have a great room. It was a 20 by 26 room with a fireplace and his men were to do the mason work. They did a fairly good job with the fireplace that C decided to have them do an above ground pit. Well the day they were to start, they had first stopped along the way to quench their thirst and brought their refreshments along. When they finished the pit it looked liked an opened circle leaning that if you pulled a brick out from the bottom it would topple. Of course the men wanted to be paid and C suggested to the boss he had better come and see this job before he paid. C asked if he the boss would be satisfied to cook on it. He made them tear it down and do it right the next day.

Many years later and many different houses lived in we were ready to settle down in one place. By then C was retired 20 years from the Navy and 16 years from a pharmaceutical company. We came back home to the south where the climate was more agreeable and the boating excellent.

In each job he excelled rising high up the ladder he could go. C just lacked confidence in himself because the lack of encouragement growing up. He was led to believe that a diploma on the wall was magic and even though he passed whatever test given to him. In each job he held when someone needed help they use to say go ask C. At times even his bosses to ask for help. He arose to National Sales Manager that had many workers under his supervision and required much traveling.

Our son called him one day after he heard his dad had retired and asked him to come and give him a hand in the produce business delivering to small markets and eating places. He said he needed someone to stay in the office while he was out checking on his trucks. It seemed as those trucks were always breaking down. One day while getting all the fresh produce in the warehouse preparing for a holiday weekend that night the warehouse caught fire and burned down to the ground. It was a tragic loss and put our son out of business and many unpaid bills that added to the loss. His wife was working by his side all through this. She could have gone on her own but chose to support him in all his decisions. She was and is an attorney.

I am sorry to say that my son erred and strayed like a lost sheep and had an affair, while in El Paso on business and turned his back on God. I am crushed and I am thankful my C isn’t alive to see what our son has done. He brought a wonderful girl into our family and then he tells me I can’t have anything to do with her. Oops since when are you telling your mother what I can do or can’t do. He is still in this adulterous affair and has a bastard child and tells his sister God wants him to be happy. Since when does god condone sin?

And here I am; never one to miss out on lobster!!!



I see I should stop and this is a good time in my story. Until next time, I am Immigrant Daughter.

IMMGRANT DAUGHTER #26

I left off with the third brother meeting the oldest for the first time and turning white. He excused himself and went to another office to call his wife. After a bit he came back and apologized and said it was lunchtime and invited the three of us to lunch and said he wife would meet us. He wanted his wife to meet us. She was a Miss Florida at one time and very attractive and very nice. The lunch went well and she invited us out to their home for coffee and dessert. They lived in a wooded area in a fabulous that was like a hunting lodge with all the modern conveniences. It had the heads of various animals that B shot on the wall. B was an avid hunter. I want to mention here B was a Vietnam veteran that was exposed to Agent Orange and still being treated for it.

B wanted to apologize for not attending the dinner for all the cousins to meet C. He said that he respected his brothers’ decision but wanted C to know they knew their parents had a unspoken secret. But they never really new what it was and admitted it was quite a shock when C showed up while the wills were still in probate because the mother just recently died. He told C that his dad and mom were into the community in charge if this and that. It was like he owned everything. In fact his dad raised Arabian horses and rode in the local parades, and the other brothers wife was quite an equestrian. It seemed to me there was a strain between sisters in law. The brothers were entirely different.

One brother wanted us to go away and the other brother opened up his heart and felt bad when he heard how C had to grow up knowing that his parents had an opportunity to claim C. I am not sure of all the particulars how but his mother was notified by the Children’ Aid Society that they had C in their care again. C told me a story that he remembered being sitting in a chair in this large empty room and a lady came in to see him. C asked her “are you my mother?” she nodded her head yes and then left the room.
That is the only remembrance he has of his mother. He never did see his father.

This meeting probably happened between foster homes. When I mentioned that the fathers’ part of the family did not have anything to do with the mothers’ side of the family. Remember the parents got married after the baby was born so he had his mothers maiden name. Back then in early 1920 these towns were small even Fort Wayne where his cousin L lived. You can better understand why the 2nd brother wouldn’t come and meet C. They were snooty and like he said there is nothing in it for me to come to meet C. Now both of the parents were dead and he did not want C rocking the boat. After all they were up standing people in their own eyes.

But I mentioned third son felt so bad the way his brother acted the when he and his wife took us to their house they gave pictures to C of the family he came from. That is how C was able to have any pictures at all. That brother did not live too long after that. The Agent Orange took its toll and we never did get to see him again. His wife called us after the fact and said the reason she didn’t was she did not want any problem with B brother because the two brothers had harsh words and she just couldn’t take any more.

That is the first part of the orphan boy’ family that leaves a lot to be desired. The first son that’s us had both girls and boy, the second son had just two girls, and the third son had one of each. I think it is ironic that the most stubborn of the two brothers had just girls no one to carry on their precious name. And B’ son sort of fell off the deep end because he left home and ended up marrying a much older lady that had children of her own. The last we heard they went to Arizona.

You can better understand now how I know that we are blessed and I have the best of the three sons. C also knew that yes he had a crummy life but found out the Lord was never leaving him alone. I remember Paul Harvey use to say he never saw a u-haul behind a hearse going to the commentary. What I used to tell C yes they had money but what he had money couldn’t buy. At least he knows now he had a mother and father and two brothers and the boys are all five years apart.

I am thankful for my BIL who was diligent in the search to put C’s mind to rest. I can now continue with more about our life together. Until next time I am Immigrant Daughter.

IMMIGRANT DAUGHTER #25

When I ended my last post I mentioned the orphan boy found out he had family close by that came to the surface. I need to tell you my brother in law is a persistent and detailed person. He was a certified public accountant and a T man for the government. So you can imagine when he dug into finding information about C he did not take “records closed” too well and knew the steps he had to take to find out the information without offending the local people.

He told us about the humorous incident of going through the genealogy department of Indiana. They had a list of eight and he picked one with the same last name that C was using only pronounced differently. When he called her and explained what he was doing for a child, now a man that was trying to find out the truth about his background. She was very polite and listened. Then she said she was his aunt by marriage and knew about the situation. You can imagine the delight BIL had on the first phone call hitting pay dirt on his hunch of talking to someone with the same last name. Here is a picture of VM.

I want to tell you something about his aunt that we taken with, when she told us of how she married her husband. A was a Colonel in the Army fighting in the Mexican war and was seventeen years her senor. His first wife died and he was out of the army and aunt VM was set on him marrying her. He had eyes for her cousin but did in fact marry C’ aunt. I don’t know how she did it but I will call it perseverance. Years later when my fathers’ brother died my sister found in his belongs a document stating he was fighting against the prohibition in the same area the Colonel was, only he was for it. The Colonel is the man standing on the far right in this photograph.

After a few letters back and forth she arranged a get-together with the many cousins that were still living for C to meet. But here is the best part C had two brothers that a different last name than his and you would think that all turned out for the best, but it didn’t. The cousins that said they would come with their spouse totaled 12 including the aunt and us. The brothers did not respond they said there wasn’t anything in it for them. They had nothing to do with that half of the family and I will mention that later.

We met at a small eating place somewhere in Indiana I never heard of and met part of C’ family. They were all big and hardy people and C looked very lean next to them. They were very friendly and loving all talking at once with their version of what they thought happened. C was beside himself of finally knowing he did belong somewhere and why he wasn’t there now. They were a bit older than he and unfortunately many of them passed away before we see them again because they were scattered out in northern Indiana.

Aunt VM lived in Indianapolis and we lived only an hour away so we had many visits to her home. In the meantime we gave us the story of C’ brothers and the background of the different last name. Remember when I mentioned about the money or the baby and they chose the money. Well we are now piecing together C’ life because he is now a grown man finding out he has two brothers that are five years apart in ages. C was first, then after five years the second son and five more years the third son. Now you know the desolate existence of C’ birth, and now I will tell you about his brothers. en.eceived great wealth from the great grandmother. His dad bought the fairgrounds to build their house and incidentally it is still there. The boys grew up lacking nothing. They lived in Indiana in the winter and in Florida on the inland waterway in the summer. They lived luxuriously where ever they lived. When we got married in 49 this is what his family looked like then.

When C arrived on the scene looking for information many years had passed. Everyone was grown and the father had passed away and his mother had just passed away. So when C arrived on the scene the older of the two at home thought C’ was looking for some way to get money and indicated as much to him. He couldn’t understand that C wanted to know about his parents and that’s’ all. We knew the Lord and didn’t need money because we had more than money. But you can’t tell this to anyone that does not know the Lord. They way they reacted about money they were the losers not us.

One day the cousin in the first picture asked C to come up to Fort Wayne where he was living and said he wanted to take him to the office of his brother. They had the corner market of bottle gas and oil business in the area. If I mentioned the name of gas stations you would be aware of the amount of money they were worried about. Cousin L took C to the office and the secretary said the brother was not in. Now she knew cousin L and said other brother was in and would see us.

We went in to the office and he recognized cousin L and shook his hand and asked what he could do for him. Cousin L said he came to do something for him and said I want you to meet your older brother. It got so quiet you could hear a pin drop and that is something because Cousin L was loud and boisterous most of the time. Brother B shook C’ hand and excused himself and left the room.
Here is a picture of the brothers with their mother.

His mother and father where living in northern Indiana and had r
I need to stop here just to let you catch your breath because there is a more to tell you about my husband who is no longer an orphan boy. Until then, I am Immigrant Daughter.

IMMIGRANT DAUGHTER #24

I started my story telling you about my immigrant father coming to a new life and having to learn new things. I believe I could parallel C.s’ life and the determination he had to do much of the same thing. The course of C’s life made it easier for him because he only had himself to worry about.

Picking up on his life where the court made him wait until he was 17 years old to join the U.S. Navy, he reported to the chow line checking in to eat. When he saw all the food and all the different varieties he knew he was going to like the Navy.

At that time they had to buy their own uniforms. After completing this chore he immediately went to sea aboard a destroyer. He was still growing and he out grew his clothes in no time and was ordered to buy Dress Blues for the upcoming inspection. He didn’t have the money plus aboard ship did not have any to fit him so he had to stand inspection in “high water pants”.

This was before Pearl Harbor and he was out to sea. That made it possible for him to learn quite a bit about life he knew nothing about. He told me he was the youngest man aboard ship and the old salts took him under wings because they saw he was willing to work and learn at the same time. They taught him many things good and not so good.

In the navy individuals had always started at seamen and then worked their way up the ladder from seaman to first class then to the rank to Chief Petty Officer. This of course took many years to accomplish because they had to hold each rate so many years before they could apply for the next. Also to be appointed to each rank it took a recommendation from their superior officer.

The lower rank started at seaman to third class and C held this lower scale many times because he would accomplish one and switch to another. He was like a sponge to water soaking up learning everything he could about his job and everyone else’. He found out very soon different rates put you at different places on the ship for instance he wanted to be topside and not in the engine room. Being topside involved d kind of responsibility more appealing to him. Doing lines and keeping them in ship shape came as second nature. Now to you and I this doesn’t sound like much but coiling line and keeping it flat takes some doing. The lines on ships are thick in diameter and will lay flat when coiled so they will not tangle when they are needed. All this and more is in the Blue Jackets Manuel that each seaman receives when enlisting.

When Carl bought us the motor sailer and the line was too large and heavy for me to handle for tossing the line to the dock so he had to purchase nylon line that was strong and easy to handle because it wasn’t heavy like hemp line. When we were docking our sailboat in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, I stepped off the boat with the line in my hand and slipped when I jumped to the dock breaking my clavicle. Carl was yelling for me to drop the line, which I didn’t and the fall yanked my arm so hard my collar bone broke.

When we did finally dock and the boatyard people called a cab for us and he took me to the hospital where they separated us wanting us to explain more than once what happened. They wanted to make sure it was an accident. Because they said they had to report it to the police.

The clavicle does not heal together like other bones to this day all these years later I still have the bone sticking up. I was just finishing my two week vacation from my job working for Motorola that I couldn’t go back to work for another week because my arm was in a sling. My boss was not happy about that and kidded me about the tough way I am extending my vacation.

Carl was still in search of records of who he really is and my 3rd sisters’ husband loved to help people dig in their past and asked C if he could help. He made phone calls and by writing letters to various departments in Indiana because his birth certificate was issued at Fort Wayne. He was a big help and this picture shows him with some of the family he found (and my No.2 daughter!)

There is so much to say that the orphan boy I married turned out to have a family and then some. Until next time, I am Immigrant Daughter