This is Home, Part 26 - How to find a husband, a Freshman in high school, Martha, skating and Charley, Bea divorces, remarries

This is part 26 of my mother's book about her life, written in 2004.



How to find a husband

When I was in high school -- all the way through it -- the girls did not plan to work. They intended to get married, instead. Even in college, this was true. They just went to college to find someone to marry. The magazines during that time had all sorts of advice on attracting a husband. Part of the advice was listening to his opinions instead of expressing yours. Never admit that you know things he doesn't. Never beat him in any kind of game. Encourage him to talk about himself and his job. Listen and look interested. Make him feel important.

They even had advice on manners such as who walked down a movie theater aisle first behind the usher. We had ushers with flashlights who found a seat for people then.

Articles like this were in Redbook, Good Housekeeping and other magazines of this type. Even Glamour, I think it was.

A Freshman in high school

Anyway, high school was a lot of fun, except the punishment for being a Freshman girl was dressing in blue jeans for a certain time period. I didn't have jeans, so Aunt Edith or Bea borrowed a pair of Edgar's from his mother. They weren't a bad fit, except the waist was larger than mine and they were a lot too long. I wore a belt and rolled them up. We were supposed to look like boys, so no makeup. I only wore lipstick and powder anyway, so that didn't bother me too much.

Martha

I kept getting to the room I was supposed to have a class in earlier than anyone else, except this tall girl with light brown shoulder length hair and big blue eyes. After we had stood together for several classes a day waiting for the door to be opened, for maybe a couple of days, we finally started talking.

We became best friends and walked around together. We stayed all night at each other's homes and sometimes we stayed weekends.

Her name was Martha Riley. We had the same initials and our fathers were both named Ernest, so they had the same initials.

When I first told Mom about her, she said she remembered seeing her at the grade school graduation.

Skating and Charley

Martha and Jean got along well. One time they decided to see if they could skate. Mom said it would be all right if they skated along one side of the wall in the South bedroom, since the "room size" carpet left quite a bit of space along the sides. Mom was just going to redo the floor later if it needed it.

Anyway, they took turns skating along while holding onto things. I think they finally got bold enough to go outside on the walk. I don't remember them falling.

Charley, Daddy and Uncle Doc came home for dinner. Someone talked Charley into trying skating. It wasn't me -- I didn't think it looked like fun. I thought it looked like work and maybe a broken bone.

Charley put on the skates and tried to skate on the walk. The first thing that happened, his feet shot out from under him and he landed on his back. He looked so funny that everyone laughed, then asked if he was okay and helped him up. He was, but I don't think anyone skated after that. It was time for dinner, anyway.

Bea divorces, remarries

Bea and Bob were divorced after he came home. She met Howard Taylor, later, and after awhile they were married. Howard was good looking. He had dark hair and blue eyes and a nice smile. I liked him.