So most days me and Crystal roamed the mall. There wasn't anything we needed and there wasn't much we could afford, but it beat sitting indoors listening to sister Connie's catalogue of woes.
She used to say, ‘Everything always went your way, Peggy. I'm the one had all the bad luck in this family. Only way I can look it at it, though, if my failing health hadn't brung me back here, Mom'd be all on her own.’
Meanwhile Mom was working on the loose-meat counter in Avery's, setting her cap at anything in trousers that showed signs of life.
I ran into Arlene Wilday one time. We were getting malted milks, Crystal perched on a stool seeing how much racket she could make drinking through a straw, when I heard someone say, ‘Peggy Shea? Is it you?’
I used to hang out with Arlene sometimes when we were in elementary school, but by the time we got to eighth grade we had come to the parting of the ways, she being a keen member of Sewing Club and me having sporting ambitions.
She said, ‘This your little girl? My, she's cute!’
Crystal never left off making gurgling sounds with her straw.
Arlene had married Ted Pickett. I remembered the name, but I couldn't picture the face. She said he was in hardware now.
‘You remember Junior Chorus, Peggy?’ she said. ‘You remember standing next to me?’
I didn't remember that. She sang a little of ‘Burro Bells in the Moonlight’ and then it kinda came back to me.
She told me Jim Sparks never came, home from Korea, which I didn't know, and the Siro twins were both still single, living at home with Mrs Siro, which didn't surprise me.
I said, ‘You keep up with Betty Glick?’
Arlene and Betty had been leading lights of Future Homemakers. Used to do food sales, Saturday mornings outside the Glad Tidings church. She was thrilled to hear all about Betty's exciting life. Gave me her address and made me promise faithfully to pass it along.
She said, ‘You tell her, I expect pictures-of her little family.’
Arlene and Ted had had a boy. Lost him with poliomyelitis in the summer of 1950. I didn't rightly know what to say, after she told me that.
January fifteenth, me and Crystal were on a transport out of Randolph AFB up to Wichita. Betty was there ahead of me, got quarters right across the road from us. Ed had driven her down from his folks’ place in Indiana. Eight hundred miles with Deana and Sherry getting sick and Betty needing the bathroom and Ed holding a bad opinion of every other driver on the road. Took more than that to get Betty Gillis down though. By the time I hit town, she was waddling around, size of a house already, putting up nice fresh drapes.
Wichita was just another cinderblock row, but life was sweeter, being back in the world. We had a base school and a brand-new laundromat and a great commissary, and if there was something else we wanted, drug store, movies, all we had to do was drive into town. Made me realise what a wearing thing it had been, getting posted to a backward country. Audrey was welcome to stay on at Drampton. Heck, Kansas wasn't much, but at least folk there smiled and stood tall.
Gayle arrived the day after me and got quarters next door. She was so thrilled to have good dry American closets and wipeable counter-tops. I'd never seen her looking so happy. I don't believe she was drinking at all. There was a letter waiting for me from Lois.
‘We decided on Kirk,’ she wrote.
Kirk Herbert. I was only in labour two hours, but then I got after-pains and milk fever, so I've paid my dues. My child-bearing days are through. We're on a transport February third, so start getting the tickertape parade ready. Been in Hoosick since December, so I'll be the one wearing the strait-jacket, in case you forgot what I look like. Also, Herb's mom believes in two weeks’ lying-in and a stack of maple syrup pancakes three times a day to make up for iron-loss, so I have SPREAD. You could land a B-36 on my rear. Then she had me churched. That's another story.
31
Betty insisted on organising the Hail ‘n’ Welcome for Lois.
I said, ‘Just a coffee'll do. Lois won't expect home-baking.’
But she was already under way, flour in her hair. It would have been like trying to stop a Cunard liner. She sent me round to see if Herb needed a hand. Their boxes had come and he was meant to be turning a house into a home.
‘If Herb's anything like Ed, all he's done is rigged up the TV and filled the icebox with Schlitz,’ she said.
Of course, Herb Moon wasn't anything like Ed.
He'd made a rocking crib for Kirk and a little rocking horse for Sandie. I helped him unpack a few pieces. Plates and stuff. Lauhala mats from the time they were at Hickam Field. A hula doll. The carved giraffe-type dachshund.
‘Can't wait to get my little family all together again,’ he said. ‘Where I know they're safe. You hear about Drampton?’
I hadn't heard anything. I'd been in Betty Gillis's kitchen watching her make refrigerator cake.
‘Floods twenty foot deep,’ he said. ‘Ten dead. Ax Bergstrom's missing.’
Lo was looking great in spite of her incarceration with the in-laws. She come round to Betty's as soon as she'd fed the baby, Sandie clinging on to her leg, peeping round at us, like she'd never seen us before.
‘My, how she has grown!’ Betty said. ‘That country living has done her good.’
‘Yeah,’ Lois said. ‘She's learned the difference between an elk and a moose. And her Uncle Ivan's taught her to hawk real good …’
I said, ‘Anybody heard about the sea flooding in at Drampton?’
Lo said, ‘Yeah, Herb told me. Hundreds dead.’
Gayle said, ‘Not Americans, though.’
I said, ‘Herb told me Bergstrom was missing.’
‘Now, now,’ Betty said, ‘we don't want to spoil the party. Nothing we can do. And I'm sure the CO will have everything under control there.’
Lois said, ‘… And when I've unpacked my bags, remind me to let you have Herb's mom's recipe for fried squirrel.’
I said, ‘What about Audrey and Lance, and 366? What about Kath and John Pharaoh? You guys sure have short memories.’
Betty said, ‘Peggy! Well, what do you expect us to do? If there's news, I'm sure we'll hear it. Now, clear a space on the table, because those pigs-in-blankets are ready to eat.’
‘You found a good bowling alley yet?’ Lois had kinda hit the tarmac running, baby or no baby.
Betty said, ‘You should be resting. Childbirth and travelling and setting up home again. You don't get some rest, you'll regret it.’
Lois said, ‘If I rest any more, I'll take root. Besides, I'm worried if I stand still, Herb'll put me on carved rockers.’
I held Kirk in my arms a while, smelled his milky, soapy little head. Watched his little fingers weaving dreams.
‘Well?’ she said. ‘Who'd you think he looks like?’
Darned if I knew.
Herb's Mom's Fried Squirrel, As Told to Lois
Clean out the squirrel and rub it with salt. Cut it in pieces. Roll it in flour and pepper. Fry it in a skillet till it's brown. If the squirrel is long in the tooth, make a brown gravy with the drippings, return the squirrel meat to the pan and smother until done.
So sweet it will bring tears to your eyes.
32
Vern said it was the ocean had come flooding in, just like he always said it would. Then I couldn't sleep.
‘Chrissakes, Peg!’ he said. ‘Will you quit tossing and turning.’
There were airmen missing from the base at Walsh. Bergstrom had turned up safe, didn't realise there was a search party out looking for him. But it was Kath I wondered about, in her tumbledown house.
I wrote Audrey soon as I heard, asked her for news. Our letters crossed.
‘We'd had two days of rain,’ she wrote,
and high winds, and Tuesday night there were men up on the canal banks with oil lamps, watching for any sign of flooding. Still, when it came, it came so fast it caught us out. Twelve missing from the base at Walsh, no bodies recovered so far but they've
given up on finding any of them alive. Bergstrom was reported missing from Drampton, but he's accounted for. There's a story going round he was in Fairford, in bed with a war widow, but you didn't hear that from me.
Kath and John are safe, but they lost their house. Lance was out on one of the search parties Wednesday morning and he said beyond Smeeth it was just like a lake. He made enquiries and the Pharaohs were evacuated to Walsh. Good job you taught Kath to speak American! I'll try to get over there some time, see if there's anything they need.
There were twelve enlisted washed away near Hunstanton. I never would have believed that trickle of water we paddled in could have turned so powerful. Those Wherry cabins by the school were smashed to matchwood.
Seems like things were even worse further down the coast. Five hundred missing near London and they've been finding bodies in trees. One report said an eight-foot wall of water had swept in at high tide. It just doesn't seem like the kind of thing that should happen in England. It's been kind of exciting for those of us that didn't lose any loved ones, but probably not as exciting as Wichita once Lois Moon arrives in town. Anyway, Holland has had it much worse. They have water forty feet deep in some places. Tell Betty, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands is going around in rubber boots, visiting the afflicted.
Pregnancy had kinda taken Betty's mind off royalty. Once she'd brung out all those layettes, packed away since she had Sherry, and crocheted a new shawl, the bloom seemed to go off her. Her fingers swelled up so bad she had to get her wedding band cut off. Then she got acid indigestion and varicose veins, but she would struggle on, ironing and starching all those frills she dressed her girls in, and fixing chicken-fried steak for Ed whatever hour of He day he showed up.
She hardly ever minded Sandie any more, just when Lois could really have used some help. Kirk was a grizzling child, always hungry, and Sandie had taken a disliking to him. The minute Lois was busy, changing his diaper or bathing him, Sandie'd start up, peppering the floor with baby powder or climbing up on the counters-top, helping herself to cookies or rat poison or something. Then Lo'd start hollering.
It was usually Gayle stepped into the breach. Sometimes she'd take Sandie, push her on a swing for a while. Sometimes she'd take both of them. Drive them around till Kirk fell asleep.
‘I'll do it while I can,’ she used to say. ‘Once we get our own little baby, I won't have the time.’
She hadn't fallen yet, but God knows they were trying. I never met a pair spent so much time in the sack. And she'd started collecting a few things, little bassinet covers and shawls and stuff. She even got a second-hand stroller from a girl who was clearing the post, husband going back into civvies.
‘Well, why ever'd you let her do that?’ Betty said. She seemed to think, just because she had to rest up with swollen ankles, I was supposed to take over supervising everybody's lives.
‘Why, Peggy,’ she said, ‘bringing items like that into the house before the baby's born and safe in your arms, before it's even on the way, that's just inviting bad luck. Any fool knows that.’
I liked having Gayle next door. She didn't mind how many times Crystal hit her ball over the fence. She'd just hit it back. Ask her if she wanted a popsicle.
Okey put a basket hoop in their back yard, so Vern was round there every chance he got. Sometimes Okey'd come calling for him to go out and play. Twenty-two, going on thirteen. He'd stand in the doorway, shy about stepping inside, and he'd bounce the ball, kerdunk, kerdunk, kerdunk, till Vern had gobbled down his food. They'd fool around till it was too dark to see the hoop and then they'd just sit out there, and Gayle'd sit with them, Okey's gangling arms wrapped around her, listening to all that talk about combat ceilings and take-off ground-runs.
There was a Combat Crew Training Wing rotating through Wichita, first six months we were there. That was where I met Pearl Petie and Ida Batten. I was glad to see some new faces. Some days I felt like I'd spent my whole life drinking Cola with Betty Gillis, watching her clip coupons.
Once a week Lois'd leave Kirk and Sandie with Gayle and we'd drive into Wichita with Pearl and Ida, see a movie. Far as Ida and Pearl were concerned, me and Lois were some kinda heroines, having been posted to England and lived to tell the tale. Sometimes, under that big Kansas sky, I could almost have been back in Norfolk. Then I'd look around me, see all those sparkling American smiles, and I'd remember.
‘Yup,’ Lois said. ‘You had to be the pioneering type, no two ways. Outside of that perimeter fence, it was a wilderness. We nearly got ambushed one time, remember, Peg?’ She winked at me. ‘We took the brats to the sea shore, just quietly minding our own business, and we got this bunch of natives surrounded us. If you and Betty hadn't drove away fast, they'd have overturned the cars.’
Pearl and Ida were lapping it up.
‘Envy,’ Lo said. ‘You ever have the misfortune to get sent there, you'll find envy is a big problem. See, they know we got the best of everything. Over there everything is nickels and dimes. And old. Whole darned place needs pulling down and starting over. They got roads been there since the Romans, must be a hundred years old. Two hundred.’
We had been at the Cowtown Drive-In to see Creature from the Black Lagoon. Reminded me of Vern climbing outta the shower. When I got home, there was the letter I had been hoping for, from Norfolk, England.
‘Well, as you heard,’ she wrote, ‘we have had a bit of excitement.’
Typical Kath.
We had terrible floods, hundreds of people drowned, some of them your lot. I told John Pharaoh we should have to get out but he didn't want to leave his traps. Then of course there was the dog. But the water kept on coming and that was blowing a gale. I said to him if that kept up we should have to clamber up on the roof, and we did have to. We were up there hours and I nearly fell in. I nearly fell asleep and dropped off that roof. My knees were all scraped. And when it got’ light, all you could see was water.
I thought we were goners, Peg. I said a prayer or two. Any road, then along come a row boat, with Nev Jex and two nice Yankee boys. They fetched us down and took us to Walsh. We had a lovely time there even though they had troubles of their own. They put us up in folding beds in the Officers’ Club, gave us stockings and aspirins and anything we needed, and we had fizzy drinks and hot meat dinners. It was a proper holiday, I can tell you.
Annie Howgego was in the bed next to me, worriting about her house, how she'd ever get it dried out, everything ruined, but I couldn't have cared less. I said to John Pharaoh when we were up on that roof, main thing was, not to get swept away. As long as you've got breath in your body, you can always make another eel grig. And if indoors got ruined, we'd just have to get our names down for a council house. If I'd had my way we'd have had our names down anyway, because that can take years. When the waters went down we hadn't got a house to go back to anyway. Dog was gone as well, of course, but she was thirteen so she'd had a good innings. She never did like water.
Audrey come out looking for us while we were at Walsh. She gave me money. She said that was from you and her which brought a tear to my eye, to think what kind friends you've been. I was going to put it in the Savings Bank because that'll come in handy when we get a place of our own again, but then I thought better of it, everybody in the Post Office knowing your business, so I've kept it tucked inside my brassiere. That'll be as safe as the Bank of England in there.
We're in huts at Adderley, used to be a POW camp, till the housing people find us somewhere and we've got all lovely new things, blankets and frying pans, sent in by people. Toys for the ones with kiddies, and nice warm coats. You should see the good stuff they give away. They say the Queen might be coming to see us, tell Betty. And one of your boys is getting the George Medal for rescuing trapped people. Anyone says a bad word about the Yanks, they'll soon get the rough edge of my tongue.
Well, I hope this letter finds you in good health. I expect you're glad to be back with your own kind. I expect Kansas must be a bigger place than Brakey. Anyho
w, I wish you all the best. I should like to hear how you're all going on.
Yours faithfully, your friend Kath Pharaoh.
P.S. John Pharaoh had a bad turn, must have been brought on by clinging to that roof waiting to get drowned. The man from the council said he might get disabled money, if he's not fit for work. He's getting us the forms.
I said to Lois, ‘You know Kath and John lost everything they had? Sea came in and took it all away.’
‘That so?’ she said. ‘Well that'll be a tough one for the loss-adjuster.’
Then she heard Gayle and Betty were knitting blanket squares to send, so she slipped me a few bucks.
She said, ‘We're a bit short, but if you're sending stuff to Kath …’
33
Vern and the boys were training on a plane called the Stratojet. Could top 600mph and carry 20,000 pounds of bombs, with rocket-assisted take-off capability if extra thrust was required. This was the kinda talk we had at our dinner table.
Funny thing, I never was interested in aviation and I hardly knew a Thunderjet from a horsefly, but there was something pretty about the B-47. I guess Vern thought so too, amount of time he spent down at the hangars. She had thin wings, real delicate-looking and swept back. He told me he'd seen them bend and’ quiver, when they hit a jet stream at high altitude one time.
Also, of course, she could be refuelled in flight, and she was capable of delivering death and destruction to a whole bunch of Reds. All in all, he thought she was a real babe.
She had a tendency to roll on take-off, but hell, those jocks loved that. I believe they probably prayed for strong cross-winds on days they were going up, so they could show they had what it took to keep that little lady under control.
‘Takes an extra helping of standard male insanity to make an aviator.’ That was Pearl Petie's theory. She was one of the few willing to discuss the facts of air force life. Betty would just change the subject. Lo'd turn up the radio. Gayle seemed like she had got the jitters under control, but Lois said she knew different. She reckoned when Okey was flying, Gayle was drinking.
The Future Homemakers of America Page 10