After I posted about how we came to move from the apartment building in 1981, I realized that there were more memories worth recording.
As mentioned before, Bruce and I worked for the same company which had a 24/7 work calendar. So we never worked together; we always worked different shifts so that one of us was home. Not to brag, but I was seriously the better baby sitter...
So one day in September, while I was working and Bruce was tending, Abbi was practicing her letters and discovered that she could write A!! So she covered a bunch of papers with A and A and A and A...she was just getting better and better at them. Somehow, she decided that her A's looked so good that maybe the WALL was a much better place to write her fabulous A's...
She chose a red crayon. That is a very nice color to use if you want something to really show up well, isn't it. She started out with just one small A, but then she wrote a bigger one, and a bigger one, and a bigger one, and a bigger one until the biggest one was as low and as high as an almost 3-year old girl could reach.
So, when I came home from work, the white wall of the living room looked like this:
We set aside Saturday September 26 to do the painting, because we had to be out before October 1, because a new tenant would be moving in. Our landlords, with whom we had been on very good terms--we were, after all, the managers--were a bit ticked off that we were leaving in the middle of the whole apartment 12 crisis. They did not have children, so it was hard for them to understand that we felt that that situation had become impossible for our children. So, long story short, they would be expecting a spotlessly clean apartment from us.
Well, when Saturday rolled around, there was a crisis at work and they really needed one of us--Bruce or I--to come in. We decided that since he was the better painter, he should stay and paint and I should work. He couldn't paint and watch children at the same time (remember that he was the one watching when the A's appeared on the wall...) so I got someone to tend the girls; I don't remember who. Maybe Arlene, maybe her friend Robin, maybe they went over to Linda Hill's where her older kids watched them...I am not sure.
I called my friend Cathy to tell her that I had to work, so I could not help Bruce to get the apartment painted. Cathy was the primary president; Linda and I were her counselors. Cathy called the relief society president, thinking if more people were there to paint, it would go really fast. And the RS pres said, "Well, I don't think so, Cathy. Today is the General Relief Society Conference, and I think the women need to be at home getting spiritually prepared for the conference." Cathy said, "Well, I think that giving service is probably the best way to get spiritually prepared for anything."
So, that was the end of that. Bruce had two helpers--Cathy and Linda. And I am sure they were just as spiritually prepared as anyone who stayed at home that day! I know that Bruce and I were super grateful for their help, even though it meant that those beautiful red A's were all gone. I wonder if I at least took a picture of them? I am guessing probably not--if I did, it would be in Abbi's journal that I don't have--but back in those days, you had to pay for film, you had to pay to have film developed...we were much more careful about what we took pictures of. Too bad! They were lovely, lovely A's. At least I can still see them in my mind's eye!
As mentioned before, Bruce and I worked for the same company which had a 24/7 work calendar. So we never worked together; we always worked different shifts so that one of us was home. Not to brag, but I was seriously the better baby sitter...
So one day in September, while I was working and Bruce was tending, Abbi was practicing her letters and discovered that she could write A!! So she covered a bunch of papers with A and A and A and A...she was just getting better and better at them. Somehow, she decided that her A's looked so good that maybe the WALL was a much better place to write her fabulous A's...
She chose a red crayon. That is a very nice color to use if you want something to really show up well, isn't it. She started out with just one small A, but then she wrote a bigger one, and a bigger one, and a bigger one, and a bigger one until the biggest one was as low and as high as an almost 3-year old girl could reach.
So, when I came home from work, the white wall of the living room looked like this:
A A A A A
They were really very nice A's, very well executed. I know that Abbi was very, very proud of them. She thought they improved the appearance of the walls very much. But...we were moving...we wanted and needed our deposit back. The A's had to go.We set aside Saturday September 26 to do the painting, because we had to be out before October 1, because a new tenant would be moving in. Our landlords, with whom we had been on very good terms--we were, after all, the managers--were a bit ticked off that we were leaving in the middle of the whole apartment 12 crisis. They did not have children, so it was hard for them to understand that we felt that that situation had become impossible for our children. So, long story short, they would be expecting a spotlessly clean apartment from us.
Well, when Saturday rolled around, there was a crisis at work and they really needed one of us--Bruce or I--to come in. We decided that since he was the better painter, he should stay and paint and I should work. He couldn't paint and watch children at the same time (remember that he was the one watching when the A's appeared on the wall...) so I got someone to tend the girls; I don't remember who. Maybe Arlene, maybe her friend Robin, maybe they went over to Linda Hill's where her older kids watched them...I am not sure.
I called my friend Cathy to tell her that I had to work, so I could not help Bruce to get the apartment painted. Cathy was the primary president; Linda and I were her counselors. Cathy called the relief society president, thinking if more people were there to paint, it would go really fast. And the RS pres said, "Well, I don't think so, Cathy. Today is the General Relief Society Conference, and I think the women need to be at home getting spiritually prepared for the conference." Cathy said, "Well, I think that giving service is probably the best way to get spiritually prepared for anything."
So, that was the end of that. Bruce had two helpers--Cathy and Linda. And I am sure they were just as spiritually prepared as anyone who stayed at home that day! I know that Bruce and I were super grateful for their help, even though it meant that those beautiful red A's were all gone. I wonder if I at least took a picture of them? I am guessing probably not--if I did, it would be in Abbi's journal that I don't have--but back in those days, you had to pay for film, you had to pay to have film developed...we were much more careful about what we took pictures of. Too bad! They were lovely, lovely A's. At least I can still see them in my mind's eye!
No comments:
Post a Comment