More About Dad

Did you know that your dad was in the ROTC when he was in college. He was still in the reserves when he went to Peabody College. He was supposed to register with them so they would know where he was at all times. When he went to Peabody in Tennessee he was told that with the Korean war on ( 1950 ) he had to register there. But he was also told that Tennessee was taking their quota of reserves to call, from out of state men. This is not right so he simply did not register in Tennessee. He was still registered in Kentucky however. Some of his friends who were in the reserves with him and did register were called up and had to go to Korea. We had not been married that long and it certainly would have been disruptive to be called up. Somehow I do not see that as dishonest. But that is what happened.

His first car he bought from a friend for $400. It had a lot of problems but it served us for a while. It was better than no car at all and we needed transportation to get to school in the summer and in the school year. I did not even drive then so I certainly did not need a car. We were living in Harlan and each day I caught a bus to ride to my school. I did that for the first year. The second year I rode with our principal and his wife to Twila, a mining camp outside of town. That was fine except for another woman who rode in the back seat with me and I would carry a lot of books and put them between us as we rode along. That was as close to her as I wanted to get.

Your dad was teaching history and serving as vice principal at a high school. He did not like teaching at all. After we moved to Salisbury Maryland he taught for about a year and then just stopped and got a job in a lab where he was running experiments with a coating for concrete blocks. Now, you see them all the time in buildings everywhere. It was a glazed coating and when he came home his clothing smelled like a chemical used in the coating. I think it was called styrene, but am not sure. But I sure do remember that it was a most disagreeable odor.

He later got a job doing something he really enjoyed, sales !. At first it was the American Art Clay Co. Later he was with a company selling technical training units for DeVry. He was just not cut out for teaching, but selling, well he could do a lot of talking for that !

For a while when we first went to Salisbury I worked at a Nursery Center called Tiny Tots. Then when Bonnie was expected we both wanted me to be at home with her so I stopped doing that. He was working at three jobs to keep up afloat. During the week-days he taught school, on Saturdays he sold paint at Sears and on Sundays he drove charter buses from Salisbury to Norfolk, Va. and often to New York or to Philadelphia. He drove many a sailor for his week-end pass. In Philadelphia he had to walk through a bad part of town on some occasions and he told me that he walked with an iron tool in his hand to protect himself, if need be.

One summer he had a job as an inspector at Campbell Soup Company. He worked at night and he was responsible for seeing that the pipes were properly disinfected for the soup to be run through it the next day. I remember one story about him working with a black man who brought some blackberry wine to work and I am pretty sure they took care of that wine as well.

We had a lot of good friends there, mostly teachers with whom he worked . One of them was a Manual Arts teacher. Now that subject would be taught at a Technical School. This man was named Nick Guiliano and his wife was Fay. We spent a lot of time with them. She could not have children and she loved to come to our house on her lunch break and visit with me and Bonnie. I think they eventually adopted two children and I have lost touch with them. Before we bought our Danish dining room furniture he went to the store and inspected it. He advised us that it was excellent furniture so we bought it for $600. Sounds like a steal now.

Another good teacher friend was Al Manus, his wife Jo and their three little girls. They were from Tennessee. They had a garden and she canned green beans. They were the best green beans I ever tasted ! I think he and Ray were the best buddies of all his friends. this couple was from Tennessee.

We were close friends with the basketball coach and his wife named Georgia. She had a bank job and worked on Saturdays. Every Saturday Bill would come to our house for breakfast. He loved oatmeal but Georgia would not make it, so he had it at our house. Still another couple we met early on was Phylis and Russ Cooper. He worked for the electric company and she worked for the Wicomoco Board of Education. She knew we were new to Salisbury and invited us to dinner. Russ was an avid hunter and she cooked quail and ducks, etc. for us. These were all good friends and sometimes they would all gather at our apartment as we had a large living room. It was a happy time to have so many friends. Most of this was before we had two children for our world to revolve around.

As we were starting a family so were Bill and Georgia. We would have outings with them on occasion until they moved to New Jersey and we moved to another part of Maryland. I still hear from Georgia and the Coopers. The white desk I have beside my front door reminds me of Russ as I bought it from his mother at her antique store, for $10. The last time I heard from Phylis she sent pictures of her children and grandchildren. All very good looking young people.

I will always treasure the good times we had with those couples. I really must try to make contact again, for old times sake.

blackberry friends

Unable to get either of my neighbors to go back to the risky business of picking blackberries with me I headed out last evening around 8:00 prepared to "git er don". In the back seat of my car I placed a large yellow plastic tub with handles. Inside the tub was a 5 gallon bucket with about three inches of water in it. If that sounds like something strange to take berry picking, let me explain. I also took pruning shears and a basket. The pruners were for the cuts I did make on about 10 vines, the water to place them in and the yellow tub to hold all of this so it would not slosh all over my car seat !!

When that part of the mission was accomplihed, I determined to do some picking since I was already there and dressed for the occasion. As I worked along I heard a voice say "what are you doing?". I looked up and saw two little boys on bicycles. Calling back to them I said "I'm picking blackberries, do you want to help me?". They talked it over and decided they would do just that. With their nimble young legs they were able to go up a small incline and pick from the other side. After a good bit of this, I looked at my watch. It was 9:05 and darkness was rolling in. I told them I thought we should stop as their parents may be concerned about them. They assured me they were used to this and all was well. I insisted that it really was getting too dark and I knew their mothers would be looking for them. So down they came and proudly handed me a bag saying "this must be about a pound". As we went out separate ways I told him where I lived and if they would come over to my house I would give them some blackberry jelly tomorrow, but they must talk it over with their mothers. Giving them my name and saying " bring your mothers or have them call me and come with you if they want to do that", we parted ways.

Having gone to a fish fry at my church a few hours earlier it was just about a full day for me. But wait !! I had a big bag of green beans that one of our members was giving away at the fry. That was waiting for me on the kitchen counter. They happened to be white half runners. A wonderful green bean dinner was in my future but not this night. I still had to mix up cookie dough for date/nut pinwheel cookies to bake on Saturday. That I managed to do and still get to bed by 10:30, a late hour for most farmers and especially this one.