1948-50 Cont'd

For my Junior year at the University of Connecticut, we lived with my parents place in Vernon, and I commuted, as I have already mentioned. Marjorie was expecting our firstborn. Let me state one thing right here. She was always happy to be "expecting". Even she felt better during those times more than any other. Strange maybe, but true.

Somewhere I have a picture of her "expecting" Gifford Jr., taken in Providence during a visit to Great Aunt Louise Blankenburg's place. In the picture, Marjorie looks both proud and happy!
And that tells it all.

In those days, hospitals always sent the father-to-be home. We were NOT welcome at the hospital! So during that nail-biting time, I went home, and while waiting for the telephone call, a very long wait, I pulled one of the heads off the V-8 Ford, as it had blown a head gasket and I had to replace it.

Marjorie and I were both young and full of energy, ready for anything. It may have been that November Thanksgiving vacation from school that we decided to make a 1,000 mile round trip visit to Pittsburgh. I got an extra car heater to keep the baby warm during the trip. I pinned a thermometer to the back seat cushion to be sure we kept the temperature at 70 degrees. Everyone was worried, but WE weren't. We stopped in Elizabeth, NJ to visit Donald McCormick, a shipmate from the USS Topeka. We had a good visit with the new grandparents, and everyone was happy. It was an uneventful trip.

That following summer, we were still staying with my folks in Vernon. I remember one day in July 1949, on the lawn in the front yard, under the maple tree, we had the play pen set up, with Giff Jr. in it. It was the first time he stood alone, hanging onto two clothespins that were attached to nothing.

I didn't like the long commute from Vernon to Storrs and decided to do something about it. I recalled one of the students at Carnegie Tech found a rent-free apartment (former servants quarters over a garage), simply by going door-to-door and asking what might be available. So I decided to do the same. I started out walking from the Engineering building on campus, and went door-to-door at the first houses I encountered. After perhaps only about the 5th house, I hit a good deal!

It was a stone house on top of a hill, and the people were going to go to Florida for the season and needed someone to watch over the place while they were gone. They said they were coming back in the spring sometime, didn't know exactly when, but we'd have to vacate on their return. They would give us very low rent for the deal. So we made the deal and moved in, with our little boy. It had a fireplace.

Once we had a fire going in the fireplace in the livingroom. Giff Jr. was near it, and I was the other side of the living room. There was a little live coal, glowing, and Giff Jr. picked it up! Then of course he screamed! It was as though I saw it all in slow motion, and was to far away to prevent him from picking it up. He let go quick enough that there was no permanent damage done, but it sure was painful for him.

The entire place was furnished, and we had the use of a high chair. I especially remember watching Giff Jr. sitting in the high chair eating peas. He would push them around, talking to them, then mash them with his hand and then eat them.

During the (probably Thanksgiving 1949) break that year, Marjorie wanted to visit Pittsburgh again, but I didn't want to go, though she very much wanted me to come with her. But I didn't, so I took her and Giff Jr. to the train station in Hartford, and they did the round trip by train. Later she told me how scared to death she was to do that by herself. I retrospect, of course I feel pretty bad about it.

Spring of 1950 came, and everything happened all at once. The people returned from Florida, and we had to move out of the house. Final examinations were right around the corner. Marjorie was expecting our second child in May. I had not yet lined up a job. I was way behind in my laboratory write-ups. Things seemed almost impossible simultaneously. We had to take immediate action. We moved out of the house, Marjorie and Giff Jr. went back to stay with my folks in Vernon, and I moved into an on-campus student dorm to be able to do all the school work required.

I remember one late afternoon in the dorm, sitting at my desk with a stack of laboratory notebooks about 1 foot high. It was 4:30 PM as I looked out the window and saw a line of University maintenance employees lined up to punch out at their time clock. I though to my self "luck people". I worked through that night and saw the sun rise the next morning.

Next time: the early arrival of Patricia, my graduation with almost (but not quite) "honors", my search for a job, and finally getting one in Maryland with the government.