Meeting the Family

Mom told me that when she was a young woman, women still wore corsets for special occasions. They were married in 1958, so I’m guessing it was 1956 or 1957 that she boarded a train in New York, with her beau Richard Boyce Jr., to meet one of his relatives.

She was very nervous, of course.  And, since she grew up in a German Lutheran family, she had had virtually no experience with “standard” Italian dinners. Additionally, since her manners were (and are) impeccable, I’m sure she didn’t want to give the impression that the food wasn’t good. So she had a substantial helping of the first course, not realizing it was the first of many courses.

By the time the dinner was over, her corset was a private torment to her.

(can’t imagine why!!!)

And she remembers nearly getting sick on the train ride back, due to the combination of having eaten wayyyyyy too much and a corset that was now wayyyyyy too tight.

The "Waiting Room" in the Hospitals' Maternity Section

Since Father's Day is just around the corner, this one's about both Dad and Mom:

Dad is not a demonstrative person in the slightest. He's never been. 

So when Mom told me a story about the night their first-born was on the way, I had absolutely no trouble picturing him doing what she described!

Her water broke late in the evening, and of course Dad was very calm as he helped her get ready to go to the hospital. I’m sure he remained calm while he was in her room for the first part of her labor too. 

Then, of course, he had to go to the husbands’ waiting room (or whatever it was they called it) in the maternity section of the hospital, to wait for the news. And apparently he wasn’t calm in there.

When he was allowed to go back in and visit the new mom and the new daughter, Mom noticed that he kept his hands behind his back. She wondered if perhaps he had something for her, so she said, “Richard, what’s behind your back?”

It only made her more curious when he just mumbled something she couldn’t understand. So she said again, “Richard, what’s behind your back?”

When he brought his hands forward, she was both amused and touched to see his pipe…in pieces. 

He had bitten his pipe in half while pacing back and forth!

Lipstick

It's a very vivid memory, so it must have happened more than once.

In my mind's eye, I can "watch" Mom putting on lipstick.

Without a mirror.

Perfectly. 

It was generally the only makeup she wore. When I asked her one time how she did it so perfectly without a mirror, she laughed and said something along the lines of, "I've had this face for a loooong time!"