Chapter 14 - The Years Following the War

In June of 1946 I graduated from MU and found a job in Chemical Lab. I also started dating Dale Bunch. We were married in August of 1947 and moved into a three-room apartment very near my parent’s apartment at 311 East 43rd Street. This worked out very well. We often had dinner with them on Sunday evenings and afterwards watched TV on the seven-inch, black and white that Cecil had recently purchased. There were no national networks yet and the only programs we could watch were the Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians Show, the Sing Along with Mitch Show, and the Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin Show. All of these were recorded on tape then rebroadcast from a local station.

Things began getting better. In 1949 Daddy bought a brand new Feld Chevrolet sedan. This changed their lifestyle in so many ways. At last they could go out shopping and visit relatives. Daddy could drive to work at the Marlene Dress Company. They met new friends when they started going to events at the Brand Auxiliary Post, a branch of the American Legion. Mother, Daddy, Dale and I could take weekend trips around the state of Missouri.

In June of 1950 the big event was Jean’s marriage to Reg Robertson. They were married at the Country Club Christian Church in Kansas City. After their honeymoon they moved to an apartment in the Plaza area. In the spring of 1951 Jean announced that she was pregnant and the baby would arrive sometime in December. I had been married almost four years by that time and felt a little sad that I could not make that same announcement. But only six weeks later I would be announcing my own pregnancy. My baby would arrive sometime in January of 1952.

Later that same year, I began to notice that when Daddy climbed the three flights up to their third floor apartment, he had to stop at each landing and rest for a few minutes. This was not good. He was beginning to experience chest pains at night. He made an appointment with his friend, Dr. Morris Ginsberg, a Heart Surgeon at Menorah Hospital. Dr. Ginsberg took his chest pains seriously and put him on prescriptions, warning him that climbing the three flights of stairs was dangerous for him. One night Daddy woke up with such severe pain that we called Dr. Ginsberg, and arrangements were made for him to be transported to the hospital that very night.

Daddy was being treated for angina pectoris, a disease caused when the heart is not getting enough oxygen. Fortunately Dr. Ginsberg knew what to do. Daddy recovered and he never had another angina attack. He carried nitroglycerin tablets with him in case a minor symptom appeared

While Daddy was in the hospital we found a first floor apartment in a house across the street from the third floor apartment. Here is a picture of the house at 4312 McGee.

Mother began packing and all of us helped with the move. As she got the packing boxes filled Dale, Reg, Jean and I carried boxes to the house. Mother had filled a large box with all her best china and asked Reg to handle it carefully and to set it down in a very safe place. When he returned she asked him where had put the box of china. Now Reg liked to tease her. He told her that he set the box on the railing of the front porch and he thought it would be quite safe there. “Don’t worry, Myrtle, it does teeter a bit but I do not think it will fall”, he said. He actually had placed them safely inside on the living room floor. When Reg packed the cleaning supplies under the kitchen sink, he found 13 cans of Dutch Cleanser there. He turned to Myrtle and asked, “How could anyone ever need that much Dutch Cleanser!” She explained that she scoured kitchen and bathroom sinks and the bathtub with Dutch Cleanser frequently. Dutch Cleanser is pure grit and tortuous to the hands. Although the porcelain was kept clean, the effects of the frequent scouring were apparent on the porcelain.

When Daddy came home from the hospital the house was ready for him and he could continue his recovery. He could enjoy quiet and solitude for only a few months however because we had some important news for him. He was going to be a grandfather in December of that year. In January of the next year he was going to be a grandfather a second time.

Reggie was born in December, 1951 and Brenda in January, 1952. Nothing could have been better medicine for him. He recovered and eventually started back to work.

Mother’s name became “Nana” and Daddy’s name became “Cece”. It was a new world.