Wednesday, January 05, 2005
JANUARY 1985....
January 1985 was much like every January as far as weather expectations. Very warm and then a jet stream brings the frigid air from Canada which quickly makes snow and/or ice for our area. I always begin the New Year with sorting, clearing out and organizing. After the holiday decorations are put away, the new gifts are incorporated into the household and then…….the cleaning begins. I get a spurt of new energy after the first of the year so I make it work for me while I’m in the mood.
This particular year I was still working at Fas-Serv 4-days a week and as clerk for the Driver’s Examiners 3-days a week. The little time I had at home was savored. Warren did the heavy cleaning for me and ran all of the necessary errands…did all the bill paying. When I could be home we spent the time together…often with him reading to me the three evenings I had at home while I crocheted on a bedspread. George gave him a new book for Christmas…. Hunt for the Red October. It was the first Tom Clancy book we became acquainted with. Warren read some during the day after his “work” was finished…. then in the evening would read it aloud for me. We simply couldn’t put that book down. All day at work I couldn’t wait to get home to hear what happened next.
I had never seen or been on a submarine in my life, but through the descriptive writing of Tom Clancy I could see, hear and smell that sub. We fell in love with his books and went on a search for more. Warren had served on a sub in WW11 in the south Pacific and never talked much about it but this book with the new nuclear and larger “boats” (as the Navy calls them) fascinated him as well.
During January my work hours (as before) allowed the time for me to attend Sunday morning church and choir practice on Wednesday nights. January 12th, John called from Rock Island and told us they were going to have their first church service the next day….Sunday. He was full of enthusiasm and had worked very hard to do calling and try to gather up a congregation. Barbara was 6-months pregnant with LJ and had helped all she could. We had a good visit and wished them well.
The weather got ugly by the 18th of the month and so we didn’t have a lot of applicants for driver’s licenses. During those times there was a lot of coffee drinking, visiting and story telling about “the old days.” We would laugh our heads off ….most of the guys I worked with should have been comedians for they could impersonate each other so well it was scary. I always enjoyed hearing about past times and respected the men for their hardships endured. In our rural area, there are two traveling crews that go to 9-counties and 13-license offices to give written, eye and driving tests. You rode to your location with the crew…worked with them all day…ate with them at lunchtime…and rode home with them. We were like family to one another and actually spent more time together than we did our families.
This was in the days before PC’s were a household item and cell-phones were just something on Sci-Fi. Therefore, we exchanged a lot of phone calls with family and lots of letters were being written in this time frame. We were concerned about John and Barbara, especially since she had rarely, if ever, been out of the South. Here they were in Rock Island, IL. in a very bad winter. Being pregnant on top of it, she was away from her family at this special time. I busied myself making a crocheted baby afghan for their expected arrival at John’s request. He had seen one I made for Becky’s first baby, Jennifer, and he wanted one just like it for their baby. Of course I was happy to oblige. Then I set about making a Teddy Bear quilt as well.
The 20th of January we watched the Super Bowl. We had -14* below zero with windy conditions and blowing snow. The 49er’s beat the Dolphins bad. The month finished out with terrible weather but with one month closer to Spring….and that’s a good thing.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
This particular year I was still working at Fas-Serv 4-days a week and as clerk for the Driver’s Examiners 3-days a week. The little time I had at home was savored. Warren did the heavy cleaning for me and ran all of the necessary errands…did all the bill paying. When I could be home we spent the time together…often with him reading to me the three evenings I had at home while I crocheted on a bedspread. George gave him a new book for Christmas…. Hunt for the Red October. It was the first Tom Clancy book we became acquainted with. Warren read some during the day after his “work” was finished…. then in the evening would read it aloud for me. We simply couldn’t put that book down. All day at work I couldn’t wait to get home to hear what happened next.
I had never seen or been on a submarine in my life, but through the descriptive writing of Tom Clancy I could see, hear and smell that sub. We fell in love with his books and went on a search for more. Warren had served on a sub in WW11 in the south Pacific and never talked much about it but this book with the new nuclear and larger “boats” (as the Navy calls them) fascinated him as well.
During January my work hours (as before) allowed the time for me to attend Sunday morning church and choir practice on Wednesday nights. January 12th, John called from Rock Island and told us they were going to have their first church service the next day….Sunday. He was full of enthusiasm and had worked very hard to do calling and try to gather up a congregation. Barbara was 6-months pregnant with LJ and had helped all she could. We had a good visit and wished them well.
The weather got ugly by the 18th of the month and so we didn’t have a lot of applicants for driver’s licenses. During those times there was a lot of coffee drinking, visiting and story telling about “the old days.” We would laugh our heads off ….most of the guys I worked with should have been comedians for they could impersonate each other so well it was scary. I always enjoyed hearing about past times and respected the men for their hardships endured. In our rural area, there are two traveling crews that go to 9-counties and 13-license offices to give written, eye and driving tests. You rode to your location with the crew…worked with them all day…ate with them at lunchtime…and rode home with them. We were like family to one another and actually spent more time together than we did our families.
This was in the days before PC’s were a household item and cell-phones were just something on Sci-Fi. Therefore, we exchanged a lot of phone calls with family and lots of letters were being written in this time frame. We were concerned about John and Barbara, especially since she had rarely, if ever, been out of the South. Here they were in Rock Island, IL. in a very bad winter. Being pregnant on top of it, she was away from her family at this special time. I busied myself making a crocheted baby afghan for their expected arrival at John’s request. He had seen one I made for Becky’s first baby, Jennifer, and he wanted one just like it for their baby. Of course I was happy to oblige. Then I set about making a Teddy Bear quilt as well.
The 20th of January we watched the Super Bowl. We had -14* below zero with windy conditions and blowing snow. The 49er’s beat the Dolphins bad. The month finished out with terrible weather but with one month closer to Spring….and that’s a good thing.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
