Wes went back to Cleveland; Labor Day came and went, and Wally started the eighth grade. I was usually a little sad when summer was over and Wally was back in school. This year especially because the summer had been a lot of fun with both boys there.
Quite to my surprise that summer Charles bought a house almost directly behind mine. He had lived in an apartment somewhere in Southfield for more that ten years and never said anything about moving or buying a house. The house was a typical 1950's ranch and the previous owners had done an extensive remodel. They had done away with two bedrooms, created a larger bathroom and added a family room on the back of the house with a fireplace. It had been for sale for a long time as it is difficult to sell a one-bedroom home.
Naturally the house needed some fresh paint, new carpet and window coverings. Charles was in luck as he happened to know someone who did all that stuff. By the end of September the house was ready for him to move in. That was when he asked Wally and I if we wanted to move in with him. That should not have been a surprise, but it was.
This was 1988 and not the 1960's. I grew up with a set of morality rules that were outdated now but extremely hard to change. Did not Barney and I break up back in our college days because he wanted me to move to Chicago with him without a ring on my finger? It was a huge concern of mine to worry about what other people would think of me if I moved in with Charles. There was also the fact that I could not honestly say I was madly in love with him. In the three years we had been dating we had lots of fun and the relationship was just comfortable. He never once gave me advice on what I should or should not do, was always super nice to both Wes and Wally, we never even had `a small argument and he did love Bowser and the cats.
There were positive aspects to moving in with Charles. One was the fact that I would lose Dennis's monthly alimony payment. I never wanted the alimony in the first place and it was the main reason Dennis and I could not have a civil conversation about anything. Wally and I loved our little house but it really did not have anyplace for me to work except one small bedroom. Plus, there were times when it was difficult for me to pay the bills. Charles was willing to finish the basement in his house adding a bedroom for Wally and a sewing space for me. For better or for worse I made the decision to move in with him adding that I would pay half of the house payment each month. Somehow that made it seem like I was not just being a "kept woman".
We moved in the end of September. Perhaps he wanted us to move in as the furniture he had in his apartment only filled the living room and bedroom. With the addition of mine it became a fully furnished home. There was an exceedingly small room off of the kitchen that we made into a bedroom for Wally until we could get the basement done. The surprising thing about moving in with Charles was that nothing about our relationship changed. Charles had become such a fixture in our lives that we just saw a little more of him everyday than we had when we were living in two separate places. There were a lot of particularly good times before problems started popping up.
Halloween rolled around and of course Wally could not decide what he wanted to dress as until shortly before the big day. The band was going to be in a parade downtown and they all had to be in costume. Wally decided he wanted a Sgt. Pepper uniform which was fun to make. The day before Halloween he came home from school and said his friend Jeremy did not have a costume. Jeremy told him he wanted to be a cat so off we went to the fabric store to purchase a pattern and several yards of fake fur. If I was proud of Wally for getting me to make the Sgt. Pepper jacket early, I ended up staying up all night making a cat costume for Jeremy. I guess it would not have been Halloween if I had not had to stay up all night making a costume.
Oh, and by the way, it also is not Halloween if you do not have second degree burns on your hands from making hundreds of popcorn balls!
It was about this same time when I got very tired of my two tenants in the Dearborn house. In the six months with the two of them living there they still had not worked out whose turn it was to mow the lawn, use the washer/dryer and were still calling me at 2:00 in the morning complaining about the other one. One of them had not even paid rent since the first month she lived there. Perhaps I was not cut out to be a landlord, so I did an easy fix for the problem. I put the house up for sale, took the dining room table, china cabinet and buffet plus the antique Detroit Jewel Stove home and sold the house in one day for a few thousand dollars more than I paid for it. That problem solved!
Naturally it was time to gear up for the ice show. Ron had given me two costumes to be the chairman of and both were a little complicated. The auditions for the show were the week of Thanksgiving and Wally had turned fourteen so he was old enough for the adult cast. He wanted to try out even though he was not a very strong skater and would need to replace his hockey skates with figure skates. This was going to be interesting.
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