THE MILLSTADT YEARS

THE MILLSTADT YEARS

We moved from the apartment in Millstadt to an old, two-story German house. German houses were built right up against the sidewalk. We used the back entrance so that never bothered us. The house had a big kitchen and was reasonably nice inside. It had an enclosed back porch that had multiple door-like inserts in the winter and screen inserts in the summer. The kids could play in there without me worrying about them. The outside of the house didn't look so great. I think it was old stucco. 

The rooms all connected so you could make a circle through the house and that's just what Diana did when she fell and hit her head on a solid cherry lamp table. She had been running through the house with a sack on her head. While she was making the circle, I was trying to catch up with her. By the time I got to her she was so covered in blood that it looked like she had fractured her skull. When I wiped the blood away, I saw that it was just about 1/2" long on her forehead but it was deep. I needed to take her to get stitches but no one was available to take me and I didn't have a car at the time. I tried calling friends but couldn't get through to anyone. I decided to walk the two blocks to Cindy Cooper's house. She was a friend of mine. She wasn't home, so I went to the neighbor lady's house across the street. She was a perfect stranger but she took us to the hospital. The rain was coming down hard, so much so that people's cars were stalling out in low areas around the hospital. Somehow she bypassed them and we made it to the ER. Diana began screaming bloody murder as they were stitching her up while holding her down. I was in agony just knowing how much pain she must be in. She walked out of the ER with a sucker and I asked her if it hurt. She just said "No" and ignored me.

I had another bad scare when one day Big John went into the basement and left the basement door open. Little John was crawling around the kitchen. I saw him at the top of the stairs just as he began his tumble down the stairs. Big John heard me squeal and turned around just in time to catch Little John at the bottom of the stairs before he hit the concrete. He was fine. It was as scary as Jamie roller skating down the basement stairs years before.

Backtracking to the time we moved there, we hadn't lived there very long until I discovered I was pregnant with Little John. Of course we didn't know the gender back then until they were born. I had a bad case of morning sickness just as I did with Diana. So the twins came up to help me take care of Diana. I was lying in bed one morning and all of a sudden I smelled bacon. The smell was nauseating and led to vomiting. I thought the twins were being so cruel to me when in fact they had no idea what morning sickness was like. They were there to help and I was chewing them out. I feel bad for that to this day. But bacon was the worst.

When Diana was 13 months old we took a trip to Arizona, then Disneyland. We went with John's cousin, Marvin Wall, and his mother but in separate cars. John and Marvin had another cousin living in Arizona who was married to a doctor. They were fixing up a house so they could flip it and that's where we stayed. They paid John to do work on the house. He earned enough for us to go to Disneyland. Diana wasn't afraid of any of the rides we went on. I loved it. The worst of the trip was no air conditioning in the car and we had to cross a desert. Rolling the windows down was inviting a blast furnace. Diana threw up. But otherwise she didn't complain. On the way to Arizona we went through Colorado. We also saw the Grand Canyon. John flew down into the canyon as a passenger.

Back at the German house, I didn't learn to drive until we moved to that house. The professors I worked with at SIU insisted that I take a driver's ed course while I was there, which I did. But I never got my license. I called the twins one day and asked them to come to my house and take me to get my driver's license. They came and let me practice driving a little while because it had been a while since I took the course. I scared them half to death but I was still determined to give it a try and they were still rooting me on. The guy giving the behind-the-wheel test was really nice and lenient. He gave me my license, much to my surprise. We were all overjoyed.

Until I got my license John rigged up a bicycle for the three of us to ride on. Little John sat in a little seat on the back fender and Diana had something mounted just in front of me. He made foot rests for her feet. His creation worked amazingly. We rode all over town. I went to rummage sales and the store and to visit friends. I didn't have to worry about traffic because it was such a small town and most people were at work. Those were some of my favorite times and the kids liked riding on the bicycle too.

We got a Chevy Nova while living in the German house. It was brand new. We used to visit Linda and Ron in St. Ann, Missouri, quite often. We had taken a trip there the evening before, round trip. The next morning I got in the car, started it and began to back out. I heard the awfullest loud noise; I thought the car was going to explode. I got out of the car in a hurry and left it partway in the street. We lived across the street from a service station so one of the mechanics came over, lifted the hood and looked at the engine. He said it was hanging by one bolt. God was definitely with us the evening before. The car had been recalled for that very reason but we didn't get our notice. I wrote the company a letter but never got a response. I didn't really expect to.

When we moved out of that house, Linda and Ron moved in. Their intention was to build a new house in the country. More about that to come.