MPT Part 10: Eighth Grade Memories

This is the tenth in a series of blogs I'm writing for Mommy's Piggy Tales .  Janna has provided a forum for members to write and share stories from their youth.   This episode relates the memorable  family events in 1956 and my eighth grade year in school, 1956-57.

A Challenging Year with a Good Ending

The year 1956 was one with many emotional swings for all of us.  Fortunately, the year ended on a high note that continued. 

Although we never had discussed this as a family, my parents, M and I all thought that little Joe might grow up feeling like an only child.  M and I both hoped that maybe we'd have another baby, even though Mom was 39 at the time.  So in the early spring, we were delighted when (again) Mom and Dad told us after a Sunday night dinner that we were having a baby, this time due in late September.   M and I wanted the baby to be late and arrive on Joe's Oct 9 birthday, so they could share celebrations like we did.  Wouldn't that be fantastic to have four children (non-twins) with two birthdays?   It was a cute joke for us.  But mostly we were happy that once again, the family would be growing.

This pregnancy turned out to be a most difficult one as Mom had a lot of sickness and other complications.  She needed to be hospitalized (20 miles away) for 6 weeks in the spring which concerned all of us.  M and I took care of ourselves and we had suitable arrangements for Joe.  Dad visited Mom every night, a long drive after working hard all day.  I wrote to her daily because I was too young to visit her by the hospital rules.  However, one night Dad and M suggested that if I wore a scarf and lipstick and I could pass for 14!  Dad got me in to see my mom and we all felt a bit better.  As I think about this now, I'm guessing that my dad had asked the staff to "look the other way."  I'll also note that Mom saved all my letters and gave them to me in her later years. 

Mom improved and was allowed to come home and was told to do "almost nothing" throughout the summer.  She took a leave of absence from playing the organ at church and her other activities.  We all helped with Joe and continued praying for the new little one.

While these events were happening in our household, my mom's sister (my cousin D/best friend's mom) was also pregnant.  They were due in July so again the extended family would have two cousins the same age living in the same town, going to the same schools.  How neat is that?    Everyone joked, that D and I wouldn't need to play with dolls any more, we could play with real babies!  It really was exciting for us to talk about these things as we walked to school.  We knew it was an unusual and special situation. 

On July 16, my aunt gave birth to a baby girl.  All the talk was about baby equipment, schedules, clothing, and similar things.  There was excitement in the air for sure.

Then less than a week later, Mom got a terrible phone call.  Her father, who lived 3 hours away, had had a sudden heart attack.  No warning, he just slumped to the ground in front of their house.  The message my mom got from Grandma on the phone was "no news is good news."  I had never heard that expression before... so Mom explained that if we didn't hear anything, that meant Grandpa was doing OK.  In several hours, the phone rang and dear Grandpa had died at the hospital.

The next few days are still very clear to me.  Although my grandparents then lived in a city 3 hours away, they had been in our small town many years, so Grandpa would be buried in our local cemetery.  My dad and uncle drove to the funeral but my pregnant mom and her sister with a newborn and all of us kids stayed home.  They did have a service for him in our town that we could all attend.  This was the first time I had experienced the death of anyone close to me.  Now, as an adult who lost both parents when I was well over 50, I have tried to imagine what this summer was like for my mom.  She was having a difficult pregnancy, lost her father, and had three children at home.  God was looking after all of us, as only He can.

M was driving at this point, so she gladly took over many family errands.  We were riding along in a blue and white Oldsmobile.  M and other teens would often wash the car in the driveway so that anyone else who was out "riding around" would stop and chat.  And sometimes she'd go off with friends, leaving me with the mess to clean up.   That was the thing the high school kids did -- be seen and fun would just happen!  These local traditions seem funny to us now.  But that's the way it was in our small town.

Our baby sister, A, born Sept 25, 1956.  A precious little girl.

September came and Mom seemed to be doing OK with her swollen feet, salt-free diet, and uncomfortable figure.  And on the morning of Friday, September 25, Dad woke us up saying that they were headed to the hospital.  M and I took Joe to a family friend and we were off to school.  Hadn't we done this three years earlier?   I was sitting in my 8th Grade English class shortly after noon, when I heard the school office phone ring.  Immediately, I thought, "I hope that's my dad."   Sure enough, someone came to the door and got me for a phone call.  I ran to the principal's office.  Dad's cheerful voice told me what I wanted to know most.  Mom and Baby A were doing just fine!  We had picked out her name, three years earlier.  She was a beautiful baby with thick, curly black hair.  According to my mom, she was the best baby ever, who seldom cried and always smiled!  What a blessing!

So now I'll end this with a fun family photo in the familiar setting taken in March 1957. We think our adult personalities are subtly depicted!  M is the stylish HS senior, ready to move on with her life. (Great skirt, eh?? )   I am the scientist, the practical one, who actually enjoyed babysitting.  Joe is the analytical and logical engineer.  And adorable A, the free spirit, who grew up to be an able writer.  Please note that A does NOT have huge feet.  The shoes are Joe's.   My parents referred to us as their two families of two children,  "The Girls" and "The Kids."   We think that our age differences kept Mom and Dad young as they raised their two families in two different eras.  They rolled with the punches and loved every minute of parenthood. 

M graduated from HS in the spring of 1957 and went away to college in the fall.   I finished 8th grade and was ready to ride along to the big world of high school!