Grandma's Email

I asked Grandma for some information about her early married life.

This is what she gave me:

When we got married I felt like were were starting our own world. If I could choose the perfect couple to be Adam and Eve, I would choose Jim's parents. We lived in Salt Lake. Jim was going to the University of Utah on the GI Bill, so we sold our car to save money and found it really did save us a lot of money. We walked to school and church and grocery shopping. I worked at Continental Bank downtown and road the bus to work. Jim & I road the bus to attend the temple monthly. It was fun! When I got pregnant, the cigar smell that the cleaning lady left after using our bathroom was to much for me. I'd walk in from work and have to run and throw up. Jim got a job in White Sands New Mexico. I stayed with my parents with the baby coming. I had cramping and called the doctor, He said, meet me at the hospital and I'll check you. A big nurse tried to prep me for delivery, but I insisted I had only come to be checked. He sent me home and I had to ride the bus to the doctor once a week for a shot to keep the baby.

I was doing the dishes when I started in labor. We did not want another false alarm so mother and I drove around Liberty Park for a while to make sure this was the real thing. I didn't have bad pains until they told me I had to lay down. Walking around worked great! I was fine. Jim and I had taken the classes for a natural childbirth delivery. Then this big nurse came into the room without a word or warning & slapped a gas mask on my face. It was awful, chloroform, the spinning and a feeling of sinking & voices getting farther away.

Jill was a fine healthy baby, but I couldn't remember whether I had a boy or a girl. I asked several times. Jim came home to see us because I had to go back to the hospital after 10 days they didn't get all the afterbirth. Jim didn't feel right about handing out paychecks to his employees that were larger than his, just because they had a degree and he didn't. He quit his job and worked for the post office delivering mail that Christmas.

We moved to Elizabeth Street to a house on stilts. It was cold! There was one wall heater. We kept Jill next to it and we slept on the couch. It was too cold in the bedroom. There were holes in the floor that we could look down and see the ground way below. We stuffed newspapers into them to try and make it warmer. A family in our ward moved, so we moved into Vogel's apartment on Douglas Street. We loved it there well enough that we were still there after Raymond was born. Lemoyne and Mary, Jim's sister, lived not far away. Lemoyne taught me to drive in
his Volkswagon. Those were great times. Mary has always been so fun!

We didn't have much money. The bishop looked at me and asked when I had any meat. I thought that was a strange question. He brought Jim & me some meat and a case of canned milk for Jill. We bought a Volkswagon so we could show off our children to their grandparents and stalk up on garden vegetables from Jim's dad's garden and the Japanese gardeners. We got as much food as the car would hold for $.50 It was so good and lasted so long.

Love you!

I'm sorry I can't seem to make things simple.