Memory Monday #37

     It is 1949...I am in the fourth grade, still going to the East School.  This year is turning out to be very stressful compared to my third grade, thanks to the lovely Miss Sutton!  My fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Deemer, is much stricter!!!  She is not very tolerant of anyone who talks when class is going on...and I am a talker!!  I have a new friend...Barbee...who has moved to Pittsfield with her mother who is a divorcee, now married to one of the wealthy families of town!  I love Barbee...she is so much fun...we sit right across from each other..and we TALK a lot!!!  There is another new girl, Carolyn, who is also a BIG talker.  Now Barbee and I, although we talk, we are still eager students, both like to learn and are inquisitive and are both very respectful of our elders!  Carolyn, not so much...she is a real "fun" girl in a mischevious way! She is the bane of our teacher, always trying to irritate her.  So by association Barbee and I would frequently get in trouble too!  Carolyn was funny to our thinking, but our teacher didn't see the humor in her pranks...and by our laughing with Carolyn, we were considered equally guilty...and I suppose in some ways we were!

     October, 1949...is also the month my baby brother is born!  Pittsfield just opened a Community Hospital...Jack is one of the first babies to be born there.  When my sister and I were born, my mom had to go to hospitals in nearby towns.  Back then when women had babies, they stayed in the hospital for a week..and usually stayed in bed the whole time.  We were not allowed to visit her, or see our new brother as we were children.  So, our daddy would take us to the hospital yard and we would stand below her window; she would come to the window and wave at us.

     It was customary for a matronly lady to be hired to stay with the family while the mom was incapacitated in the hospital.  The lady who came to stay with us was unaccustomed to being around young children...she would cook and clean for us but not very many smiles or laughter!  Now my mom was a terrific cook!!  This lady was NOT.....I am sure she was trying to do her best, but it was just not the same.  It could be that Mom had kind of spoiled us a little.  For example, one thing I remember her doing for me when I was littler was to make bridges with crusts of bread between the different kinds of food on my plate so they couldn't touch each other!!!  I guess I had been a bit of a picky eater!
     So we were very happy when mom came home with our new baby brother!!!

Mom with our new baby brother, Jack!

Unfortunately for us...the lady stayed on to help for a couple more weeks!  But at least our mom was home...but little did we know how times would change with a baby in the house!!!