Storm's A Comin'

Looks Like A Storm Is Coming

It wasn't easy after the disastrous reunion to make life go back to the old normal.  The helpful thing was that there lots of boxes to unpack and the boys did not start school until a few days after Labor Day. 

The subdivision was fairly new so there were not many families and we had empty lots all around us.  There was another Ford family but they were not very friendly so the only other kid Wes and Wally could play with was Bryce who was still living in the Holiday Inn waiting for their house to be done.  They could go back to the motel to swim but Bryce came over a lot as the boys just liked being in a house with all their belongings.

Wes turned fourteen right before school started and it was one of the few years that there was no birthday party.  Those are pretty impossible when you have no friends so I gave him the option of doing whatever he wanted to do.  First he ordered a chocolate cheesecake.  Hmm...I had never made a cheesecake before so I went out and got all the stuff including the special pan it called for and whipped one up.  Must say it was pretty good for my first attempt but the thing must have weighed ten pounds.  I don't think we were ever able to eat the whole cheesecake and I did discover later that it must have been a commercial type recipe as you do not normally make one in a twelve inch pan with three boxes of cream cheese.  He chose the fair that happened to be going on as his place to go and I must say we all had a pretty good time.

School finally started with Wes going into high school in the ninth grade while Wally went into the fourth grade.  Being new at the school from the start of the semester was a good thing since there were a lot of other kids that were new to Farmington and Farmington Hills.  Making friends was pretty easy for both of them, especially Wes.  Lucky for me as there was a school bus that came by to pick them up and bring them home.

The good thing about the bus was that Dennis decided after moving into the garage with the house attached I could get rid of the company lease car I had and drive our 1950 Mercury after the moving company repaired the hood. Now I loved the old Mercury and it was fun to drive but my so called auto expert husband had put a bigger engine in it, all by his little self, and I guess you could say it was not always dependable. One afternoon I left Wally at home and ran Wes to meet the bus for his soccer game.  Funny thing was that we got about halfway there and oil started pouring out of the top of the engine.  I pulled into a service station to survey the damage which did not look good. The mechanic said I could not drive it which was a no brainer as
there was oil all over the engine compartment.

Luckily I called Bryce's Mom, Cindy, she came and got Wes to take him to the bus then went by the house to pick up Wally so he would not be alone.  I had called Dennis and he said he would come by in an hour and a half and fix it when he got off work.  Swell.  Interesting as I looked over the engine mishap I noticed that the copper tubing oil line had broken at the connection point.  Hmm...my pretty sharp memory seemed to recall that we had bought a 1940 Ford Truck once, took it home and looked it over and Dennis took it back because it had copper tubing brake lines.  His point that you never used copper tubing because it doesn't last was suddenly well remembered. I did point that out to him for which I got a huge frown.  About a month later after another 1950 Mercury oops he ordered me a new lease car.

The boys and I started skating every Wednesday evening and then I started going on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  Detroit is actually the city that never sleeps.  With the auto plants working three shifts a day there are always people out and looking for things to do.  That town has a bowling ally, a roller skating rink or in winter an ice rink on every corner. The Tuesday and Thursday morning skaters were retired people who skated for exercise instead of walking in the mall.  A lot of them went to some rink to skate every morning of the week. Along with skating there is also coffee drinking in the snack bar so it was very easy to make skating friends.

Skating friends came in handy for networking.  There was a gentleman who came every once in awhile who did insurance repair.  He went into homes that a minor fire or flood and fixed everything.  Since I was looking for a way to become a little more financially independent I told him I did hang wallpaper.  It did not take long for him to need some help so at least it was a start on getting back into the decorating business.  He was great to work for and there were some really interesting jobs and people.

One day he called and asked if I would be willing to work in a black family's home.  Actually I was really surprised by that but I was also beginning to learn some of Detroit's history.  I met several parents of the boy's friends and when I would talk about going to downtown Detroit to do this or that a lot of them were surprised.  Seems like there was a huge population of the outlying areas that had not been in the city limits of Detroit since race riots of 1964.or  White-flight from the city limits of Detroit began leaving a lot of neighborhoods empty and the beginning of decades of problems in the city itself. The house I ended up going to was in the University Park area and was a lovely two story brick with arches for doorway and cove ceilings.  The couple who lived there could not have been more gracious although they did look a little surprised when a Caucasian woman wallpaper hanger showed up.  

It did not take long before I began getting calls from homeowners themselves wanting me to do work for them. Business started - check.  I had not forgotten about medical school but needed some time to establish residency.  I also needed someone in Michigan in the medical 

field to be a reference so I decided to go to Ann Arbor just thirty five miles down the road and take the Graduate Record Exam.  There was logic in that decision since I did not think anyone from the medical school or a famous doctor would build a house next door I would go take a class or two at the place where the medical school was.  Dennis was furious but the test was really easy.  Step towards future goal - check.

Michigan did have it's positives the best being the weather. Every season was beautiful as the summers were mild, the falls were spectacular and winter was wonderful.  I have never thought there was such a thing as too much snow.  In Michigan it arrived in November and stayed until March or even April.  All the roads were cleared by 7:00 am and there was never any day that school was closed due to the beautiful white stuff. There was something quite exhilarating about going out before dawn to shovel the driveway.  The snow muffles all sound so it is amazingly quiet, beautiful and really great exercise.

Several months after we moved into the house a letter addressed to me and mailed to good old General Delivery, our address for the duration of the stay in the motel. That was not the only letter that arrived late or not at all but this one was from Barney.