Really!

There is no way to describe the shock when Dennis came home from work one day and just announced we were moving to Detroit.  If I had to be logical I would have known this would happen.  In the Ford Motor Company world it did seem that you had to move around as you progressed up the corporate ladder.  It was also well known that one of the steps up the ladder was a stint in Detroit.

Can't say Dennis was very happy about the news.  He was still kneeling down everyday facing the Southwest wanting to go back to Dallas.  Do I need to say he hated everything about New Jersey?  In four years he had managed to despise the house, made no friends and scoffed at all the people and everything I was involved in.  To him moving would be wonderful if it was only back to Dallas. Turning down a move was instant death to your career and as much as he complained about his job he was not about to quit and especially not to quit and stay in New Jersey.

I was beginning to realize why other Ford Motor Company wives were rather strange.  I had met so many wives that had moved as many as ten or fifteen times that seemed to only hang out with other company women or were alcoholics or never left the house if possible.  I actually went by one day to a lady's house I had met at a company party just to be nice and when she answered the door she said she didn't like people and to go away. Another one whose husband was Dennis's boss attended  company functions and was glad to meet other wives  even though you had met her ten times before.  Needless to say I stirred clear of them except when forced by company protocol like the one who invited us to dinner at 7:00 then proceeded to cook and drink until food was on the table at midnight.

It may sound like I am being a little selfish and whiny.  The moving around has not been easy for me and I always worry about what effect it has on the boys.  Leaving Dallas had it's fine points in that I was ready to go anywhere away from there.  The boys were young enough that it did not seem to bother them and the only drawback was my halfway good chance of getting into medical school there due to some people I knew.  Kansas City was a dream from day one.  Loved the house, the neighborhood, all my friends and could have easily stayed there the rest of my life and actually tried to figure out how I could stay.

Even with a great decorating business I was at heart a stay-at-home Mom  By working for myself I could get involved in the boys school and outside activities and be home when they got home each day. Dennis having a good job with really great benefits afforded me the ability to not have a full time job even though money did not always go as far as you might have wanted. I used to tell friends that I wished I could be happy staying home all the time and baking bread but at the same time being an independent career woman did not appeal to me either.  I was sort of lulled into a life of having my cake and eating it too.  So I did the right thing and moved to New Jersey.

Even though I remember crying most of the drive to New Jersey, hid in the house for six months and cried at the grocery store when I could not understand anything people said my neighbor, Sis, appeared on my porch wanting to be friends.  From that day on I loved everything about living in New Jersey.  I had an eighty year old house of my dreams, wonderful friends, a dream job at the Library, access to the shore, the mountains and nine Medical Schools within commuting distance. Wes and Wally were doing well in school, had lots of friends and could go anywhere they wanted on their bikes with no problems. 

Ah, life to Dennis was so simple. In the next breath after telling me we were moving he laid out the plan.  He would go to work in Detroit the next Monday, look for a house and I would come up for my allotted three days to give final approval.  In the meantime I would get the house ready to sell, put it on the market and there was no reason why in a month or six weeks we could not be happily settled in Detroit.  Meanwhile he could come home every other weekend. That sounded pretty good to him.

If I had not already been on the verge of tears it would have been laughable.  It was the first part of April.  School was not out until the middle of June and it was not logical to pull the boys out of school that close to the end of the year. Naturally I did not mention my dropping out of Physics and the Kaplan course or missing the test I had signed up for in May or finding a replacement at the Library as whatever I had going on did not matter.  I did somehow manage to put on my big girl shoes and nix the idea of moving before the end of school.

I did fairly well in conversations about the move in being polite until he left on Monday but it was difficult.  I wanted to tell him I was not moving under no uncertain terms but was not ready to go there yet.  I needed some time to come up with a plan and really decide what I wanted to do.  It did not take long for the entire town to learn of the impending move.  There were two boys who told all their friends and the word spread like wildfire. Once again I appeared positive about the whole thing when I was anything but.

Best defense I had was to just pick up and move on with life as it came at me day by day.  I certainly had enough to keep me busy that I could ignore even thinking about it and it was two and a half months away.

A couple of months before the moving announcement I was a little stressed with all I had to do.  Keeping the house picked up had become a real chore with Wes, Wally and all their little friends who came by to visit and play.  One day I had a genius idea to help with the toy explosion that appeared in the house everyday and I made a "Whoops Box".  It was a cardboard box that resided in the hall closet and anything of the boy's that failed to get picked up would end up in the Whoops Box.  If after three days the items was not claimed from the box it had to unimportant so it got thrown away (actually just hidden).
It certainly did not take more than four or five days for the two little guys to realize Mom was not kidding. All of a sudden the two of them were masters of neatness.

Not being stupid children they suddenly noticed that there was someone else in the house who tended to leave shoes, socks, keys, wallet, glasses and anything else that was not attached to his body laying all over the house. One morning there was a big commotion when it was time to go to work and low and behold he could not find his keys or his wallet. I boys were having a hard time not laughing and I knew instantly what was going on.  Wes and Wally had decided that what was good for them should be good for Dad.  We all looked high and low for the items until he was actually going to be late for work.  Wally found them in the Whoops Box - imagine that! Sorry but we could not help but laugh as he stomped out the door with keys, glasses and the Whoops Box in hand.  It was a pretty good lesson - not that they all remembered it for very long.

I think I forgot to mention that another reason I could not leave Riverton before school was over was I had volunteered to coach a girl's softball team.  For a very Dudley Dowright reason I, who had never played softball or had a daughter, was going to do WHAT!