The Best of the Ice Shows

With Christmas over it was time to get to work  on the basement.  Wally desperately needed a larger bedroom and one that wasn't a short cut to get to the family room.  With both costumes and draperies to be made I needed a place to sew that did not involve crawling all over the carpet to lay things out.   

I did not realize until we started the project that Charles did not know anything about carpentry or carpentry tools.  He had a few tools but the few times he attempted to use them should have made Wally and I aware that this was going to be very interesting. Luckily in my previous life I had helped on a few construction projects and had a full set of Time Life do-it-your-self books. In order to attach the studs to the exterior concrete walls Charles purchased a RamsetHammerShot0.22 Caliber Single Shot Tool.  In plain English that was a gun that shot nails through the stud into the concrete.

Anyone who knows me knows that guns are not my thing.  The only time I ever fired one was when I had a cute guy ask me to go rabbit hunting in the snow in college.  I fired the gun once to scare the rabbits away so they would be safe.  Needless to say the RamsetHammer thing scared me to death. But Charles happened to be a real gun loving person who owned a lot of vintage firearms as well as those things people use to kill each other. So, Wally and I would cut the studs to length and Charles could fire away.

When all the walls were built and in place it was past the time I needed to be working on the ice show costumes so the rest of the basement was going to have to wait.  I was very excited and pleased that Wally made the cast.  It was also a little scary from the aspect that he was only fourteen without ten years of ice skating behind him.  The good thing about Wally was that he had been roller skating since he could walk.  The conversation from roller skates to ice skates is very easy.  Put a pair of roller skates on an ice skater and get ready to watch them fall down.  There is something about the weight of the wheels that they have a great deal of difficulty in knowing how to handle the wheels over little thin blades.

From the first of February to showtime the last weekend of April always seemed to just be a big blur of busy days and nights.  Between Wally and I there were seven costumes to make and one that I was in charge of. Add into that I did have a business, Wally had school and poor Charles only got to see us coming or going out the door.  By the first part of April you begin to wonder if you are going to live through this, why did I ever sign up for this and everyone just gets sick of rehearsal and everyone in the show.

Then the magic happens.  The sets begin to be built, bleachers fill the empty space around the ice, the forty foot tall curtains are hung and the arena takes on a totally different look.  You can begin to see how awesome this show will be and how the routines you have spent hours learning fit together.  The Las Vegas number has a huge slot machine with a teflon ramp the skaters will fly down, the Gypsy number will have a huge circular box that will move across the ice with skaters on top and all those glow in the dark orange costumes will be beautiful as the skaters fly across the ice under black light in the Main Street number.

From opening night through all eight sold out performances you tend to forget how many hours and how much work it took to get through the show.  Wally did really well skating with all the seasoned skaters.  He even got over the fact that he had a pink spandex suit with huge ostrich feathers on his shoulders or how much he hated the sixties costume with only fringe covering his belly. I can remember that years later he said none of his friends ever got to skate in an ice show. I took that as a positive comment.  Hopefully he will be ready to be in the show again next year as it was fun to have him in it with me.

Real life was hard took go back to.  There was always a feeling of let down for a week or so after the show was over. Wally was finishing up middle school and the final band concerts with the best band teacher ever was hard for him. He had summer camp to look forward to and Wes would get his dragster license that summer.  Charles' daughter in New York was planning her wedding for August.  All in all, it turned out to be a very interesting summer.

Much Happier Holidays

 

Well, after two months of living "in sin" as my Mother put it things were going pretty well.  I somehow managed to be a nice polite daughter as Mother raged on how awful I was.  It really did not bother me that she said she would not come to visit if I was living with "him".  Naturally she would not call him by name as it might sound like there was some possibility that one day she would change her mind and like him.  I would miss the shopping trips tp New York and lunch at the Plaza Hotel with her, but I would not miss having to act like I was the perfect twelve-year old daughter she expected me to be.

I always hated holidays when I was growing up and all the years I was married to Dennis.  My parents were not good with the extra time off work that meant they had to spend more time together.  Holidays gave them too much time together in the house. Usually they were not speaking to each other after the first day.  Thanksgiving was always quiet as we had no big family get togethers.  A few times Uncle Tom was invited to come over for dinner which made for the only pleasant Thanksgivings we ever had.

Dennis had grown up with tons of family around for every holiday.  There were years when we went to Warner and joined in the melee but most of the time his parents came to our house.  Seems like I spent the day cooking, then cleaning up while everyone else watched television or took naps.  I was never a big fan of turkey but only liked the dressing.  That was a good thing since there is that chemical in the turkey that causes drowsiness and I certainly could not have gotten things cleaned up if I had eaten any.

Thanksgiving with Charles was a big deal.  Since Christmas was not his thing Thanksgiving had to be special.  The first year we were going together I had his daughter, Jamie and his ex-wife for dinner.  His ex=-wife, Claire, liked to point out that I could be quite attractive if I wore more make-up and nicer clothes.  It was quite humorous as she said all this while standing in front of me with more make-up than the cosmetics counter at Saks carried and so much bling on her clothes you were temporarily blinded by the sight.

But this year Wally went to his Dad's for the eekend while Charles, Jamie and I flew to New York.  Charles's oldest daughter, Brianna, lived in White Plains with her significant other, Rob, so the family was gathering at their home.  It was really a fun weekend with the announcement that Brianne and Rob who had lived together for seven years decided it was time to get married.  The wedding was to be in the spring so there was lots of talk about the wedding plans.  Charles and I managed a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  They were having a special showing of the work of Diego Rivera, the artist who painted the twenty-seven murals depicting the history of Ford Motor Company and the Industrial Revolution at the Detroit Institute of Arts.  It was outstanding but my favorite section of the Museum was the Egyptian section with all the artifacts from the Pyramids.  Every time we went to New York Charles had to go visit the Museum which made every trip fun.... even with Claire tagging along.

When it came to Christmas Charles wondered if we were going to have a Christmas tree.  Guess he did not realize that in the Christian world the Christmas tree is one of the best parts of the holiday.  So, we went and got a tree.  He got to learn the art of putting it into a stand that was made for a much smaller tree an how much work it was to make it the most beautiful tree in the world.  Some how he did not realize the tree did not need to have a bare two-foot trunk or that he should have gotten the salesman to cut it off.  A Skill saw is difficult to use on a tree that was too big to hold still.  When Wally carried seven moving boxes in from the garage Charles did not know they were lights and decorations that would take two days to get on the tree.  Wally and I had lots of secret smiles over his learning process.

The best part of the entire holiday was Charles asking me if he should take Wally shopping for gifts for me.  I thought it was incredibly sweet as Wally never had money to go shopping unless I gave it to him.  They went one evening and both came back all smiles.  Wes arrived on Christmas Eve, so it was a fun day.

After Christmas Wally, Charles and I went skiing at Cadillac, Michigan.  They had night skiing which Wally and I tried once.  Once was enough as you could not see the moguls in the dark.  We both went flying a couple of times but did not get hurt.  This was the beginning of snowboards being used.  I was happily skiing along when suddenly, I had something hit me in the back and I went flying.  Some jerk on a snowboard hit me and then just kept going.  No more night skiing for me.

Wes stayed at Charles's house while we were gone and worked at the skating rink in Troy.  Somehow Bowser got the remains of the Pumpkin Pie and chowed down on it.  Pumpkin Pie does not seem to set well with dogs and Wes needed a lesson in how to clean dog poop from carpet.  It was a good thing Charles loved Bowser more than any of us and just felt sorry for the poor Bowser.

All in all, Christmas was the best especially since my friend Claire had a Black-Tie Christmas Party.  Charles rented a Tux and I got all dressed up and we both had a wonderful time.

Ron had cast Wally in the ice show so in January we started going to the ice rink in Birmingham to get Wally's skating up to par.  Most of the guys in the show were past the age of thirty and had been skating since they could walk.  The younger guys were all junior champions of one sort or another.  This plus all the costumes I oversaw and the ones I had to make for Wally and I were going to keep me terribly busy for the next few months.  This was going to be an interesting year with the ice show.

What About Charles?

 

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.

Wesley

They grow up so fast.  I imagine that I am not the only mother who could not wait until they could tie their own shoes, be glad when they are old enough to go to school,  wondered who the brilliant person was that invented little league sports or could never understand how such a skinny little body could have so much energy or talk so much.  Then suddenly, they are graduating from high school.

Wesley, my first born and known as Wes, was somewhat like living in the middle of a whirlwind.  When he learned to walk, he could only run.  When he learned to talk, he was never quiet. As he went through twelve years of school I watched him turn into a pretty amazing kid.  He became a fantastic artist even though he would only draw race cars or drag strip layouts.  He was highly intelligent but did not have time for homework.  He was involved in soccer, baseball, speed skating and bicycle motor cross.  He made friends easily and seemed to survive four moves across the country and four different school systems.

There were lots of girl friends but a few months before the Senior Prom he had been dating a girl named Michelle that I have to admit Wally and I really liked.  When he brought her home for dinner she actually ate and talked and laughed.  That was a pleasant surprise over some of the other ones that came to dinner.  We really fell in love with her when I cooked Passover dinner for Charles, and she loved all the food even though she was not Jewish.

The Prom was at a huge hotel in Detroit and my favorite picture I have of Wes is the one where he is giving Michelle her flowers.  How did this boy I had chased around the front yard with a broom, made numerous trips to schools to talk to teachers and principals, took to the emergency room more times than I can remember or would force himself to throw up after breakfast so he did not have to go to school (it never worked) turn into this dashing young man?

I had no idea what time Wes got home from the Prom, but his car was in the driveway when I got up.  I tiptoed upstairs to check on Wes and Wally and much to my surprise there was Michelle asleep in Wes's bed in one of his t-shirts.  Wally was in his bed but no Wes.  I breathed a big sigh of relief when I found Wes asleep in the basement.  Wally and I heard how much fun they had at the Prom during breakfast then Wes took Michelle home in some of my clothes. Guess times had changed since I went to a Prom as I would have been dead showing up the next morning in someone else's clothes.

After school was out and graduation was over Wes settled into working at the skating rink close to our house. He and Wally made a few trips to see their Dad in Cleveland, then Wally went off to summer camp.  The big surprise of the summer was the day my college roommate, Cathie rolled up in our driveway unannounced.  Having her around was always a happy time for us all.  Wes had been in love with Cathie since he was five years old.  When he was about twelve and she came to visit us in New Jersey she would pick him up after school and whisk him off to a drugstore where they would eat M & M's and drink cherry cokes.  His friends lined the sidewalk at school to see the beautiful blonde that took Wes out every afternoon.

One evening Charles wanted to take us all out to dinner and since Cathie was a vegetarian we went to a vegetarian restaurant.  Wes was not happy with the choice of places to eat but he was always at his best when Cathie was around.  He ordered something that required mustard which arrived in a small bowl but was not quite the color of mustard he was used to.  He rather loudly inquired if they had any American mustard.  He did not have the chance to get an answer as Cathie told him in a very sweet voice to put some on his beautiful lips and try it.  He ate all the mustard without a complaint.  I think Charles became quite smitten with Cathie that same evening, but I had learned many years before that she had that effect on everyone.

One weekend late that summer Wally, Charles and I went camping with a warning to Wes that there was to be no party while we were gone.  That fell on deaf ears.  When we arrived home the house looked too clean.  A trip to the basement revealed two huge garbage sacks full of beer cans and liquor bottles.  Too bad they cleaned but forget to take the trash out. Upon quizzing the next door neighbor I found out it had been a weekend of young people coming and going.  I asked why he did not call the police and he said that with Michigan law about teenagers and parties I could have been arrested.

I guess I lost it and called his Dad to come and pick Wes up.  He was scheduled to start college at Kent State in a few weeks, so it was not that big of a deal.  When Wes got home that evening I told him I knew about the party and that his Dad was coming to get him the following weekend.  I guess he was grown up enough to realize he was not supposed to have a party and now he had to face the consequences.  He left on good terms with me which made the whole thing a lot easier.

I learned several things having Wes around that year.  First, as a parent you will worry about them their entire life.  Graduating from high school or college or going out on their own or getting married does not change that.It is a parent thing. Second, I learned what a good kid Wes really was.  For all the silly slip ups he had made that year and how upset he was when I divorced his Dad he realized that I was still Mom.  I realized how really lucky I was.

I Loved My Job

All seasons in Michigan are beautiful.  I cannot say which was my favorite as I loved the snow and wearing sweaters in winter.  Spring was always an awesome sight with leaves popping out on the trees and the flowers blossoming, summer was nice and fall was beautiful with all the colors of the trees.  Mother's Day was the first real hint of spring and we had a Mother's Day tradition.

When we bought the first house in Carrollton, Texas and Wes was newborn the idea came up that if you planted flowers on Mother's Day they would do well.  After the divorce the boys did not have money to buy all the flowers, so their job was to dig the holes and plant what I had purchased.  
(Interesting that I took the boys shopping for presents for their Dad.  Nice me!)  This particular year was a disaster and shows that I had my "bad Mother" moments.

The day started out beautiful and I was up before dawn.  I placed all the plants where I wanted them planted and was really looking forward to the day.  Then 9:00 came and went, 10:00 found the boys still sacked out in their beds.  For some reason I just totally lost my cool, charged up the stairs and yelled "When are you going to get out of bed and wish me a Happy Mother's Day?"  Do I need to say my outburst did not go well?  They were totally shocked and more than a little mad.  Although I tried to be nice during the planting and then later out to lunch it took them a long time to get over my outburst.  I must admit it was terrible and it is something they bring up occasionally around Mother's Day.

My awful attitude that Mother's Day was probably because I was horribly behind in work partially due to the ice show.  I loved being self-employed since I could make time for the boys, go ice skating, go to school things and whatever else came along.The problem was finding the proper balance.  When I did not balance everything there was no money in the bank.   Having a real job, as I have always called them, might have been easier but not nearly as much fun.  Besides I was not sure what I could do with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Chemistry.

Decorating was something I had always done for myself  because it was cheaper.  I had developed a dislike of "real" decorators who arrived at a client's home all dressed up and laid out expensive plans never taking the homeowners ideas to heart.  In Kansas City in the neighborhood we built a house in a certain decorator was called upon to do most of the new homes.  I used to laugh because everyone of them had the same draperies in their living room as their neighbors.  Maybe just a difference in fabric or color.  Through the years I learned that if you asked the right questions and listened more than you talked it was easy to come up with a decorating plan that worked for them and their family.

A friend once told me the reason I stayed so busy was I did not send contractors to a house to paint, wallpaper, install draperies, pick up pieces to upholster or do some small carpentry job.

They only saw me with whatever crew I had working at the time.  I was not ever dressed to the nines but might have a little paint or wallpaper paste somewhere on my clothes.  The best part was the clients who became friends and all the nice people I met through the years.  Because I did all my own sewing of drapes, bedding, valances and headboards and hated to make more than two of anything alike it gave me the opportunity to be creative.  It was a dream job except for the hours as it took many all-nighters to get everything done.   Guess Mother waking me up everyday at 5:00 am taught me to not sleep much.    

As May slowly turned into June it was soon time for Wes's graduation events.  Charles came by almost every afternoon to see Bowser and maybe take us to dinner.  I guess he decided he needed to see more of me as he announced that he had bought a house directly behind mine.  Not sure if that was good news or not.                                   

                                 

Learning Lessons

In the world of the Southfield Ice Company the putting the production together took all year.  Once  one show was over the plans for the next show began. It was a good thing that for the working mother of currently two boys a lot could be done at home until the first of March.  It was at that time that the ice hockey games were over and the ice belonged to the show.  Practice began which meant every evening and all day on Saturday and Sunday until showtime the last weekend in April.

I was lucky, in a way, not being in very many numbers so practice for me was not everyday.  Also nice that I finally decided that Wally was old enough to stay home rather than me dragging him to the rehearsals
and Wes was around most of the time so he was not alone.

The bad part but good at the same time was that I became friends with the show director, Ron.  I was amazed by his ability to put all aspects of the show together.  He chose the theme, the skating numbers, the choreography, the music and the set designs. He also designed the costumes and to my fascination, made all the headpieces and hats. Instead of just showing up for costume meetings or rehearsals I found myself going by the arena during the day when I had time.  There were other women who showed up everyday to sew or help with other aspects of the show.  

Ron was a perfectionist in every thing he did.  There was good reason for me to have been quite frightened of him for the first two years of being in the show.  He was not shy about yelling at people for the slightest mistake in front of the entire cast.  Every piece of cut fabric needed to have a perfectly straight edge, every costume look exactly the same, every drop of hot glue precisely where it belonged and never was there an excuse for someone to be absent from a rehearsal unless they were competing in the World Championships.  That may sound harsh but that was the reason Southfield had the greatest amateur show in the country. 

For all his expecting perfection from the entire cast and crew he was always willing to teach everyone anything they wanted to learn.  It took me taking what little spare time I had or what time I stole from work to realize how much I could learn from Ron. What I learned from him about every aspect of the show like costume design, drafting patterns, sequining and beading, the construction of the hats and headpieces and set construction was invaluable to me in later years.  The fact fact I had led a little sheltered life and not really known any gay men was a real life lesson.  He had his ups and downs in relationships and was very open and honest when he talked about his feelings.  It did not take me long to realize that he had the very same feelings as a heterosexual person. I will always consider myself very lucky to have had him as a friend and teacher.

                                                                              Ron
The show went off very well that year with the usual sold out performances.  There were no major errors and Ron did not have to yell to much.  It was always a terrific let down the day after the show was over.  It was something you had worked on for pretty much a whole year and the all of a sudden it was over.  But I always managed to live through the "letdown" as I did have other people that depended on me.

Perhaps it is a rite of passage but there is something about being a senior in high school that makes kids, maybe more so boys than girls, think they can do just about anything.  When I was growing up the legal age for boys to purchase beer was twenty-one but for girls it was eighteen (or at least that is what the guys told me).  There were numerous occasions when I would purchase a couple of cases of beer for the guys on a Friday afternoon.  Not stellar behavior on my part but girls make dumb mistakes themselves.

One weekend in May Wes was driving the Ford Van leased from Ford Motor Company that was the vehicle they dragged the race car trailer around with.  He was off on Saturday night and went to hang out with his high school friends. He was home that evening at his curfew hour or at least close to it.  On the following Monday his Dad calls me and tells me that the van had been involved in a beer theft on Saturday night.  He wanted to know how I let that happen.  Since Wes was at school and I could not think how I let that happen he said he would come to see Wes that afternoon.  Need I say he was not a very happy camper?

Dennis arrived before Wes got home so I did not chance to talk to him first.  Wes tried to play stupid at first when Dennis told him that the Chief of Police in Royal Oak had contacted him to let him know the van had been involved in a beer heist.  The Chief of Police had gotten Dennis' name as the leasee of the van from Ford Motor Company rather than to just tell anyone which Dennis said would cause him to lose his job, send him to jail and would probably be the cause of the end of the world. He always exaggerated just a bit.  

So the story, partially from Dennis and a few admissions from Wes, was that Wes and five of his friends went to this liquor store.  Everyone but Wes went in as he had a brace on his knee from some soccer injury and some of the boys got the owner busy while two of the boys ran out with two cases of beer. The owner got the tag number of the van before they got away and the police wanted the names of all of the boys. Wes would not budge on giving out the names.  His Dad left in a fury and told him he better give him the names and the police only knew about Wes.

Wes was busy that night talking to his fellow criminals and no one wanted to have their parents find out what they did.  Wes was on the hook but I had to actually commend him for not being a snitch.  All of the boys came from really nice homes and Wes told me it was just like a prank. Senor boys do tend to have huge gaps in their thinking at times.

As the next few days passed discussions with the police Chief revealed 
that the owner of the liquor store did not want to press charges but he wanted each boy to pay him $200.00 dollars.  The police Chief did not have to think very long that wanting the boys to pay him amounted to extortion.  How dumb do you have to be to announce to the police you want to blackmail someone rather than press charges?  Needless to say the Chief was ready to press charges against the store owner himself and stated he could not even believe the heist really occurred.  That was the end of the Great Beer Heist of 1988 as I named it.  

I think the boys realized that what they had done had very serious consequences and was not just a humorous prank.  It is amazing how brains can go dead when all of the boys knew better.  I do have to admit that I had to hide in the kitchen to laugh when Dennis lectured Wes about losing his job as I had heard that when I dented a fender or got a speeding ticket for years in a company vehicle. I think the boys learned a good lesson and perhaps the liquor store owner did also. Maybe Wally, who was so terrified his brother was going to jail, learned a lesson from the whole episode.

Oh, the days before cell phones were great for excuses.  One morning I got up and Wes' car was not in the drive and he was not in his bed.  Being a mother I could think of horrible things that had happened to him.  It was six o'clock in the morning and I started calling around to all of his friend's homes.  I finally found him sleeping in one of the boys basements as he had gotten too drunk to drive home.  The rule I had set forth was that if he was going to be late all he had to do was to call and tell me.  I guess Wes was not thinking when he said he could not find a phone.  Excuse me Wes - how are you talking to me now?  No answer but I did tell him to get his little behind home pronto and I did take his keys away for the rest of the weekend.  Their can't be a worse way to spend a weekend than with your mom and little brother especially when I drove him to work both Saturday and Sunday.

Detroit was a twenty-four hour city.  Because of the automoble plants and their working three shifts a day people did activities at all hours of the day and night.  There was good reason for skating rinks, movie theaters and bowling alley to fill every corner and be open all hours.  Somehow we all like to go bowling.  It was fun, relatively cheap and pretty good entertainment.  There was a bowling alley not far from our house and was the sight of Wally's very first date.  Cute quiet Wally had a huge crush on a really sweet girl named Sarah.  He asked her one day to go bowling and together they walked to the bowling alley.  No sooner had they gotten to the bowling alley but Wally had the nosebleed of the century.  He didn't know really what to do .  Sarah ended up walking home as did Wally.  He arrived home in tears because everything had gone so wrong.  I think it took him a long time to get over his first date but he and Sarah stayed friends for years.  Wally was not the "Joe Cool" his brother was which was not all that bad as their were no beer heists in his future.

Similar to the east coast school was not until the middle of June.  The end of the school year was always fun with Wally's band concerts.  Then we would have all the Senior activities with graduation, sports banquets and of course a senior prom.  Before school was out Wes got a job at a skating rink just a few  blocks from where we lived.  Guess he decided to stay with us until it was time to go to Kent State.

Almost made it through the summer with great stories.......almost.




































                                                                                                                                                                                 

1''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''Phs time to go to Kent State in the fall.

Better Than I Thought

The New Year was always the time to pass out and receive the little plastic bags that contained what would be your costumes for the ice show once you got them made.  This year's opening number was Sun Valley Holiday, a take off of the old Sonja Heine movies.  Ron, the director, must have worked overtime coming up with this one.  The set was complete with huge pine trees and a teflon ramp for the skaters to fly down.  Thankfully I did not have to do that in this costume. Standing up was problem enough with the four foot tall fur covered dunce hat on.  Note to self: Practice more so you can wear the flattering, sexy costumes in the main numbers next year. At least I could dream about it.

Since he was nice enough to have me be the costume chairman for two of the numbers, the boy's 50's and the showgirl costumes for the Bedazzle number, that kept me busy for the next two months getting everyone lined out and making sure they all did what he wanted. Not an easy trick.  The boy's 50's costume was pretty easy and all but one of the twelve men could sew or had some one to do it for them.  I did not trust Kevin, the one who thought you could hot glue zippers in pants, so I made his costume as the sample.  The orange dresses were a nightmare.  They started out pretty simple and every time Ron looked at them he wanted more sashes or frilly stuff plus everyone was a completely different size.

Mother popped in for a two day visit on her way to the Olympics in Calgary, Canada.  Now sporting events were not Mother's favorite thing to go to but she had met some people from Calgary on a trip to California and they invited her to come.  Two days was about the right time limit for her to visit as she did not have enough time to tell me what I was doing wrong as far as work, ice show, Wes and Wally.  I think that was the year when it was not very cold in Calgary but I never had the guts to ask her how often she got the wear the full length white Ermine coat she arrived in.

Time to get serious about work since the phone was ringing off the hook.  Charles sort of came to rescue when I mentioned I needed help with the wallpaper.  His business partner had an eighteen year old daughter who was not interested in going to college or in having a full time job.  Michelle was a bit spoiled but fun to be around at times.  I never quit for lunch as once you took that brake it was hard to get back 
in the working mode.  My deal with Michelle was that I would take her to McDonald's on the way home so she tended to work harder the more hungry she got.  Since most of the clients were not home when we wallpapered as a last resort she would prowl through the refrigerator to find something. After a case of food poisoning she gave up on the refrigerator prowling. But with her help I managed to cut the wallpaper time in half.

                                   Wally                          Wes

Having Wes live with us really was a lot easier than I had thought.  They got along very well except for the usual brotherly little bouts. Wes did increase my stress level a bit as his high school was twenty-one miles across town as well as the skating rink where he worked.  He had the dream job of being the DJ at the rink and worked three or four nights a week.  Friday and Saturday nights when he worked it would be midnight before he got home. I always tried to wait up for him even if it meant watching television with my eyes closed.  I guess when I was in high school and came home it was nice to have someone there. The rink was also good to give him time off if he had a hot date or some school activity.  

Wes and his Dad still had the beginnings of a race car.  It was the same unfinished car that we drug around from Kansas City to Riverton to Detroit to Cleveland.  Dennis must have been waiting for Wes to turn eighteen and be old enough to drive it.  There were weekends when the boys would go to Cleveland or or to a drag race some place.

Speaking about their Dad, Dennis. When the divorce was final I was granted child support for Wally and alimony.  I did not want alimony but my attorney said I had to take it since I was not employed and I would probably need it.  From day one the alimony was a huge point of contention with Dennis.  I knew what he made and did realize that it was a big chunk to pay out each month.  Most of his animosity towards me was due to that.  When Wes came to live with me I certainly did not ask for child support since Wes had a job and his Dad did give him spending money or bought clothes or fixed his car. Even with my not asking for more money for Wes Dennis still could not carry on a civil conversation with me.  Oh, I guess we did not have civil conversations for years when we were married.

I think I wrote that renting the apartment in the Dearborn house would prove to be a mistake. What an understatement!  It did not take long for the phone calls to start coming from both of the two gals.  One night at 2:00 Hailey called to tell me that the girl downstairs was a screamer during sex.  I think she even tried to get the phone some place where I could hear. Then there were calls over whose turn it was to mow the lawn, they divided the basement into halves up to the washer driver and Hailey was not too good about paying rent.  When I took the time to drive twenty-four miles to settle some argument about something stupid all would be quiet for awhile.  Maybe being a landlord was not my calling in life.  Maybe I am too nice for this sort of endeavor.

Much to the dismay of the boys, especially Wes, we got through the winter without a single day of school being closed due to snow.  It snowed several days a week and we all got practice shoveling.  Actually I thought it was good exercise but no one else agreed with that.  It was really nice when spring came.  At the first hint of warm weather and no snow Wally and I sort of found a Volkswagon convertible that we could not live without. It ran very well but certainly had some body issues. It was a little rusty in places which is not unusual for Michigan and then there was not exactly much of a floor in it that did not have huge holes.

We would put Bowser in the back seat, put the top down and carefully place our feet someplace where they did not drag on the pavement and go for rides. The only time I worried about not having a current license,
inspection, all the brake lights or insurance was one time when we were at a Dunkin' Donuts enjoying some sweets when two police cars pulled up and the officers came into the store. We could have left the building and walked down the street like it was not our car but there poor Bowser sat in the backseat waiting for us. So we finished our donuts while happily watching the police officers order some for themselves then we made a break for it.  Maybe the officers only had donuts on their mind and not looking for criminals with a completely illegal vehicle.  Years later Wally developed the theory that you should only buy a $400.00 car and drive it until it dies and then go get another one.
Wes was always driving a new Capri, Mustang, Bronco or something thanks to his Dad but Wally was always happy with a car that would start and four wheels that would roll. Smart Boy!

Half way through Wes senior year there had not been an major problems.  Actually I can remember lots of laughter and fun.  I was blessed with two pretty good kids and each very talented in their own way.  

Could I possibly be so lucky to have the second half of the school year go so well?