The Little Girl from 311 Travis Street

By Dorothy M. Jensen

Dorothy Jensen tells the story of her humble beginnings as Dorothy Zimmerman in Wichita Falls, Texas, where she grew up with her mother Pearl, her sister Lavona, and her brother Leo. After high school, she worked at Perkins-Timberlake Department store in the credit department. One year, she and a co-worker took a trip together to Pike's Peak. That is when Dorothy realized how much she loved travel. In 1946, when another friend asked her to move out to San Diego, she packed her bags. That is where she met Ib Jensen. They married and she became the mother of three sons who filled her days while they traveled during Ib's military career, living in Guantanamo Bay and Okinawa, and several places in the United States. Dorothy and Ib continued to travel for pleasure to Denmark, Germany, Spain, and places far from those humble beginnings in Wichita Falls.

Dorothy wrote this book at the request of her son Robert so he could share it with his children. She began the project by writing fifty-three pages and then incorporated that with several travel journals she kept over the years. Dorothy also has hundreds of slides to go along with these memories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9781475971248

Dorothy M. Jensen

Dorothy Jensen graduated from Wichita Falls High School and attended college courses at Auburn University. She is currently retired and enjoys many hobbies including cross-stitching, crocheting, and painting, and has a vast shell collection from all over the world. She has three sons and currently lives in Melbourne, Florida.

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Copyright © 2013 by Dorothy M. Jensen.

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-7123-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-7124-8 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013900779

iUniverse rev. date: 02/12/2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION

MY REMEMBRANCES

FROM MY JOURNALS

LIFE STORY

OUR TRAVELS

1985

1986

1989

1991

1992

1993

1994

1996

1997

FINAL THOUGHTS

PHOTOGRAPHS

DEDICATION

First, I’d like to dedicate this

to my late husband Ib

for giving me a most remarkable marriage

To my son Rick

for asking me to tell the grandsons stories

To Janet Hudson

for saying it should be published and for her typing the first 53 pages

And lastly, to Karen Rinehimer

for agreeing to type my journals and get this printed

My love to you all

MY REMEMBRANCES

I f there was one question I asked my grandfather, William Hardin Seahorn, I would want to know why he, as a southern man, went to fight with the North during the Civil War.

A story is that while he was away, his first wife died from exposure while hiding from a band of raiders. His son, Jonnsie, was being cared for by a lady (either black or Indian) until William returned. William then married Maggie Burns and sired a son, William Ponder, and a daughter, Maggie. After his second wife died, William married Ruth Ann Alberty, who was Maggie Burns cousin. William Hardin and Ruth Ann had a son, Banks Nickleson, was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas. They then moved into the Indian territory of Northeast Oklahoma. Pearl Lavona was born in 1891 at place known as Pryor Creek.

At each marriage, William was listed younger each time. The family moved to Coeta and after Ruth Ann died, William’s first daughter Maggie and her husband Oscar Martin came to live with William, Banks, and Pearl. Sometime later, Pearl was married and she told us that when she learned her husband, last name Burden, to be a thief—they were divorced. After the death of William, it appears Banks and Pearl moved to live with Maggie and Oscar Martin in East Texas (Winsborg). Banks married Oscar’s sister Lily Martin and they had a daughter, Hazel Lois Seahorn. She died at about one and a half years.

Pearl was living with Banks and Lily in Chillicothe, Texas. Lily died and Banks and Pearl moved to Wichita Falls and Pearl went to work at Ball Brother (the fruit jar company). Pearl then married Bertie Lee Zimmerman and Lavona Lee and Burton Leo were born. While Pearl was pregnant with their third child, Bert abandoned the family. Pearl gave birth to Dorothy May. I believe Pearl and children must have lived with Bert’s parents, Thomas Alexander and Catherine (Katie) Spencer Zimmerman.

Bert’s brother Tracy told Dorothy that Katie’s mother, Margaret Austin Spencer, was one-quarter Cherokee. We believe Ruth Ann Alberty’s mother had Cherokee blood also. Since the census only listed the man’s name, we aren’t sure what Ruth Ann’s (Sarah) mother’s last name was, but we think her married name was Mrs. Andrew Agnew. So Pearl’s children could have Indian blood from both sides.

Pearl and the family and Banks moved into a house off Austin Street. This house burned down and it was rumored that Banks left a cigarette burning that might have caused the fire. Leo thought Dorothy was in the house and tried to enter the burning house, but a fireman grabbed him. Dorothy had been placed in a neighbors house (Shelton’s). Years later, Dorothy could still remember what the screened door looked like. As Dorothy grew to be about five or six, she had a fight with the neighbor’s daughter and cried that the daughter didn’t fight fair-fisted, since the girl had slapped her.

The house was rebuilt and the family moved back in. Bert’s sister, Juanita, visited with a friend who must have brought a case of impetigo (the itch). Since we all used the same towel, it was spread to at least Leo and Dorothy. I can remember being bathed in something called Blue Stone. I think we were cured of the itch but broke out from the blue baths. We then moved into a large white house on the corner of fourth and Travis Street.

Pearl was by then working as a steam presser at Pond’s Laundry and was offered a company house next door at 311 Travis. Pearl paid $13 a month rent while making about a dollar a day. Pearl was thought to be a widow since someone returned from California and told Pearl that Bert had died. So the local day nursery allowed us to be taken care of since mother was a widow. Dorothy was never able to sleep in the day and caused disturbances during naptime. One day while playing whip the cat, the end was whipped off and resulted in a dislocated shoulder for Dorothy. A doctor came and had two ladies hold Dorothy down while he placed his foot in her armpit and pulled the arm until things were back in place.

Pearl charged all our food at a store across the street owned by Mrs. Tobolaski. When Dorothy was sent to pay the grocery bill, Mrs. Tobolaski would fill a small stack with any candies for our paying our bill. Since it was during the depression, I don’t suppose everyone was so regular at paying. The candy was divided three ways—and Leo and Dorothy quickly ate their share, while Lavona kept hers to taunt us after our share was all gone.

Our house at 311 Travis was brick front, two bedrooms, and the back was wooden. There was a bathtub in a small room, a hallway, and a closet where we hung our clothes. The kitchen was at the back with a toilet on the back porch. In winter, Leo had to hold a burning torch under the above water tank to defrost the ice so the toilet could be flushed. The backyard was fenced in and we had chickens. The Banty rooster and hen were very small with feathered feet. The chicks were black and yellow and so cute. The neighbors complained that the rooster was too mean, so they were given away. Then Leo got a Rock Island Red hen that was injured when a gate fell on her. Pearl cut off the injured wing and she lived.

Our neighbor across the street was the local bootlegger. We used to watch men come with sacks of food given out to the needy, then trade food for booze, leaving their family to go hungry. One night, the cops raided her—tearing boards off the house looking for the booze. The neighbor saw us watching and thought we had turned her in.

We were allowed to have cats for pets. Leo had a tom named Butch. His face was a mess from fighting. Dorothy’s cat was female who had kittens. Every time Dorothy tried to leave, the mom tried to follow, so Dorothy had to sit until all the kittens were born.

Banks had one bedroom while Pearl, Lavona, and Dorothy slept in a bed in the other, with Leo on a small bed in the same room. One summer, the weather was 115° to 120° and Pearl would return from work with the back of her uniform stiff with salt from her sweat. We had to sprinkle the sheets with water to try to cool the bad so we could sleep. In the winter, the bedroom wasn’t heated, so Dorothy would grab her clothes and run to the kitchen, jump on a chair to get to the heat in the upper part of the room, and get dressed. In the summer, we bathed in the bathtub but in the winter, we all bathed in a washtub in front of the kitchen stove. One day while sewing on her treadle machine, Pearl ran the needle through her finger but never missed a day of work.

Leo said our house was marked by all the hobos coming through town. One Sunday, Pearl had baked two round loaves of meatloaf (one for Sunday and the other for the next day). A hobo knocked on the back door and asked if we could give him some food. Pearl cut up one loaf for him, and when he had eaten that, he said he was still hungry, so Pearl was cutting up the second loaf when Leo said, Ma, what are we going to eat? Pearl told him, You ate yesterday and you will eat tomorrow, but this man might not.

Everyone, even the Rabbi Rabinowitz, called Mom Aunt Pearl. We never knew who would join us for a meal.

Until Dorothy’s senior year when she could begin to buy her own clothes, Dorothy had to where hand me downs. One day, Pearl gave Dorothy a piece of fabric and a pattern and Dorothy used the pictures to help her make a dress. From then on, Dorothy made her own dresses, while Pearl still sewed for Lavona because Lavona didn’t learn to sew.

Lavona, Leo, and Dorothy all acted as Shabot Goy for the Rabbi’s family. We turned on lights and heated stoves in the morning and after the family was in bed, we turned everything off. Also, we went to the shul and lit the stove and turned the lights on. After the service ended, we turned everything off. We also handled their money. For these services, Dorothy was paid 5-cents a week. Dorothy could take Hannah to the movies since Dorothy handled the money.

As Leo got older, he and Uncle Banks didn’t get along, so Pearl asked Banks to leave. Banks married Mary Gibson and they lived on Burnett. They would take Dorothy for Sunday rides in Bank’s 1929 Model A. Banks taught Dorothy to drive. Dorothy went to Lamar Avenue Baptist Church and sang with a quartet from Sunday school In the Garden in church one Sunday. Later, she would sing in the choir. Pearl and Dorothy would do dishes and Pearl would sing church songs and Dorothy would harmonize the songs.

Uncle Banks called Dorothy Toots, Shagnasty, and Droopy Drawers. When Dorothy went to bed, Banks would say nighty-night and Dorothy answered with Pajamas Pajamas.

When Banks moved out, Lavona and Dorothy turned the room into a living room and slept on a couch that unfolded to make a bed. Leo had quit school in the 8th grade and joined the CCCs. He was sent to work in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. On December 7th, Lavona and Dorothy were double dating on a picnic in Weeks Park. They heard about Pearl Harbor on the car radio as they were on the way home. Leo joined the Army and served in North Africa and Italy. He was then shipped via the Panama Canal (zone) to the Pacific until the war ended. Lavona joined the WACs and went from Arkansas to Colorado, and was at Albuquerque as the war ended.

Dorothy’s first boyfriend was Cameron Hilson Budge stationed at Shepherd AFB in Wichita Falls. Dorothy thought they might marry, but as Cameron was being shipped out he told Dorothy he had done things Dorothy wouldn’t have approved of.

Dorothy took a Distributing Education class in her senior year. She went to work at The Orchid Shop as a salesperson. She didn’t like trying to sell and transferred to the office doing credit work. She was paid $3.00 a week for her half days of work. When Dorothy graduated, she asked to work full-time, receiving her first pay. They had paid her $3.00 for a full week’s work. The day Dorothy quit, the other two girls, Elizabeth and Joy, walked out also. While working in sales, another clerk, Eleanor Cate, took a liking to Dorothy and asked her to double date with Officers from Shephard AFB, and to dancing at the Country Club. Eleanor’s father managed the Kemp Hotel and they were well off, while Dorothy lived on the wrong side of town, but that didn’t seem to matter to Eleanor.

Dorothy was also a USO hostess during the war. While in the Army, Leo was sending money home and Pearl bought a house at 2100 Yale, and she and Dorothy moved there in 1944. Pearl went to work at the Up to Date Cleaners as a silk finisher. Dorothy went to work at Allison’s Drug Store in sales. One day we had gone into the Pharmacy to get a can of Heat (it was kept there so the alcoholics couldn’t steal it). The pharmacist, Phillip, pinched Dorothy on the behind and Dorothy slapped him in front of all the customers. Phillip told Dorothy to get out and never enter again. Dorothy said, Fine, I was only here waiting on a customer.

Dorothy used to walk to the cleaners after work to ride home on the bus with Mom. While waiting for Pearl to finish, Dorothy would go next door to a shoeshine parlor and talk to Johnny. I could call him by his first name, but he always called me Miss Dorothy. One day while talking Johnny said he had attended college. Dorothy asked why he only polished shoes and Johnny said, That’s all they will let me do. That statement cured Dorothy of all her prejudices.

Not liking sales, Dorothy took a job behind the tobacco counter. They worked from 6am ’til noon—off ’til 6pm—then work ’til closing at midnight. Next day you worked from noon ’til 6pm. The boss, Robert, would sometimes drive Dorothy home. When Robert started hugging Dorothy, she brought a large hatpin to work. The next time Robert hugged Dorothy, she jabbed him with the pin. Just as Robert let out a yelp, his wife (standing nearby) said, Robert, I’m waiting for you. Dorothy wasn’t fired and Robert never touched her again. But she grew tired of working Sundays and holidays, so she went to work at Perkins-Timberlake Department store, in the credit department, collecting payments on credit accounts. One day, Mr. Timberlake asked for change for a $20 and Dorothy gave him some dirty money. He complained about getting money that was dirty. Dorothy began to count her money with the dirty bills on top and the clean ones on the bottom so she would always have clean bills the next time he asked for change. To this day, Dorothy still puts dirty on top and clean on the bottom. Her salary was $25 a week.

Dorothy then worked as cashier for the entire store (in a cage with air tubes) making change and approving charges. The store had over eight ledgers of charge accounts and Dorothy thought she’d never learn all the accounts. Her boss, Mr. Sosbi, told Dorothy to not worry about the poor people—it was only the rich who didn’t pay their bills. Everyone was involved in preparing the monthly bills. They were folded one sheet at a time. Dorothy started taking a small stack, creasing them, and then shuffling them apart. Soon everyone was doing it Dorothy’s way.

Pearl was upset that Dorothy saved her money all year, and then spent it going on vacations. One year, she and a co-worker, Dorothy Wingo, decided on a trip to Denver, Colorado. They had wanted to go to Washington State, but didn’t save enough for that distance. Mr. Sosbi contacted a friend in Denver who made reservations in a hotel across the street from the Brown Palace. We went by train and took tours to Pike’s Peak and the Royal Gorge. Dorothy Wingo was Mr. Timberlake’s personal secretary, but when asked to phone housekeeping for an iron and iron board, said she was too nervous. The next year, the two Dorothys went to Albuquerque, New Mexico where Lavona was stationed. They were there the night the European war ended. Lavona was confined to the base and the Dorothys spent the night in their room, looking through the window at all the celebrating because Wingo was afraid to go outside.

Lavona and Leo returned in 1945. One Sunday, Pearl was cooking dinner and Dorothy was sewing canvas curtains for the back porch (where Leo slept). The doorbell rang, Lavona answered to find a man standing there. He said, Don’t suppose you remember me? She said, No, I don’t. The man said, I’m your dad. Lavona was only six years old when he left Pearl. He stayed to dinner, and was visiting for a week when Leo told Mom that was enough, so Pearl asked him to leave. He then asked if they could be divorced, the reason he had returned in the first placed. He got his divorce—stiffed his brother Tracy for the cost and married someone in California.

Each summer (in 1946) a school friend of Dorothy’s would return home to visit her family and asked Dorothy to return to San Diego with her. Dorothy decided, since Leo and Lavona were back, she’d go with Ruedeene Tallant Buck, and her husband Arlen. When she told her boss, Mr. Sosbi, she was moving to California, he said he couldn’t do without her. Wanda Muse wanted to come back to work since her marriage—the mother-in-law wouldn’t let Wanda do anything. I told Mr. Sosbi when I left, Wanda was ready to take my place.

Pearl didn’t believe Dorothy was leaving until she saw Dorothy packing her suitcase Sunday afternoon. Arlen, Ruedeene, Dorothy and one of Ruedeen’s nieces left Monday morning heading west via Rte 66.

Somewhere in Arizona, Ruedeen was spelling Arlen driving when we saw a convertible loaded with kids driving on our side of the road. Ruedeen whipped the steering wheel a sharp turn to the right—sending our car out across a ditch and straddling a barbed wire fence. Ruedeen jumped out of the car in hysterics and Dorothy remembered to turn off the motor. Some passer-by-ers helped push the car back on the road and we limped into San Diego with only a bent axle. My family was sure I was going out to marry Ruedeen’s brother (Willie Holland Tallant) but he was more like a big brother to Dorothy. Ruedeen’s niece, Velma Taylor, and Dorothy rented a room in a house rented only to single girls. The house was two-storied, each room was rented to two girls, and each floor had kitchen and bathroom on either side of each floor. The owner’s mother lived downstairs and acted as a housemother. Velma became homesick and returned to Texas. Dorothy then had Virginia (Ginge) Erickson as a roommate. We loved to lay on our beds Sunday afternoon with shades drawn and candles burning while listening to classical music on the radio. The other girls in the house thought we were nuts.

Ginge loved to sing The Donkey Serenade.

Dorothy went to an agency and paid to get a job at Key’s Jewelry Store (in the office). The store hired extras for the holiday season—not telling them they were only temps. Dorothy made friends with Toni Adams (one of the temps). Toni kept telling Dorothy she knew someone Dorothy would really like. When Dorothy asked where is he? He was at sea.

So one day the weather was very rainy, Dorothy had rolled her hair into a rat and was wearing old shoes she didn’t mind getting wet. That evening, Toni told Dorothy to wait and walk out with her. When we got outside, there stood Ensign Ib Jensen. He asked us to go have a drink at the U.S. Grant Hotel. Sitting in the basement bar, having a beer when Toni jumped up saying she had to go somewhere. Ib expected that Dorothy would be next, but she didn’t know what was happening. Ib asked Dorothy to have dinner upstairs in the restaurant, then rode the streetcar to take Dorothy home. The next day, Dorothy missed work with a good case of cramps. Toni wanted to know what the heck Ib had done to Dorothy. He had no idea what she meant. From then on they dated every night the ship was in port (LST827).

My roommate Ginge wasn’t all that happy since I was never around to share the cost of food or to help clean our room. Ginge later met Doug Phillips and the two couples double-dated. At first, Ib had no car—our dates were going for walks in the neighborhood. Then he bought a 1938 Buick. We called it our Gangster Car. One night, Ib was letting Dorothy drive. He went to sleep and sometime later Dorothy woke Ib to say, We’re about out of gas, but we made it back to a service station in time.

After the holidays, Kay’s let all the temps go, Dorothy still had her job and thought she was safe. But after inventory, Dorothy was called into the office to be told she wasn’t being fired, just terminated. Dorothy went back to the agency and they got her a (for free) job at the Craft Store (they sold farm machinery).

Dorothy had borrowed money from friends and Ib until she received a paycheck. One night while watching a movie with Burl Ives singing, I wish I was single again, Ib turned to Dorothy and said, If you feel that way, you may not want this ring. Don’t remember what Dorothy said, but she took the ring. We set our wedding date on the first day we met, December 8, 1947 to September 8, 1948. Dorothy managed to pay everyone but Ib and she still owes him $25.

She had attended the wedding of one of the girls in our house who married at The Chapel of the Roses in Chula Vista, never dreaming she would one day be married there also. Lavona was the bridesmaid and Ensign Robert Burk was best man. Dorothy’s mother Pearl attended as well as many girls who lived where Dorothy did. Rudeene (very pregnant) and Arlen were there, too, and Toni and Ann. Ann had made Dorothy’s wedding hat. Dorothy had taken Ib to a Baptist service but he couldn’t take the shouting and pulpit pounding and took Dorothy to a Lutheran service.

They were married by Rev. Lorne Rumsch. Ib and Dorothy had planned a two-week honeymoon in San Francisco. One night while listening to the car radio, there was talk about camping. Dorothy made a joke about that would be some honeymoon and saw the look of joy on Ib’s face. So the honeymoon was two weeks of camping all the parks in California, Beg Bear, Arrowhead, Sequoia and Yosemite. One morning it was so cold, Dorothy, wearing Ib’s navy turtleneck sweater and cord slacks, got too close to the brick stove and burned a hole in her pants.

Ib had brought a pup tent, sleeping bags, a Coleman two-burner stove and lantern. Our camping neighbors were heard to say they felt sorry for those people in the pup tent, because of the bears. (The neighbor’s car had been broken into by the bears searching for food). Ib had placed all our food stuff in a box and strung it up to a tall tree branch. We had no trouble with bears.

Rumsch’s Lutheran church was just down the street from us. One night at a party, Ib’s skipper LCDR Keith Green asked Dorothy if she had been married before. Our first home was on E. Street in Chula Vista. After we picked up the newspapers of the wedding and a list of the license, Ib’s age was listed as 23 and Dorothy’s age as 32 (I was 23, also). For some time Ib enjoyed calling me Gramma.

After we returned, Ib’s ship went to Alaska for cold operations, and his parents (Baldue and Ulla) wired Dorothy that if she’d come to Montana for a visit, they would pay her fare. Dorothy went from San Diego to Seattle by train, then was supposed to catch the Express Empire Builder, but got on the slow train that stopped at more towns. Ib’s mother was waiting to greet Dorothy in Wolf Point. When Dorothy didn’t arrive on the Express, she returned to Redstone. Dorothy rode to Redstone on the local bus.

The weather in Alaska never got below 20° F but when Dorothy arrived in Montana, it was 40° below zero. She was surprised to not feel the cold because it was a dry cold. While in Montana, Ib and Dorothy talked by radio phone where you had to say Roger-Over. Ib’s mother told Dorothy the young ladies of Redstone wanted to give Dorothy a welcome coffee. Dorothy didn’t drink coffee, so she began to practice drinking it with lots of sugar and milk.

Ib’s parents owned the only General Store in town. Sister Else who was born with Cerebral Palsy, had the job of stocking shelves and keeping everything dusted. Dorothy went to the store every day to help out. One day, Ulla told Dorothy that when they saw her picture, they thought Ib had married a Mexican.

On his return home, Ib’s ship went through such rough weather that the bulkheads were split so wide you could walk through the holds. Dorothy was in a café waiting for the train to San Diego. She asked a waitress if they had some cookies to go with her coffee. The waitress said, We only have boughten ones. I asked what kind was that. Soldiers leaned over and told Dorothy that meant the cookies were not homemade, but were bought from a store.

Ib’s next assignment was gunnery school in D.C. The trip across country turned out to be an adventure. The weather was very warm, in fact Dorothy wondered why the tires on the car didn’t melt. With no air conditioning in those days, Ib couldn’t wait to stop for a cool beer. We made it to West Texas when we stopped for beer. Our waitress kept telling him they didn’t have the brand he was asking for. After asking several times and being told they didn’t have that, it dawned on Dorothy that this was a dry county. We left the café, drove a short distance to a very large metal building. When we entered, we found everything on only one side of the building. Seems the thing was built on the county line so that when one county voted dry, everything was just moved to the wet side. Ib had his beer and we headed for Wichita Falls.

While visiting Dorothy’s family, her Uncle Banks and Aunt Mary invited everyone to supper. For some reason, Ib got mad at Dorothy and wouldn’t talk to her. Dorothy left early and walked back to 2100 Yale and went to bed. When Ib arrived, Dorothy asked him when he was going to talk to her again. He said he didn’t know. Dorothy told him he had better start and to not do that again or it would be a divorce. Much later, Ib told Dorothy that when his parents got mad, they wouldn’t speak for a week and Ib would have to pass messages between them.

We left Texas and were in Oklahoma when something broke on the car. We had to spend the night waiting for the car part to arrive. Sometime later in the east, the gas pedal quit working, so Ib ran a wire from under the hood through the driver’s side window and used that to give the motor gas. Somewhere in Pennsylvania, (very mountainous) Ib stopped for repairs again, but it being the Fourth of July, we had to wait again.

Finally we made it to D.C. and rented the upstairs apartment of a nurse in Anacostia. We spent every weekend visiting the Smithsonian. In 1949, there was only one building, but we never managed to see the entire museum.

The weather was hot and humid. The landlady made a room in the basement for her German shepherd to be where it was cooler. She let Dorothy join the dog in the hot afternoons. One night Ib and Dorothy were asleep, sans clothing. We had all the windows open and when we awoke, the windows were all closed. During a rainstorm in the night, the Landlady came up and closed all our windows. Don’t guess (being a nurse) and wasn’t too shocked.

We spent our first anniversary camping in the Smoky Mountains. One day Dorothy had baked an apple pie. She served a piece each for desert. Later Dorothy was in the pantry and found an empty pie tin, Ib had eaten all the rest of the pie, I believe our first year, Ib gained at least 20 pounds.

We became friends with Jim and Coleen Davenport. One day Coleen was visiting Dorothy and Dorothy asked her if she’d like a glass of water. Coleen began to laugh and say, Lo, have mercy. Dorothy asked what was so funny. Coleen said Dorothy copied her speech. Dorothy had asked if she wanted a glass of Wooder. We were invited to Coleen’s parents in Rocky Mount, North Carolina to a barbeque. They had roasted an entire pig in a big pit and invited all the neighbors. The next morning we were surprised at their breakfast. They had buttered toast sprinkled with salt and Coca-Cola.

Ib’s school finished after two months and he was to be sent to more schooling in Boston. Not knowing how much free time Ib would have, it was decided Dorothy would return to Texas.

While in Texas, Dorothy took a job at Zale’s jewelers (Lavona was office manager). One day Lavona got mad at Dorothy and said she would slap Dorothy’s face. Dorothy said, Go ahead and I’ll slap you right back. All the other office staff were standing with mouth ajar.

While in Texas, Dorothy discovered she was pregnant, and Ib was promoted to Lieutenant J.G. When Ib returned to Norfolk aboard the destroyer the USS Ault. Dorothy had a navy slack suit made and wore it on the plane from Dallas to Norfolk via D.C. Dorothy was the only female aboard. The plane went through some very rough weather from D.C. to Norfolk. All the men kept looking at Dorothy and she sat saying, I will not be sick. Finally the plane landed and we got out into fresh air, Dorothy was fine. While Dorothy was still in Texas, Ib wanted to spend his leave time there. Ib had not been to Montana for five years. Dorothy told him to go home to see his folks. Later Dorothy asked Ib how he was greeted by his parents. He said they shook hands with him. After having children, Dorothy couldn’t imagine doing that. Dorothy tries to let everyone know she loves them.

Ib’s ship’s trip to France and Scotland Dorothy called Operation Cocktail Party, although they did invite an orphanage in France aboard and Ib said some of the children ate 2 to 3 bowls of soup. Ib was invited by some Scots to go First Footing on New Year’s Eve. The custom was if a stranger came visiting with pockets of coal, it was good luck.

On day Dorothy went to downtown Norfolk to get a new black tie for Ib’s uniform. She was wearing the slack suit and she stood around in the store, but no one would wait on her because she was wearing pants.

We rented an upstairs apartment on Rockbridge Avenue. The complex was several buildings of apartments, rented mostly to the military. We got to know our neighbors and the ladies gave Dorothy a baby shower. Dorothy was so surprised—she didn’t know she had so many friends.

When Dorothy began to have contractions, Ib had to borrow a car (he sold the Buick in Boston) to get Dorothy to Portsmouth Hospital. We made it to the ferry in nine red lights. On board the ferry, a man asked Ib if he knew where the hospital was and Ib said no he didn’t, so the man said, Follow me.

He took us a short cut that meant turning at each corner, which didn’t help Dorothy’s contractions. On arriving in the office to check in, we saw all the chairs filled with pregnant women. Ib walked Dorothy down the hall and lifted her on to a gurney. When the nurses saw Dorothy on the gurney, they assumed her paperwork was finished and took her into the delivery room. After Don was born, the office said, "That can’t be… her paperwork isn’t done. Dorothy told the doctor she had a headache. The doctor had given her a spinal. So Ib was to bring Dorothy a girdle. When the other girls in the ward saw Dorothy wearing the girdle, they all wanted one, too. Their doctors said they couldn’t have one.

After the first day, Don was brought to stay beside Dorothy’s bed. Since Don’s dark hair stuck straight out over all his head, the corpsmen started calling him the porcupine.

Ib was later stationed on the USS Gearing. Ib bought a 1949 Chevrolet. While Ib was away (by 1950) Dorothy left Don with the neighbors and took the car out to practice driving. When Ib’s ship returned, Dorothy took the tests and got her license.

Ib was sent to school in Key West (1951). We packed the car and headed south. Since the school was for two months, and Ib would return to Norfolk, we decided to keep our apartment. On the way through South Carolina, Ib took Dorothy and Don to dinner at Henry’s in Charleston. We took baby food for Don, then we had our dinner. On leaving, we heard people saying, What a sweet baby. I think they were surprised Don had been so quiet and didn’t disturb anyone.

In northern Florida, we stopped at a cafe where the owner caught our fish lunch himself. We spent a night in Miami Beach. When the motel operator saw our over packed car, he gave us a discount.

In Key West, we rented the downstairs apartment. The house had porches all around. We discovered the place crawling with lizards. When Dorothy went into the kitchen to make breakfast, she made sure she stomped very loud to warn the lizards so they could flee back into their holes. Don celebrated his first birthday there. (June 23rd).

One day returning from the commissary, as Dorothy approached a red light, a car came zooming around the corner into the wrong lane. Dorothy turned her car toward the curb to avoid a head-on collision. Unfortunately, an older man was riding his bicycle to her right and her car knocked the man off his bike. Dorothy got out and helped the man across the street to a drug store. His glasses were broken and a thumb was damaged. Dorothy drove home and was telling Ib about the accident when a policeman came to tell us the injured man’s relatives said they were suing us for all we were worth. Ib notified USAA and the next morning as we were climbing the steps of the courthouse, we were approached by Dorothy’s court representative. He turned out to be the DA of Key West. The judge heard the case and pronounced it an unavoidable accident. Then he gestured for Dorothy to come to the bench. The judge told Dorothy that he was waiting for the red light on the opposite side and saw the whole thing, but thought the swerving car had hit Dorothy’s car. Dorothy told him no, that she had not felt anything from the other car. Needless to say, we weren’t sued.

When Ib’s two months finished, they returned to the apartment on Rockbridge. When the ships left port, we wives had to be careful about answering our front doors. Sometimes men would come and proposition us. We mostly used our back doors. One neighbor, Jinks Adams, loved to wash clothes. If she didn’t have any dirty, it is said she’d wash the clean ones. We shared the clotheslines out back and had a heck of a time beating Jinks to hang our clothes before she did.

Jinks sterilized everything Wade touched. One day, Ib asked Dorothy that if Jinks was nursing Wade, how did she sterilize her boobs. Jinks couldn’t understand why Don was so healthy and Wade not so—since Dorothy let Don get dirty and Wade was always clean. She knew nothing about natural immunity. One night, Dorothy was babysitting Wade and he had vomited up large chunks of hot dog. Jinks said, But you told me I could feed Wade other than baby food. Dorothy told her yes, but you are supposed to cut the food into small pieces.

Our downstairs neighbors, Mitzy and Van Horn had lots of parties. Van would invite Dorothy because he knew she was alone much of the time. Van even invited Dorothy to take walks with them in the evening. Don’t suppose Mitzy was too happy about that. Van was interning at one of the hospitals and would give Don checkups. Don seemed to have high fevers (104˚) when he was teething. He started teething at four months.

Ib’s next assignment was to teach NROTC at R.P.I. in Troy, New York. We were billeted in Quonset huts. The previous people must have had pets for we were covered in fleas.

Our neighbor Sally and her husband had a house full of kids. Sally was so busy with the baby she had no time for the two year old boy. He had fallen and broken both collar bones. His cast had both arms straight out so he had trouble with his balance. When he would fall, Dorothy wanted to help him up but Sally said, No, don’t. He has to learn to take care of himself.

We rented an unfurnished apartment, so had to go buy all new furniture. We got Cushman Colonial, made in Bennington, Vermont. The store wouldn’t charge interest if you paid it off in six months. We started with a bed, a couch, a dining room table, and two chairs. As we paid them off, we’d add more until the rooms were full of what we needed. We also bought a new 1950 Oldsmobile.

One day I heard neighbors talking out back. One was calling us Dirty Gypsies. On a trip back to Montana, Ib’s mother had given us canned bing cherries. We had storage units in the basement and had placed our canned cherries there. Probably one of the workmen of someone broke into our unit and stole our cherries. They broke into the person’s who called us gypsies and stole her suitcases to carry our cherries in.

When the children wanted to play out back, we mothers would sit out back to keep an eye on them. One day, they were harping about the military free medical and dental. I told them we didn’t get dental care and if our lives were all that cushy, why weren’t their husbands knocking the doors down to get in! Ib was an assistant professor, but the town at that time had no respect for the military, or maybe it was just that we weren’t New Yorkers like them.

Dorothy was pregnant and when she went to the hospital to have Bob, the next door neighbor Mrs. Gold asked if she could care for Don. She was so impressed when she gave Don a snack to eat, he would go into her kitchen and sit in front of the sink on a rug to eat.

Ib sent Don over every day in the same clothes. Mrs. Gold would wash and iron them, so he wore the same thing all the while Dorothy was in hospital. Don had been easy on toys. Dorothy cleaned out a cupboard and had toys and pots and pans for him to play with. When Bob got old enough to play there, he treated everything so roughly… it was something for him to pound on like a drum.

The apartments were new and there was no grass growing. While Dorothy was pregnant, they dumped fertilizer and made her sick to her stomach. When they planted grass seed, no one bothered to water it. So Dorothy would take the boys out and while they played, she’d water the lawn. When the grass finally grew, the management put up Keep off the Grass signs all over the complex. Then the Frat fellows stole all the signs.

Ib was supposed to be there two years but was extended eight months while he took Cadets (midshipmen) on a training cruise to South America. While there, he bought Dorothy a beautiful aquamarine ring.

Don awoke one morning with lips all swollen. The Doctor said it was trench mouth. Turns out, one of the neighbor girls had it so bad she was given shots. She was allowed out to play with all the children. She had a whistle and she let Don blow it. So voila! Trench mouth. Ib was being sent to line school in Monterey, California (1954). Since Dorothy had to boil all the dishes Don ate with, we decided to camp across country. The boys had a great time helping Dad put up the tent each morning and taking it down the next day. Dorothy had gotten a new Singer 1950 sewing machine and sewed an extension on the tent so we could have us all in one tent. The night we camped in a park in Santa Fe, New Mexico, awoke to ice on our bucket of water.

In Monterey, we were housed in military housing (Wherry Housing). We were fortunate to get an end apartment so only had noise through one wall. The kids liked to play in the woods around the housing. Our next door neighbor boys brought home poison ivy and climbed on the toilet to wash their hands. Their mom set on the toilet and ended with poison ivy on her bottom.

Ib and Dorothy had gotten the boys a parakeet named B.D. for a pet. The bird would fly to the table and eat from our plates. At the time, both Ib and Dorothy smoked. If we left a pack of cigarettes on the end table, the bird would tip the pack and dump all the cigarettes on the floor. We made the mistake of letting the bird fly around the apartment. One day, Bob ran down the hall into his bedroom and slammed the door on the bird. Ib took the dead bird out to bury and Dorothy said not to tell her where it was buried.

Our next door neighbor came to Dorothy one day and said she might be pregnant again and if so, she wanted Dorothy to take two of her children and have another neighbor take the other two, because she planned to kill herself. Since then, Dorothy decided she would never deny a woman an abortion. Who knows what torment that would make a woman decide to do it. The neighbor wasn’t pregnant, and Dorothy thanked the Lord she never had a pregnancy they didn’t want.

We were lucky that Ib could study in the living room with the TV going and talk to Dorothy while studying. Some men sent their wives to the kitchen so as not to disturb their studying. Ib graduated 6th place in the class. Our sons would run and jump into bed with us some mornings. Bob hit Dorothy in the face so Dorothy went to Ib’s graduation with a black eye. You can imagine the ribbing Ib had to take.

After Line School, Ib was stationed aboard the USS Pictor (as navigator). We found a 3-bedroom