Post Ten

Perhaps I was old-fashioned in my thinking, but I was brought up that way. Anyway, it all worked out, and we were married the following January, 2,1918. It  was a dreadfully cold night – 32 degrees below zero – and the train that Claude came down on froze and he had to spend the night in Winchendon. It was equally cold the night we were married, and we had a two-hour wait in the Worcester station for our train to Boston, where we spent the night. We were going to Cuba for our honeymoon and it was lovely. We stopped at all the interesting places on the way – Washington, St. Augustine, Palm Beach and Miami.

We stayed at a beautiful hotel in Havana, and had a chance to wear all the lovely clothes my parents gave me. We went to the horse races and I won $10, which was exciting for me. After a month, we came home, stopping in Worcester for a couple of days, then on to Proctor, where Claude had a house already for us.

However, we didn’t stay in the house, only for four months. We bought one on Hospital Hill. So, we had to do it all over again. We loved the little house so much and the location still more, that in six years, Claude decided to build a new one on the lot.

We had the little house moved into the pasture at the end of Warner Avenue, and David, Janet and I went to spend a month in Essex Junction with  Grandma Hunter until it was put on a foundation, and we lived in it until our new house was ready for us. It was ready the day before Christmas, and we had my family and Grandma Hunter to spend the holidays with us. It was such fun showing them everything and arranging things. I, with Ida’s help – she was our maid and an excellent seamstress – made all the curtains, so things looked livable.

But before we moved to the new house, David and Janet were born to us and what pleasure we had with the little tots. When David was born, Claude sent me so many lovely bouquets of chrysanthemums – so they never withered – the beautiful ball flowers, and ever after I loved them. Years later when we had to do something in memory of David, I always put those kind of chrysanthemums put in the church.

When Janet was born, David went up to Grandma Hunters to stay, and it was there that my father sent him the rocking horse, which he and Grandma Hunter named January because he came in January. I remember when Claude brought David home and I was taking his coat off. Janet cried out and David said, “What’s that, a chicken?”  I suppose he thought it must be a chicken because Grandma Hunter had chickens.

After six happy years, we decided to build our new house. We all, except Daddy – Claude – went to Essex Junction to spend a month with Grandma Hunter while our house was moved to a new lot on Olympus Road. David was upset when he came home and heard all about the moving from his friends, and he was not there to see it all.