Chapter story 1965 page #4

*Sometime in the early morning I wake and know that I am not alone. This picture is not the room I was in. In the room I was in there is 5 more beds on the wall across from what is shown here. I hope this gives you an idea of what a ward looks like. There are 9 other girls in this really big room. Where is Arney? I ring for a nurse, but no one comes. I was scared, there are Negro women in this room. I have never felt so white. I will call my bed # 1 because it is next to the big wide door to the hall. I have no recall of their names, but to share this time I want to put a name to the faces and voices I will never forget.

There are 5 beds on one wall and 5 on the other. There is about 4 feet between each bed.

Girls I shared three days with at LA County General Hospital

Bed #2 is Sylvia…… Bed # 5 is Jessie…….. Bed #8 is Fannie

Bed #3 is Lana………. Bed # 6 is Miss Sarah…….. Bed # 9 is Lily

Bed # 4 is Martha………. Bed # 7 is Betty……….. Bed # 10 is Kate

The windows that overlook Los Angeles are floor to ceiling; they have old glass that is distorted. I am on the 8^th floor, I could have seen a lot from up here. I didn’t look.

At some point food come, it made me sick to look at it. I hear a small voice, you need to eat girl. I come to know her as Lana in bed #3; she had been hit in the lower back by a cop with a baton. She was looking for her children when she was hurt.. She miscarried her baby.. I hear the girls crying and whispers but nothing directed to me. Lana had tight curls; her eyes were so black and very large. She looked like she could be about 13 but I knew she was older. She was very quiet; really kind of shy…I think it must have been hard to talk to the white girl (ME). Each one of these girls, one by one shared why they were here over the next three days.

I think the nurses were really busy because no one came to help me. I had rang and rang without anyone coming. I could not hold my pee any longer. I knew that I was bleeding, but when I put my feet to the floor, I was shaking and the floor seemed to be coming up. So I stood there for a while hanging onto the bed. Now to take those ten steps to the bathroom. Then as I made my way the blood was falling out of me like water, it was all over the floor. The girls in my ward were ringing for help. I had blood on me, the bathroom, and I felt faint. I needed someone to help me. I could smell my own blood, so I began to dry heave. I do not remember much after the nurse came, only that I wanted the blood off the floor. It was very important to me that the floor must be cleaned. She cleaned me and my bed. Along with a shot and out I went. The next thing I remember is someone wanting me to eat. Then seeing Arney come through the wide door. He held me for a long time. He had driven through some bad parts of Los Angeles, some road blocks made it almost impossible to get here. He had been shot at, his Dads truck now had a hole in it. He could have been killed. The bullet was just inches from his head. He said that he felt the wind of the bullet. I felt like this nightmare would never end. I ask him to stay away from here until time for me to go home. He certainly understood that I was right, but either way would be hard for us.

To be continued…….

Chapter story 1965 page #3

I decided it would be good to go outside; we needed to get out of the apartment for a while. It was hot and the news was all bad. Then as I am going down the stairs the first pain hits me and I know our baby is coming. I am scared, all I can think of is, “will the baby be alive?” Could there be something terribly wrong with him or her. I wanted a boy, a little person that looked just like his Dad. Or a girl with my brown eyes and blond hair like Arney. I knew that our baby was dead, but I just kept trying to think otherwise. My Grandmother is praying for us, she is so devoted to her Christian walk with God. If she were here with us, she could help me understand why this is happening to us.  Arney take me out to his Dads truck. I can see his fear. He wants this baby so much. He touches my belly all the time.

Driving to La everything seemed to be in slow motion. I see and smell the smoke coming from the riots. My heart was beating so fast, my body felt tense. It is so hot; we are more than 20 miles from the Hospital. Different exits were closed; I know Arney was just as scared as I was. Arney when upset sets his jaw, he is so Welch.The pain was coming longer and faster. These are the pains your Mother will never tell you about. We pull into the iterance of the hospital, police cars are everywhere around the hospital. Sirens screaming! We stop as close to the iterance as we could, a man in a white uniform has a wheelchair; he helps me out of the truck and into the chair. It hurts to move, everything is white hot, and the sky is flat with no color. The fires were turning everything gray. No air, I need air.

The door opens to the ER; the smell of blood is overwhelming mixed with the normal smells of the medications. I look into the faces of people that could be dyeing. Is this what war looks like? There is a war going on and I am in its sites. I start to throw up from the smell, the humanity, the pain from my own body. I am put in an area with curtains all around me. No one comes to check me and I have no idea where Arney is, I want my Mama, I want God’s grace, and I want my baby to be born alive and I want to scream for Arney but I can’t scream. I have always found silence in my pain, and hold my breath which is also not good. I don’t know how long I labored behind those curtains. I could hear the yelling, the voices, the moaning and the sirens. People were crying. All of a sudden someone yells code blue and I was taken to the elevator. I remember the lights in the ceiling flashing by as they rolled me down a long hall. I was put in a small room, not an operating room. A nurse assured me that I would be fine. She gave me a shot and left. There I was no one with me, my baby; the pain was all that I could deal with. At some point another girl was brought into this small room. She was ready to have her baby, so a doctor and nurse are working with her. She was yelling out in pain. I heard the baby cry. Then they took her somewhere with her baby. A baby had been born just about 4 feet from my head. It somehow gave me hope, maybe my baby would cry for me.

I had no since of time, the lights overhead were bright. I wanted to turn them off. I do not know how much time had passed when the doctor came in with a nurse. He was older, but when you are 20 everyone is older. I was given a couple of shots in my arm and told to push hard, and soon it was over. A baby boy with blond hair covered in blood was born and he is dead. The cord wrapped his tiny body. I am drugged; crying, laughing, and I do not know how to feel. It is over, the pain is gone from my body, but I am sick, I throw up and I cry more. I get another shot and then they wheel me out into a large area in the same bed where I had given birth to my baby boy just minutes ago. I am drugged; I can hardly open my eyes. There is my Arney waiting, not knowing anything about me or our baby. All we can do is cry. That is all we can do.

A nurse is asking us questions about how to handle our baby? She sounds so far away, Arney is taking care of what is to be done I remember the ceiling lights going by as we are heading to the elevator. I am going upstairs to a room. Ones in the ward, I fell asleep. I don’t know when Arney left; he held my hand till I was asleep.  To be continued..

Arney taking out the closets that divided the two rooms.

Today was another day on the upstairs remodel.

It was exciting for us to see the start of how big this room will be. Arney will measure it and I will share how large the space will be.

I still haven’t decided where the closet will be. “I will think about that tomorrow.”

I hope you are all having a great weekend. Arney and I will be looking at light fixtures tomorrow.

Also, Monday I will have page # 3 of my 1965 chapter story.

      Stay Cool, Mary

Chapter Story 1965 page #2

Writing my Mother is so hard, and her letters back to me give me hope. It is strange how you can feel all grown up one minute and the next you want your Mama. Arney is wonderful, but I need her also, to many miles are between us. This is the first grandchild and great grandchild for my side of the family. I am going to LA General Hospital because they have the best doctors. My regular doctor has sent me there. But this is not a good time to be going in that direction. Roads are blocked at different places along the freeway; I didn’t go to my last appointment because of the riot, we are told to stay away from different areas…… Since there were no monitoring systems for babies in 1965, there was no way to tell how our baby was doing. The blood testing was to see if I had become toxic. If my blood was becoming bad they could take our baby because there was a threat to my life. Listening each visit for the sound I prayed for, a heartbeat. I must have seen at least 5 different Doctors, sometimes two or three would check me during one visit. Abortions were not legal unless the mother was in danger. I certainly did not want them to take my  baby                                                                       Everyone was on alert as the hours past. All we had to do was look out our window; we could tell that things were getting worse. The news was constant. We were all in shock; this was not in any way normal in this part of the country. We knew that in the south things were bad sometimes, but never did it dawn on us that someday we would know this kind of anger, this rage, even death on the streets.

Strange what comes to mind while I write….We had a black and white TV, I think it was a 19 inch. While so much was going on that was changing our lives in a dramatic way. This was some of the programs we watched.

Arney is a good man, and as my friend would say, a real tall drink of water. Blond, blue eyed, a young man that grew up fast. His childhood was hard; he needed life to get easier. We were strong in who we were but it was not an easy time for us; work is hard to come by. Arney is a Journeyman Cement Mason, and work is slow. It was hard for a lot of people, a generation fighting for rights, and nothing comes easy. Marching for civil rights, gatherings of all kinds for woman’s rights, drugs were flowing like water, and even our music had changed. The love songs, the fun music was changing one song at a time. We were growing up and it was no longer the life we pictured. We needed good leadership, the government was upside down. Our beloved President Kennedy had been killed. We are restless about the war in Vietnam. The draft was ever present on our minds. “Things they are changing.” So many boys and men killed in this war. The body bags were starting to be shown on the TV, and a daily count of deaths became almost too normal. In 1965 some of us were just starting to really understand, there is a war going on; we were asking questions and getting vague answers. This is not the country of my birth. Even long term friends were into drugs, Arney and I wanted no part of this drug seen, not to say that we didn’t drink because we did. As the music play songs of unrest, and the war, “when would the music stop?”

You maybe asking yourself, why would she write this for her blog? History will never tell my story of this time. It would never make the 6:00 news. You can read about how many died, why the riot started. And you may find a few names of leadership but it is not personal. There are thousands of stories that could be told about 1965 during a very hot summer in LA. I hope that after you read this it will give you a deeper understanding of me, or maybe how in the blink of an eye, your life can change and I was changed….sometimes we just need to share.

To be continued…….

This will be a chapter story…page # 1

1965

It was a hot summer in southern California; the air was heavy from the humidity. I wish it would rain. Our apartment is a one bedroom, furnished. We really liked living in Bellflower, California. It is like a small town. We could walk downtown without a care in the world. It is also the best place for showing off your cars on Friday and Saturday night. We drove our 55 Chevy all shinny through town more than ones. We would go to Helen and Grace for ice cream. I loved all the pink, black and torques green. When you opened the door the smell was sweet with chocolate and vanilla. Arney and I were married in August, 1963. We had no idea what the future would bring, only that we loved each other and wanted the life we longed for. But it was not easy, we were so young, and the good stuff didn’t come easy for us. This night had been long for me, it is hot and I am pregnant. Arney must have had the TV on all night keeping up with the news. I could hear a soft sound coming from the living room, and Arney did not come to bed. Watts and the towns around it are on fire, I can see the smoke from our apartment on the second floor. The regular smog we are used to is now mixed with the smoke. It is hard to breath very deep. Sometime during the night I fell asleep. I wake feeling sick to my stomach; I did not want to look at what was happening in Los Angeles. Why would you destroy your own town and each other? Compton & Watts had always been a mix of Negros and whites. When I was growing up it was mostly white, but as people spread out into Orange County, tracks of homes were being built. The homes being built are expensive, and only those making a really good wage could move into most of the areas. Seems that the Negros more or less had some parts of LA all to themselves as time went by. But it had been a mixed race state. We know there are gangs of all colors living in LA, Compton and Watts. No one wanted any problems, at least no one I knew. I get myself a drink of water, it teats like chlorine, I do not like Bellflower water, a bottle of Coca Cola would be nice. Arney is lying on the floor and the front door is open because it is already so hot. No air conditioning, not even a fan. Arney is worried about me and the riots, so we are saying very little to each other. I  felt restless. We talked about going to Arney’s Grandma Neely’s in Acton near Palmdale, California but it would be a long drive to the hospital. blood to be checked. Our baby would be born soon, but I had not felt any kicking or movement for almost a month. I stayed in the state of crying……..to be continues.

The stuff…….

When we found our cottage farm house, we knew there would be many changes. We spent our time on the down stairs and the upstairs had to wait. Arney built the new staircase and everything had to be put on hold. Every time we would make a plan it just seemed to get lost.

It became a place of storage. So like the  Hoarders on TV, it began to be the catch all of life.

Here and there I would go up and move things around and even took the old carpet out of one of the bedrooms, saying that this time we will get it done.

I call it the lost rooms… So we rented a dumpster and put it under a window upstairs, and today with the help of Jenny my daughter and Summit my grandson, the pitching of the stuff started, and they are returning tomorrow.

There are two bedrooms upstairs in this 1906 cottage farmhouse. But when we are done it will be only one large room with all new carpet, a sweet wall color and a new walk in closet. Everything NEW!

All the walls that divided the rooms will be removed. Don’t you just love a summer project..Yikes!!

Here are a few picture I took to give you some idea of what is going on. Going up the stairs.                        Should I go on the Hoarders show??? What can a person say????

It is really sweet when a box becomes empty and gone….

Here is the window that things are flying out of. My grandson is the thrower. The dumpster is way down there. Summit and his Mom (Jenny) having Subway with me…our lunch brake.

Thank you for a really fun day….To be continued

I am looking forward to your comments…

Fiesta ware

For many years I have had white

dishes in my kitchen. I would look at colors but never really knew what I wanted. I have always loved the colors and style of Fiesta ware…but never thought of having it myself. Areny got me  a i phone 4s, and now I will have to learn how to us it…it will be fun when I get the hang of it. Cory & Kristie got me 4 place settings of Fiesta ware and Jenny & Doug got me a gift card so I can pick out what I want…also going for more Fiesta ware…I can hardly wait to show them all off in my kitchen. It will be really fun in my cottage farmhouse…This is what Fiesta ware looks like. Also thank you for your comments on my Birthday…always a special gift.They come in all colors…I am going to do as many colors as I can. So far I have 4 colors.

Thank you for a wonderful birthday family!!!!

Made in America…..

7-12-1945

Were you a Hippie Chick?

I loved the dresses, and the bell bottoms, but I wasn’t a Hippie Chick/flower child. I loved the music, still do. I missed it, the whole thing. I understood the desire for peace, and the not really wanting to work or go to war, but I was a Sadie, married Lady. We did talk about joining the Peace Core ones…..

What were you doing in the 1960’s, early 70’s ??

I had 3 children between 1968 and 1972…I was busy.

California Dream-in….This is a Journal page….

A Tiny visitor.

The past few months have been hard on the Evans family….Arney got home from California Saturday….His mother is now at rest, she lived 93 years. She is missed. Before going back to work Arney spent 3 days reflecting & resting. Monday he walked into the entry room from the back door to find a beautiful Hummingbird. We had left the back door open for our dogs…Finn and LB. We were so glad it found it’s way out without getting hurt. I have Sweet peas growing on the fence in my back yard and the Hummingbirds love them. Sometimes we are so involved in the big things, we forget how sweet a hummingbirds visit might be.

          Happy Summer!

A fun find…that will be used for art supplies.

I don’t know if this is a fishing box or a tool box. I have been looking for a good one for awhile now. So yesterday I went to a few yard sales and there it was with my name on it TEE-HEE. Because I do not have a craft room, I have things stuck here and there. When I want to do a project, it is always a treasure hunt for what I need.

I want a few things in the box, you know the things you use the most.

There are a lot of plastic containers that I could and do use. But this will be better I think for me. We will see. I got some other things too that I will share later. Right now I am getting things ready for Arney to come home from California.

Yard sale finds:)

I got about 21 pieces of china for 10.00….no chips. I don’t have a cabinet for them, so they will probably become gifts.

I am always looking for old and new beads…most of these are glass. I think for all it was about 1.50.

I am always on the look out for something lace…these are old but not antique. One day I will find the magic lacy that I am searching for, but until then, this is good.

It is summer!!! And it was 96 here today. The AC is on and I just took a cool bath.

Happy Summer:)