| Chapter Four: Motherhood
In April of '47 we got married in the OLD FIRST CHURCH. I borrowed a wedding gown from Lois Evan Butts (my best friend). She had been married the year before and I was her maid of honor. She was to be mine but got pregnant and her due date was MY wedding day. She delivered two days ahead of time but could not be in my wedding as in those days they kept you in the hospital a week to ten days for childbirth. As soon as the minister said, "I now pronounce you man and wife we took off to Monmouth Medical to show Lois how I looked in her dress. It was really funny. You should have seen the looks on ALL the nurses and doctors as we ran down the maternity hallway to get to Lois' room before visiting hour was up. Me in a wedding gown and Cyril in his suit. But Lois was very pleased to see us. Then we went to Ann Robinson's house (my mother's best friend) where Pop-pop, Aunt Hazel, and all their friends were there having a big party for us. Corinne Miller, Edie Van Winkle and Fran Townsend were my attendants. Corinne was my maid of honor. My reception consisted of a VERY small group (attendants, Cyrils family, and my Grandmother and Grandfather) then we went to my father's house for ice cream, ONE glass of Champagne and a homemade cake that Grace made. We went to New York City for a 4-day honeymoon. We stayed at the Taft Hotel and saw a couple of plays. Cyril got the flu on the third day and while he slept in bed, I sat there and looked out the window and kept reading about the strike at the Phone Company (where we worked). THAT in itself should have been an omen of things to come. On the forth day in NY the telephone strike was over and we had to come home. In the fall I got pregnant with Susie. By then we had bought the house on Branchport Avenue, and Billy went to the Vineland training school. It was suppose to be the best school for autistic and retarded kids in the country. Pearl Bucks (who wrote THE GOOD EARTH) child went there. Because my father was in politics, he pulled some strings (thru Geraldine Thompson who owned all the land that Brookdale College is now on) and she saw to it that he was accepted. The school was beautiful BUT Billy never learned a thing there, and it was VERY expensive. He was taken out of there and put in the state school at New Lisbon. He was very lucky to get a really nice housemother who taught him how to use a sewing machine and treated him like a son. Whenever we (my grandmother and grandfather) went down to see him he looked so pathetic when we left I couldn't take it. He was there about 1 years. When I went down to pick him up at Christmas to bring him home for a couple of weeks I never took him back. That's how he came to live with us. Meanwhile Pop-Pop was very unhappy. He missed my mother so much. He was a really sharp dresser and all the single women in town were after him. I know he thought that Cyril and I would be happier without him there (NOT THE CASE), so he finally married Martha Koops who was a complete idiot! She had us for dinner one Sunday and served us the following. One can of baked beans, two sliced tomatoes, one piece of bread, and milk. POPPOP was FURIOUS! That was for ALL of us. What a complete jerk she was, and he could have had his choice of a number of women. I thought he had lost his mind. The following July Susie was born. I was overjoyed. She was so cute and sweet and SPOILED!!! God how she changed. Our social life was null and void. We were lucky to get to a movie once a month. I bought a new SINGER sewing machine with money my Grandfather gave us for Christmas and started sewing. I made ALL my clothes and ALL Susies dresses. We rented two bedrooms in the summer to race trackers and paid the winter's oil bill with the money. It was fun. Ollie (who came back for years), Jack McKenzie, Chick Lang, Nick Shuk (jockey and his agent John Wilkie), and Gordon Potter who won the Jersey Derby with CRIMSON SATIN in 1960 or '61 (his son now is training and running at Gulfsream and Tampa Bay Downs). Potter was an exercise boy when he roomed with us. Cyril hated the track. If he went and lost $2.00 he moaned for days about how many beers it would have bought (now he's there just about everyday go figure, and bets more money than I do). Cyril was a good husband BUT such a bore. He never wanted to socialize with anyone and it drove me crazy. Things went along OK for several years. Sally was born in 1955. She was beautiful. I was in labor with her for 72 hours. HARD LABOR. I had pneumonia and every time I coughed I would force her back up. I was exhausted and when she FINALLY decided to come into this world, she was a HOLY TERROR. Right from the day she learned to crawl. She was so smart and fast and I always thought she would be the family athlete, but it was not to be. She ended up as a flag waver in High School. IF I HAD HAD SALLY FIRST SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN AN ONLY CHILD. Linda was a glass of Sherry wine I drank at Xmas time . Sally also cut off the sleeves of a very nice dress I was making. I made the mistake of going to the bathroom while she was playing in the dinning room and when I came out, my LONG shelve dress was NOW a length one. I'd put her out in the yard to play and my neighbor would call 2 minutes later to tell me she was running thru the back yard saying she was a bird and that THEY didn't wear clothes. She got so bad I had to put her in a harness and hook her to the clothesline so she wouldn't run out into the road and get hit by a car. She had the run of the yard (and sand box) but not Branchport Avenue. She couldn't save a penny. Every time she got ANY money she'd RUN over to Dilgers store to buy a candy bar. Linda (believe it or not SAVED all her money, So did Susie). Sally also almost killed herself one morning, I went down to the basement to put the clothes into the dryer (a two minute job) and when I came back upstairs she was just climbing down from the closet dripping yellow spit all over her pink pajamas. She had just eaten my prescription of Librium. Fortunately Tink had just driven in from school and drove us to the emergency room where her stomach was pumped out. We could her swearing to the DRs. She came out of it okay but I was a basket case. Linda arrived 2 1/2 years later. She was beautiful and sweet. Susie's nose was really out of shape then, as I needed her to help occupy Sally. She wanted no piece of her and resented EVERY minute she was asked to keep an eye on her. I think that was where her HATE for me started, and it got worse each year! There was NO pleasing her. ... Next! |
| T h e L o v e l y L o i s S t o r y A Biography of Lois Eleanor White |
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