Our School Life Begins

It took us several months to get used to our new schedule, and we began to realize just what sacrifices we would have to make. For Jim, it was getting used to studying again, finding time to study, working hard until 11:00 at night when he was dead tired, and not being at home enough to watch the new things his little girl would do almost daily as she developed new skills. For me it was hardly ever seeing Jim except for a very short time in the afternoon between school and work, never having a "baby break" when Dad could take over for a while, and having to be alone all day and night in a very depressing apartment.

But perhaps one of the most unexpected and frustrating difficulties I had to face was the washing machine I had to use in our new apartment. I should have been thrilled to have use of one of the first automatic washers on the market...a Bendix front loading machine. Only the rich could afford one at this time, and our landlady was fairly wealthy. Her name was Evelyn Wood, the inventor of the first speed reading program which she had developed. She was an educator, very well known and much in demand to teach schools and organizations how to use her new method...at a fee, of course. She may have been very smart, but she was a lousy landlord (lady). Anyway, back to the washing machine. It was located in a section of the basement not occupied by our apartment and where we had a storage closet. So what was the problem? The problem was that occasionally the door of washer would come unlatched from the vibrating of the machine, and water would flood the basement. The first time it happened I thought that I must not have locked the door completely, and I was devastated. I swept the water from the flooded basement to the drain the best I could and opened all the basement windows to help dry things out. All the things I had stored in the closet were soaked, including some boxed wedding gifts, books, documents, and memorabilia that were important to me. I was scared to death what Sister Wood (she was a member of the Church) would say. Needless to say she was not happy. After this happened two or three more times I KNEW it wasn't my fault because I was so careful to make sure the door was locked securely. But I surely spent a lot of time crying as I mopped up the mess gain and again.

The first Christmas in that apartment was pretty bleak. We couldn't afford a Christmas tree nor decorations to trim one. Jeanie's only gift from Santa was a stuffed animal, Tramp, from Walt Disney's movie, "Lady and the Tramp". We spent some time with Grandma Knapp, Dad and Teun, and Jesse and Jean just to get us more in the holiday spirit. At least they had Christmas trees...and they all had gifts for Jeanie. But the thing that made this Christmas special and memorable to me was that I was able to surprise Jim with a small desk on which he could study. I had saved nickles and dimes from grocery money over the past six months, and with the influence of my dad on the furniture store owner who was a personal friend, I was able to get a great deal on the desk. As I look back now it was a pretty cheap (and I don't mean just in dollars), but at the time I thought it was pretty wonderful. That desk has since been used for many purposes, including a sewing table for me.

Jim made it through his first semester with reasonable grades considering he had taken mostly required (and not too interesting to him) subjects. And I had survived my first four months as a "widow" by taking long walks with Jeanie and talking to neighbors. We only had one car so I couldn't go anywhere. But even though at times I felt depressed and lonely, I tried to be "up" and positive when Jim came home. I wanted him to feel loved and supported in what he was doing. And by comparison he was sacrificing much more than me. He has since told me that if I had complained about our situation or lack of material things he would have quit school in an instant and gone to work to support us better. He also said that he could have easily used that as an excuse for him to quit when things were tough for him and he really wanted to give it all up. But he had too much pride to take the blame.

What kept us both going was the knowledge that an education would make a difference in what we could provide for our family in the future. And that was worth it!