What was I thinking???

Laying awake thinking about my younger days until I only had two hours left to sleep before my 24/7 caretaking day begins. Whew...I'm already kind of shaky so now getting Hubby up and taken care of means I'm shakier. After a 1/2 hr. or so, I know I can make it.

So what kept my mind whirling? Maybe it is because my world is so upside down. Cruelty is reported every day, and my empathetic self is disgusted and devastated and sad. 

Growing up in the 1950's right after WWII was economically tough but I had no idea that it was. To say I was sheltered and protected is very accurate. Maybe a little spoiled like when my Uncle Earl babysat me and warmed my diapers after he changed me. When my parents came home, diapers were washed and drying all over the place. Uncle Earl was kidded about that forever. He even let me dunk my cookies in his coffee. I was the first grandchild on my Dad's side of the family.

When it was time to go home from the hospital, we lived in an apartment off of Payne Avenue on St. Paul's Eastside. Until I moved in, everything was fine with the other apartment dwellers. However, apparently a baby with colic who was constantly crying didn't go over very well. So Maud Nelson kicked us out and it was then that we moved into the 2nd floor of Grandma's house.  My Dad's brother and family lived in the bottom floor of Grandma's house with her and Grandpa on the main floor.

This is the house now except when we lived there it had a porch across the front where I played house and made so many meals out of seeds, etc. The bay window was great for growing a Boston fern and other plants and was where G'ma and G'pa and Randolph kept track of neighbors.

Randolph rented a room in the basement but was a friend who came from Bergen, Norway. He was a fisherman there in Stavanger.

That is what families did to get by. They helped each other and maybe even lived together. What could be better than living close to grandparents who loved to spoil us.

I'm writing these memories mostly for me. Maybe when I start forgetting things, I can revisit these pages to remember.