Memory Monday

“You can start anew at any given moment. Life is just the passage of time and it’s up to you to pass it as you please.” 
― Charlotte Eriksson

     How appropriate that today, a Monday,  is the first day of the New Year!  I am returning to my Memory Monday blogs and I love "fresh starts"....a new day, a new week,  a new year!  And also appropriate is that this memory is also about New Year's eve!

    So here we are,  back in Pittsfield after our brief honeymoon in St. Louis. It is December 31, and we are going to yet another Dance Club party at the American Legion....there will be much drinking and eating and general chaos!  My sister and her family are still at Mom and Dad's...totally, there are 12  of us sleeping there.  My cousins who don't party with my parents stay home with Judy's babies...Doug 2 and David 20 days old.

     Looking back, I am sure this whole "everyone together" was a little foreign to Dick who although had a large family of aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents...more than mine...but they all lived close enough to go home in the evenings!  I do remember at one point while we were all there,  all we girls were in another room doing something, baby David began to cry, but then got quiet.  Judy went to check on him and came back just astonished!  He had been on his back and was now on his stomach!  He had rolled over at 20 days old! It is a miracle!  Then Dick quietly (he was a quiet person), said "Oh, I hope it was alright.  He was fussing and I had seen others turn him over which seem to quiet him, so I just did that too!"  Well, you can imagine!  All my female relatives just thought that was the bravest, smartest thing a man could do!  From that moment on, Dick could do no wrong in their eyes!  You have to realize, men had very little to do with babies back then so for him to even think about what to do was amazing!

Judy with baby David, Doug and my mom looking on

     So that evening we all dress up and head to the American Legion; after the dance we went to a house party of some friends of Mom and Dad.  Now we are going home and are all feeling no pain at this point.  I remember as we six (mom, dad, Judy, my BIL, Dick and I) all pile into Dad's car, Dad driving, he begins to back out to the driveway, swerving backwards while gunning it.  Dick looks back and hollers...Dad brakes and we stop just inches away from a large tree! 
    When we get back to the house, my poor sister who was just 20 days away from having a baby and who had probably not had an alcoholic beverage since her own wedding, became very ill!  While Dad who is pretty bombed himself, takes care of her, Mom and I are taking care of baby David....he needs a bottle...and we rock him.  The strangest thing about having been drinking and rocking....one gets very dizzy!  So when one of us got dizzy, the other would take over!  We took turns until he finally fell asleep! Tough kid!  He survived!
     Then, before we headed to our new home in Reno, Nevada, we go to Dick's parents to spend a few days with them.