When we arrived in Seattle we first stayed with Esther's folks, but when one of their apartments became available we moved into it. I started having stomach pains that the doctor diagnosed as a "nervous stomach". It was years later I realized the real problem -- the Varons had been feeding me too well and my pants had gotten too tight! (Sister Molly had a similar doctor experience. She had a very sore shoulder for many years that the doctor's couldn't account for. She finally discovered the problem -- she had been carrying too much in her WW II Waves' handbag!)
Our son Irving was born in Seattle. We had doctor problems with him too. As our first born, Esther was taking him to a pediatrician and was following his advice rigorously. But Irv was colicky and nothing seemed to help -- Esther was very tired from it. One day, after I had left for Dayton, Esther's mother persuaded her to leave Irv in her care while she went off with her friends. On her return she found Irv very contented. He had been given regular milk, instead of the ever-changing formulas, and was sucking on a home-made pretzel! Irv was a happy child after that; Esther didn't go back to the doctor.
Near the end of the summer of 1946 I received a call from Professor Boone at O.S.U., offering me a chance to complete my doctorate while serving as an Assistant Professor. I was to teach graduate work at the just-opening Wright Field Graduate Extension Center in Dayton. It was too good to turn down and, with Esther's concurrence, I accepted the offer. In doing so, I gave her some problems as described below -- starting with the problem of a school year that was to start in about 10 days. I arranged a leave of absence from Boeing (I never went back) and left for Dayton.
We had planned for Esther and Irv to join me when I was able to arrange suitable accommodations. It was soon obvious that it wasn't going to be easy to rent anything suitable, so I found and arranged financing for a house, our first. I then sent for them, assuming that we would soon be able to move into it. I had not been told that a renter, not the owner, was in the house and that it wasn't going to be easy to get her out.
Esther was on her way, by train, which wasn't a happy experience. Her folks had tipped the porter to get him to help her during the journey, but that porter was not on the train very long. The train ride didn't agree with Irv and he cried much of the time. Both she and Irv managed some sleep when a porter put some whiskey on a napkin and gave it to Irv to suck.
I was late arriving at the depot in Dayton to pick them up (I had late afternoon classes, but thought I would make it on time) and found her sitting on the bench at the depot, very tired and dejected. Besides the trouble on the train, she had not been alerted to their arrival in Dayton and realized it just as the train was pulling out. She managed to get the train to stop near the end of the platform and the porter and passengers helped her, with Irv and all her belongings, off the train (she had been given too much on leaving Seattle, so it wasn't easy.) When she carried Irv back to the gate she found it locked and had then carried the baggage, piece-by-piece, with Irv in her arms, until everything was at the gate. She then managed to yell loud enough to get someone to open it so she could get into the station where she could sit and rest. It was a little while before she would talk to me!
I had arranged for the three of us to stay where I had been living until we were able to get into our house. It was with an elderly man, Mr. Zehring, and his daughter Ethyl.
Mr. Zehring told Esther she was never to let Ethyl pick up Irv because she might drop him (she was a 40-year old with problems.) Ethyl once removed the tray from the high chair when Esther wasn't looking -- by picking it straight up; I managed to repair it. Also, when Esther wanted to take Irv for a walk, she let Ethyl carry the stroller down the stairs -- another mistake; the new stroller was a mess when it landed at the bottom. Ethyl was a wonder at shopping. She would study the paper and, without notes, get orders from people in the neighborhood and proceed to a number of stores so that everything was purchased at the lowest price.
Mr. Zehring also gave us some problems. He would cough and awaken Irv during the night, so Irv would start to cry; Mr. Zehring blamed Irv for awakening him.
When it became obvious that we wouldn't be moving into our house for some time, we looked around for a more comfortable place to stay and ended up with an old maid. It wasn't a good move either -- she wouldn't allow Irv outside his play pen so he was slow learning to crawl around.
Months later, with the renter out of our house, we moved in and found problems there too. We had learned that the renter had tuberculosis and had stayed in the room Irv was to be in, so Esther washed down the room. While washing the door jamb it came apart in her hands; it was like plywood with the glue missing. I subsequently learned a lot about termites and fixed the place up, including using steel jacks to replace the six-by-six wood posts that supported the floor. When we later put the house up for sale, it sold immediately -- the buyer had wanted the house earlier but had been afraid of the termites in the area and considered that I had taken care of the problem.
We moved in the house on a beautiful day and the windows were open while Esther was cleaning. But the sky blackened suddenly and a thunderstorm hit with lightning striking nearby. Seattle rarely experiences anything of that nature so she was terrified and started to scream. A neighbor heard her and had Esther take Irv to her house and then came over to shut our windows. She then told Esther what was going on. When I arrived there was a lot of water to be mopped from the floor.
The house was one block from a bridge over a river, so there was a lot of automobile traffic. When Irv was old enough to be out by himself we were afraid he might venture into the street so I ran a "trolley-line" from the garage, back of the house, to the front of the house and connected him to it with a leash that had an elastic take up giving him a lot of freedom without any danger of his getting caught in it. He would ride up and down the driveway on his tricycle without problems. Others wanted to know where we bought it.
New cars were impossible to get at that time, so I bought a pre-war Ford; it was a disaster. I drove it to Columbus one day and didn't make it. Professor Boone suggested that I get it to his dealer and I traded it in there for a newer car; I was later told that the car had given up when the top of a piston had separated from the bottom! Seems the dealer had drilled holes in the piston to increase the oil circulation.
When Irv was two we visited a friend where Esther noticed five guns and called his attention to the number; he corrected her -- he had seen seven guns!
We later moved to Columbus, where I finished my degree. Henry was born there in 1949 and Bob in 1950. Bob's doctor insisted that babies didn't suck naturally, but had to be taught, and advocated having Bob drink from a glass -- we started with a whiskey glass. People were amazed when they saw him holding a small glass while drinking his milk.
We lived in a nice area. There were no fences around any of the houses in the block, so the children had a large back yard area for playing. When we later bought a house in Los Angeles we were dismayed to find the neighbors waiting for us to go in with them on a cement-block fence. We went along to be neighborly, but Esther said she felt like she was in prison.
One day Esther and Irv accompanied me to Dayton and visited with a former neighbor while I was at the school. Irv and the neighbor's boy (somewhat older) had gone into the basement and were very quiet for awhile. When the man of the house came home he left quickly. When he returned, the women learned that he had gone for paint remover; the boys had found some red paint and had been painting clothes pins (in the messy manner typical of that age.) The boys had also been in an older boy's room and had batted around a model airplane that was hanging from a chandelier; the results were definitely not appreciated by the owner!
About that time O.S.U. received some war surplus emergency radios, complete with both box kites and balloons (with hydrogen generators) to raise the antennas. The balloons were very strong and we blew them up (with air) to about three feet in diameter. The kids were able to bounce on them for weeks before they broke!
Esther needs to be involved in the community and she began to help out at the church a block away. One day Father Burns came to our house to see why we were not attending the church and was amazed to learn that we were Jewish.
I did my only house construction work there. We had a small brick house and I decided to make the unfinished attic into a room for the boys and another for a study. I am careful about my work and, despite the fact that the house wasn't quite square, the finished job was very satisfying. Others wanted to know who did it -- our neighbors had a similar job done professionally and it didn't turn out nearly as well.
It was in 1959, after several more moves as described below, that Suzanne arrived. After graduating in chemistry and some floundering around she ended up at med. school. After a year of residency in Pediatrics that left her disheartened because too many cancer patients died she switched to pathology -- then gave that up for preventive medicine and completed it and an M.S. in public health. Wanting to stay in Denver, she now has a one day a week Job in public health with the City and a four day a week job in the clinic at the University of Denver -- she loves the arrangement. Irv is an attorney, the Assistant General Counsel of Alaska Airlines (he will not be moving up to General Counsel soon because he prefers staying at the working level, rather than being solely in management -- a chip off the old block). Henry, an engineer, was quality control manager for a company that makes high-capacity hard discs for computers -- now he is with another hard disk company with a broader responsibility. Bob graduated college in psychology when practical courses were out, but went into carpentry, and has been making fancy circular stairways. He finished the requirements to become a counselor in the school system and served in a local school for awhile on a part time basis, but there was no money available for him to continue, He was a foreman in a shop that manufactures parts for housing and made circular stairways, but the owner had financial problems so Bob and a salesman took over the stairway work; they operate out of a building on the grounds of Bob's house.
On to Progress Towards My Ph.D
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