Catherine Sevenau's Blog: Writings~Rambles~Rhymes, page 40

2.23 High Finance

College Income and Expenses ~ Larry misunderstood the workings of scholarships, assuming one had to be an A student to qualify. There weren’t many in those days available anyway. It cost about $1,500 to go to school, and that’s how much he earned each year to pay his way. Between his powerhouse job, working in Dad’s […]

2.22 Wedding Bells

June 16, 1956, Upland, California ~ Our wedding was at the First Methodist Church in Upland, a lovely brick church my family attended since before I was born. Many supportive family friends from through the years joined us as well as our relatives. The minister, Dr. Lee, said that if I guaranteed the rope, he […]

2.21 An 8×10 Glossy

June 1956 • Upland ~ The first time my parents were together after their divorce was at Larry and Marian’s wedding. I have an 8” x 10” glossy reminder of the occasion: the respective parents are flanking the bride and groom, Marian’s parents to her right, smiling big and happy and Larry’s to his left, looking, […]

2.20 Small Holy Cups

San Jose ~ When I lived with Mom, I was hospitalized several times for malnutrition and dehydration from vomiting spells. The first time it happened I was five. I only remember a couple of episodes as those recollections are tangled up inside me. It will only hurt for a second. Close your eyes. Don’t breathe. I […]

2.19 Conversations With God

1956 • San Jose ~ Reading was good company. I read whatever was in front of me. I read all four sides of the milk carton and the Cheerios box and the C&H container. I read the editor’s notes and publication dates and fine print in the front of True Detective and Reader’s Digest and Cornet or […]

2.18 Perms

Carleen always gave us a Toni the day before school pictures; she was making us beautiful. She shampooed our hair, yanked our snarls with a sharp-toothed comb, then sat us in a row at the yellow Formica kitchen table. With old bath towels draped over our shoulders, Betty, Claudia, and I perched on the matching […]

2.17 Buttons and Bobbins

San Jose ~ I don’t remember Mom being home much. Betty remembers her buried behind a paperback beneath a cloud of smoke, sleeping with her black eye-mask and feather pillow over her head, yelling at us if we disturbed her. She’d cook herself a rare sirloin steak when none of us were around and if […]

2.16 Thou Shalt Not Steal

1956 • San Jose ~ By third grade I was in my third school and had lived in over twice as many houses. It made me anxious, moving all the time. It seemed that as soon as I’d figure out how to get back and forth to school or to the dentist or to church, […]

2.15.1 Grandma Nellie’s Demise 1956

Jan 2, 1956 • Chico ~ Freely extending her opinions and judgments of her ten children (and anyone else in the family), my grandmother never kept secret the litany of sins she held against them, and the lot of them feared her wrath and what she would say. Nellie Belle Chatfield died at her home on […]

2.14.1 From Larry to Gordon 1955

1955 • San Jose ~ Occasionally Larry made the hour drive from San Jose up to San Francisco to take Dad to a show. They went to the Cinerama at the Orpheum Theatre on Market Street a couple of times. Dad was impressed, even though he was never much of a moviegoer. The year before, Larry […]