Eight

Mom taught earth science in a middle school.  She had a B.A. in Earth Sciences and a Master of Science degree in Physics.

Traveling with mom was fun. It was light, fun and exhilarating.  She was a bird out of a cage.  This was the Mom I always wanted.  And now, I had her. Mom’s cup runneth over on that trip.  She had found her voice that summer in Utah.  There was so much she wanted to tell me now.

“You know, I’ve played bridge since I was in high school.  The friends that I get together with monthly, I started that group in high school.

Another thing.  I always thought I would go to medical school.  Gads, I had the grades.  Had I not had to support the family, I would have been a physician,” she said.

“Mom, do you think that is why you always hated physicians, because you never got to be one?”

“Good question.  Probably,” she chuckled.

“They make lot of money. That would have been good for us.”

“You know why I became a science teacher? Because I could take care of you and your brother and get home early.  That’s why,” she said.

“You know I was in the Women’s Auxilliary Corp (WAC) during World War 2.  Your Dad and I went to Illinois together.  That was the first time I ever got away from Maryland.  I loved Chicago in the 40s.  It was an exciting and windy town!”

The following summer, in 1966, she received another National Science Foundation grant.  This time she studied oceanography in Mt. Vernon, Washington. 

Again, we drove cross country.  She dropped me off in Ephraim, Utah to spend two weeks with a female friend I had met the summer before.  I took a bus to Mt. Vernon, Washington to join her on the Puget Sound.  That summer, I picked four hundred pounds of blueberries.  There was simply  nothing else to do there.  I did meet a few locals and even dated a couple of boys in town. 

But the following year in high school was challenging. It was horrible. I was ready to be out on my own.  My brother had gone off to college.  Mom was rarely home.

Once again, she returned to her gruff ways.  I spent as much time that year staying with friends. It was the loneliest year of my life.

When I graduated from high school, I wanted her out of the house.  That summer, I declined to travel with her on another National Science Foundation grant. Instead, I took a job at a local café which also sold ice cream.  It became the biggest part of my social life as most of my high school friends stopped in there.

Since I had no car, I walked to work.  It was just fifteen minutes away.  Home was peaceful.  It never once felt lonely.

When Mom returned home, I had started at a community college for a semester.  I wasn’t ready for college.  The following semester I attended a secretarial school in Baltimore city.  I learned shorthand and a few other good skills.

That following year, I met the man who would become my husband through my brother’s best friend at college.

The night I got engaged, my mother was out at a party drinking heavily.  I remember calling her at one o’clock in the morning.  She was drunk.  It was a few days until we could talk about my impending marriage, a few days until she sobered up.

He flew to Mexico before the divorce was finalized and then remarried.  I learned of his marriage through a letter he had sent me while I was in Utah.  His wife was about ten years younger than my mother.