Not too long after Neil was born, we got lucky. The house beside Harold's parents came up for sale, but not through a Realtor. Our friends who lived there told us they were going to move. Harold went to the bank to borrow what they wanted and found out the house was valued at more, so he borrowed the full amount. We moved into our first home and were so excited. It had two bedrooms, a bath, living room and kitchen, and enough money left to buy any necessities. Miki and Neil ended up in the same bedroom when he was old enough to be moved from his crib.
We joined a bowling league and went once a week. We had friends over, Harold's dad would come over sometimes after work to play cards but we'd have to lock the kitchen door and pull the curtains so that Harold's Mother wouldn't come walking in and see him...she thought card games were sinful. Once in awhile he'd have a beer. That, we knew for sure we couldn't let her find out about. Harold and my brother's would go fishing together, we had a badminton court set up in the backyard..in other words, our entertainment was very inexpensive.
Every Sunday after church, we'd go next door for dinner with his parent's. Harold's brother Ronald, and his wife would go also. It wasn't long before the kitchen was overrun not only with us and our kids, but them and their kids. But, there was never any question that Miki was Grandmother's favorite. We always looked forward to her Sunday dinner's. She could cook the best country food. There were always homemade biscuits, her special creamed corn, or creamed rice, lemon jello cake, sweet potatoes; and most always fried chicken. The woman could cook!!
Times were still tight money wise, but we were eking out..barely. I'll never forget the time that we were broke and our light bill was way overdue. It was the middle of winter and the power company was coming to cut our electricity off. I think the bill was $33.00 and we didn't have it. I called Mother at work and told her they were coming out at (some certain time), and if I didn't have the money when they got there then we'd have no power. Mother told me not to worry. A little later I saw this taxi pull up in the driveway. Mother got out and she had her knitting bag with her. She came in and I was so distraught. Here I am with two babies and soon to have no electricity. About twenty minutes later the power company truck pulled up in the drive, the man got out, knocked on the door, I let him in and he came in the kitchen where we were sitting. Mother told him she couldn't believe that they'd cut off the power with children in the house. He said he couldn't help that. Mother asked him if he'd take cash and he replied 'yes'. She opened up her knitting bag and dumped thirty-three dollars in pennies out on the table. She said, 'now you can count it if you want to, but I can assure you that it's exactly the right amount, because I just got it from the bank.' She had opened the rolls of pennies so they'd be loose. His mouth dropped open, my mouth dropped open. He had no choice but to take it. The bill was paid . Mother said, ' Joanne, get me a paper bag.' I did. We scraped all the pennies in the bag and he took it and left.
Thank you Mother, you gutsy lady !!
Another time, we ran out of heating oil late in the evening (wintertime again). I called Mother and told her we were taking Miki and Neil next door to stay at Grandmother's for the night. Harold and I came back home and bundled under covers to stay warm. At about 11:30 that night we were wakened by a clanging noise outside our bedroom window. Harold got up, went outside to see what was going on. Daddy was out there with a five gallon metal container putting oil in the drum.
Thank you Daddy, for coming to our rescue. We paid them back, at some point.
It wasn't long before I was pregnant again. On January 10th 1962, on a very snowy morning at 10:30, we left to go to the hospital. Grandmother came home from work to take Miki and Neil to her house. At 1:30 that day, we welcomed Suzan Luanne into our family. She was a tiny little girl weighing 5 lbs. 6 oz. with blond fuzz on top of her little head. But, very healthy.
While I was in the hospital (four days), my wheeling, dealing husband bought another larger house, about a mile from where we were, and had our smaller house in the process of paper work, selling it to someone else.
He had found enough people (including Mother) to help him move everything. When he brought me & Luanne to our new home, I didn't even know where the light switches were. Mother showed me where she had put the linens and other things. The payments were ten dollars more a month. We had new neighbors but not for long. Little did we know that in six months, Harold would be offered a transfer and a raise with the State.
Above photo: Me, Miki, Neil and Luanne ( who was soon to be one year old), sitting on Grandmother & Granddaddy's front stoop.
