Memories of 1st Baby Girl

New babies being born this month and next makes me think of our babies.

Angela truly was and is an angel. Angel means "messenger of God". We chose that name just because we liked it. I had a schoolmate named Angela who went by the nickname of Angie. I loved the nickname Angie so I chose that name but Dad hated the nickname Angie. He thought it sounded like a "mangy" dog. Thus Angela remained Angela. Her middle name, Marie, was chosen with Mary, the mother of Jesus, in mind and because it was beautiful with Angela.

At the time, Dad was an E5 in the Navy. Salaries were very low in 1970. We had no money to buy anything for Angela. Angela's hospital bill was $7.00. That was for our food. We had just moved from Williamsburg to Fredericksburg, Virginia since Dad was stationed at Quantico Marine Base. We had only a few friends whom we had just met. Therefore, we had no baby shower. The day Angela and I were to be released from the hospital, Dad bought one outfit to bring her home in. Poor Angela! But God knew and was so faithful. Upon arriving home, we found a large box on our doorstep with everything needed for new baby Angela. What timing! God provided through Grandma Jo! This is just one of many stories of God's faithfulness to us as a family over the years. When Angela was first born she slept in a green rectangle laundry basket. I have to say, it was the most convenient thing. I believe we were given a crib later. Martha Stewart often says, "It's a good thing!" Well, I say, "God does good things!"

Practical Math

Imagine my surprise when I woke up one day to find my math teacher building a closet in my bedroom! Yikes!! When I was growing up our house was constantly being remodeled, it seemed. At the time, the large room in the basement under the front room was being finished. This was the room my 2 sisters and I slept in temporarily. My 8th grade math teacher was there along with other workers working on my closet. The teachers needed to work part-time jobs in the summertime.

Our house was originally a 4 room house with a full basement including a garage under the house. There was one bedroom, a "front room", a kitchen, a bath and a utility room. I guess that makes 5! In my dreams, the utility room became a jungle. At some point, my parents built on a new front room next to the old kitchen and a little later, I think, a new kitchen. The old kitchen and front room became bedrooms. The utility room became a dining room.

My most unpleasant memory was of having to carry dirt out of the basement by the bucketfuls. My dad dug out the room under the new front room by hand and us girls had that "wonderful" task. Boy, did I hate that! Somehow they poured cement in to make walls and finished that room for us girls to use. When the kitchen was made, I think they dug the basement out first. My memory is a little faulty on that point. In the end, the room under the new kitchen became my room. I got to choose the color for the walls. They were lavender. I still like purple.

After I left they added on another large room where my mother took care of daycare children. Our backyard that once was large gradually became smaller and smaller. The original house use to have white shingles.

As most families, I have a lot of memories of life in that house. A lot of good memories of a loving mother and her care of the family and some not so good memories but I will never forget waking up to find my math teacher working in my room using his math skills.

Home on Sunday

Today, I am home with Ruthanne. She has strep throat. This brings back memories of the rare Sunday when I'd be home on Sunday morning as a child. It seemed it was the only time they played Shirley Temple movies. I was a big fan. My favorite was "Heidi" and maybe "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" was second. My mother had a Shirley Temple doll.

Vicks and Seven Up

I have very fond memories of my mother's care for me when I was sick. I felt her love in her tender touch. She would come in and rub Vicks on my chest as I lay in bed with a cold. Since "pop" was rare in our home as a child, Seven Up was a treat to soothe our stomachs when we were sick.

Christmas when I was a Child in the 1950s

I loved Christmas as a child. We started celebrating on Christmas eve. We always had a large real Christmas tree. I remember when I was five climbing on a small table to reach our favorite ornament to play with. It was a horn. I fell on the tree and knocked the tree over breaking all of the ornaments. I was in big trouble!!

I remember having to take a nap in the evening of Christmas eve to give Santa Claus a chance to come. I can remember one time laying in my bed waiting to hear the bells of Santa’s sleigh. I thought I heard them. During that time my mother would prepare our gifts and place them under the tree. I remember being surprised to see the great mountain of gifts when we went into the living room. There were always a few gifts labeled “from Santa”. Aunt Eva and Uncle Jim, my favorite aunt and uncle, came over to celebrate with us. Aunt Eva was my father's mother's sister. I don’t remember too much about the food then. My mother always baked many kinds of cookies, cakes, fudge and pies. I think we ate some of them on Christmas Eve.

Then on Christmas morning my Grandparents came. We opened more gifts from them. They always gave us pajamas. The pajamas were too big so we could "grow into them." My mother also bought us most of our clothing for the year at Christmas. My mother made a big Christmas dinner which included a large stuffed Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, candied sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans in mushroom sauce, jello salad and pumpkin pie along with other goodies. It was always my favorite time of the year. On Christmas Day we also enjoyed playing outside with whatever new toys we got. I always remembered that it was Jesus birthday. It was a lot of fun for the children.

There was also a "Singing Christmas Tree" at Northgate Mall. I think church choirs were invited to sing there. It was a big tree made in tiers that the choir members climbed up into rows.