| Biographical Non-Fiction posted October 18, 2020 | Chapters: |
...68 69 -70- 71... 
|
  |
Changes occur in the lives of our children.
A chapter in the book Remembering Yesterday
Sitter Changes and Public School
by BethShelby
| Background The older children will be attending public in a big city and Connie has someone new to keep her while I work. My husband continues as supervisor of a drafting department for Chevron Oil. |
In the summer of 1976, Miss Dolly, who had kept Connie almost since her birth, was having a surgery and would be unable to keep her for a few months. Lately Dolly had also been keeping another child. Joe was a little boy about Connie’s age. Connie thought of him as her first little boyfriend. His mother called and told me about another lady she knew of who could keep our children while Dolly was recovering. This lady was known to the children as Miss Melanie.
Melanie had several young children she was already keeping, but she was willing to take Connie and Joe. Connie didn’t seem to mind the change and Melanie liked Connie right away. She had all the children trained to take a nap every day. Joe seemed willing to go along with the plan, but with Connie, it wouldn’t happen. She simply refused to take a nap. She told me that she thought she was Miss Melanie’s favorite, because she got to hang out with her while the other kids had to take a nap.
Melanie and her husband were typical of the people who lived in the area. They loved their seafood. Melanie related a story to us that she found amusing concerning Connie. Her husband had brought in a large bucket of Crayfish. Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans that resemble small lobsters. Being from Mississippi we knew what they were, but we didn’t even realize that civilized people ate such things. Since moving to Louisiana, we were finding that Louisiana people eat a lot of things we had always shied away from.
Apparently Connie had looked into the bucket to see what was there and Melanie told her it was crayfish. They were all still alive and crawling all over each other in the sand and water inside the bucket. Melanie dumped one of them out on the sidewalk so Connie could get a better look. The creature started scrambling toward Connie with its claw extended. She freaked out and screamed, “I don’t like that fish! Get that fish away from me!” I could see Connie doing that. Actually, I might have had the same reaction, but I wouldn’t have called it a fish.
*******
Your family was dealing with a crisis around this time. Joe, your sister Helen’s husband, who had framed in our house in the country, had been diagnosed with cancer. Joe was a skilled carpenter, but he had had some bad breaks and had borrowed too much money to start his church pew factory. Unable to pay the debt, he defaulted and lost the business. He had later suffered a heart attack. Now the final blow was that he had lung cancer which had spread throughout his body, and he had been informed it was terminal. The only son, Jimmy had grown up, finished college, married and was living in Gulfport, Mississippi. Helen had never learned to drive but would soon be left to fend for herself.
We went to visit them often when we were in Newton. For a while after he had worked on our house, there had been some bad feelings when you’d asked for a paperwork on the expenses Joe had incurred. Now, all of that wasn’t mentioned. Joe was a broken man, knowing that his time was short. He was fond of Connie and liked to hold her when we came over. At one point before he became so sick, he had helped Don and me put together a kit for a metal detector which Don had wanted. Since he could no longer work, he had taught himself to play the keyboard and spent much of his time doing that.
*******
In September the kids all started in their new schools. Since they were public schools, the buses came around and picked them up. Grace King, the all-girl high school which Carol attended, had too many students and so part of the students went to classes early and came home shortly after noon and the other students attended classes later and got out around six in the evening. Carol was assigned morning classes.
Carol had known everyone in the schools she had attended before. Although her grades had not been bad, she and some of her friends played around and had not taken school that seriously. Now that she would be attending a large high school, where she didn’t know anyone and everything would be different, she realized she was going to have to get serious about studying.
On the first day, she was assigned a homeroom and given a list of classes that were available for her to choose from. She brought the list home, and I tried to help her select from the list the classes that would meet the core needs and prepare her for college, but also classes which I thought she might enjoy. In her homeroom she bonded with another girl who had a similar last name and was assigned a seat near hers. She and Diedra would remain friends throughout high school, and although they would attend different classes, they always got together on their lunch breaks.
The transition was easier for the twins. They quickly got acquainted with other children and were soon used to the new routine. Some of the school work was repetitive, while other things were new. Don, who still had a hyper streak, would have more trouble concentrating and adjusting to work that he’d not been exposed to before, but Christi caught on faster. They were in the same class, so they had each other to depend on.
In English classes, the reading material was a lot different than what any of them were used to. The church school had not encouraged them to read a lot of the novels which they were expected to read in public school. Some of them I’d read before having attended public school, but there were many new ones on the required reading list. I'd heard of them, but hadn’t had the chance to read them. Since I love books and my children weren’t that fond of reading, I read a lot of the books aloud to them.
In public school, they all had opportunities to take art classes. I was happy about that because they all had some talent in that area and enjoyed art. They had been exposed to music more in the church school, but they could still pursue that through church and private lessons.
********
As fall wore on, we were in the midst of a presidential election. Gerald Ford was running for another term, and he was running against a Democrat, Jimmy Carter. Ford had finished out the term when Nixon was forced to resign, and some people didn’t consider him a legitimately elected president. Ford's wife, Betty, was an alcoholic and was forced by intervention to confront her problem. She also had to deal with breast cancer.
Carter was from Georgia and had started out as a peanut farmer, so a lot of people didn’t find him an appealing choice either, in spite of the fact that he had served as Governor of Georgia. In November, Jimmy Carter won the election. Walter Mondale was his vice president. Their term would start in January of 1977.
We wondered what changes another year might bring in our lives. There had been quite a few during the twenty years since we became husband and wife. We had coped with many ups and downs over the years, but neither of us regretted the hand we had been dealt. We were still in love and felt that we had been truly blessed with a wonderful family.
Melanie had several young children she was already keeping, but she was willing to take Connie and Joe. Connie didn’t seem to mind the change and Melanie liked Connie right away. She had all the children trained to take a nap every day. Joe seemed willing to go along with the plan, but with Connie, it wouldn’t happen. She simply refused to take a nap. She told me that she thought she was Miss Melanie’s favorite, because she got to hang out with her while the other kids had to take a nap.
Melanie and her husband were typical of the people who lived in the area. They loved their seafood. Melanie related a story to us that she found amusing concerning Connie. Her husband had brought in a large bucket of Crayfish. Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans that resemble small lobsters. Being from Mississippi we knew what they were, but we didn’t even realize that civilized people ate such things. Since moving to Louisiana, we were finding that Louisiana people eat a lot of things we had always shied away from.
Apparently Connie had looked into the bucket to see what was there and Melanie told her it was crayfish. They were all still alive and crawling all over each other in the sand and water inside the bucket. Melanie dumped one of them out on the sidewalk so Connie could get a better look. The creature started scrambling toward Connie with its claw extended. She freaked out and screamed, “I don’t like that fish! Get that fish away from me!” I could see Connie doing that. Actually, I might have had the same reaction, but I wouldn’t have called it a fish.
*******
Your family was dealing with a crisis around this time. Joe, your sister Helen’s husband, who had framed in our house in the country, had been diagnosed with cancer. Joe was a skilled carpenter, but he had had some bad breaks and had borrowed too much money to start his church pew factory. Unable to pay the debt, he defaulted and lost the business. He had later suffered a heart attack. Now the final blow was that he had lung cancer which had spread throughout his body, and he had been informed it was terminal. The only son, Jimmy had grown up, finished college, married and was living in Gulfport, Mississippi. Helen had never learned to drive but would soon be left to fend for herself.
We went to visit them often when we were in Newton. For a while after he had worked on our house, there had been some bad feelings when you’d asked for a paperwork on the expenses Joe had incurred. Now, all of that wasn’t mentioned. Joe was a broken man, knowing that his time was short. He was fond of Connie and liked to hold her when we came over. At one point before he became so sick, he had helped Don and me put together a kit for a metal detector which Don had wanted. Since he could no longer work, he had taught himself to play the keyboard and spent much of his time doing that.
*******
In September the kids all started in their new schools. Since they were public schools, the buses came around and picked them up. Grace King, the all-girl high school which Carol attended, had too many students and so part of the students went to classes early and came home shortly after noon and the other students attended classes later and got out around six in the evening. Carol was assigned morning classes.
Carol had known everyone in the schools she had attended before. Although her grades had not been bad, she and some of her friends played around and had not taken school that seriously. Now that she would be attending a large high school, where she didn’t know anyone and everything would be different, she realized she was going to have to get serious about studying.
On the first day, she was assigned a homeroom and given a list of classes that were available for her to choose from. She brought the list home, and I tried to help her select from the list the classes that would meet the core needs and prepare her for college, but also classes which I thought she might enjoy. In her homeroom she bonded with another girl who had a similar last name and was assigned a seat near hers. She and Diedra would remain friends throughout high school, and although they would attend different classes, they always got together on their lunch breaks.
The transition was easier for the twins. They quickly got acquainted with other children and were soon used to the new routine. Some of the school work was repetitive, while other things were new. Don, who still had a hyper streak, would have more trouble concentrating and adjusting to work that he’d not been exposed to before, but Christi caught on faster. They were in the same class, so they had each other to depend on.
In English classes, the reading material was a lot different than what any of them were used to. The church school had not encouraged them to read a lot of the novels which they were expected to read in public school. Some of them I’d read before having attended public school, but there were many new ones on the required reading list. I'd heard of them, but hadn’t had the chance to read them. Since I love books and my children weren’t that fond of reading, I read a lot of the books aloud to them.
In public school, they all had opportunities to take art classes. I was happy about that because they all had some talent in that area and enjoyed art. They had been exposed to music more in the church school, but they could still pursue that through church and private lessons.
********
As fall wore on, we were in the midst of a presidential election. Gerald Ford was running for another term, and he was running against a Democrat, Jimmy Carter. Ford had finished out the term when Nixon was forced to resign, and some people didn’t consider him a legitimately elected president. Ford's wife, Betty, was an alcoholic and was forced by intervention to confront her problem. She also had to deal with breast cancer.
Carter was from Georgia and had started out as a peanut farmer, so a lot of people didn’t find him an appealing choice either, in spite of the fact that he had served as Governor of Georgia. In November, Jimmy Carter won the election. Walter Mondale was his vice president. Their term would start in January of 1977.
We wondered what changes another year might bring in our lives. There had been quite a few during the twenty years since we became husband and wife. We had coped with many ups and downs over the years, but neither of us regretted the hand we had been dealt. We were still in love and felt that we had been truly blessed with a wonderful family.
 Recognized |
I'm continuing to recall memories of life with my deceased husband as if I am talking aloud to him. I'm doing this because I want my children to know us as we knew each other and not just as their parents.
Pays
one point
and 2 member cents. 
You need to login or register to write reviews. It's quick! We only ask four questions to new members.
© Copyright 2024. BethShelby All rights reserved.
BethShelby has granted FanStory.com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.
