The Fourth PK

The Fourth PK

Marjorie Jane Calvert Zaring

By

Wilson Zaring

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Published by Glorious Expressions at Smashwords

Copyright 2012 Wilson Zaring

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Table of Contents

Preface

Dedication

1. It's a Girl

2. In Lawrenceburg, Indiana

3. George Morgan

4. Anna Frances

5. James Wallace

6. Berneice Dea

7. Me, Marjorie Jane

8. My Parents

9. Uncle Elbern

10. Aunt Lilly

11. Uncle Iliff

12. Mother

13. On the Farm

14. Grandmother

15. Childhood Days

16. Dad's Promotion

17. Life in Indianapolis

18. Good Friends

19. On to Chattanooga

20. The Beginning of a Serious Romance

21. Making Plans for the Future

22. Happily Married

23. Teaching Grade School

24. Making a Home

25. Time to Start a Family

26. Moving to Champaign

27. The New Family

28. David and Susan

29. The Neighbors

30. Stories About the Kids

31. Substitute Teaching

32. Empty Nest

33. Susan's Children

34. David's Family

35. Good Times

36. Things That Come to Mind

37. Accomplishment I'm Proud of

38. Our Calvert Ancestors

39. Our Boone Ancestors

40. Our Morgan Ancestors

PREFACE

I have tried to write this autobiography in a conversational style and as I remember things. Those of you who read this, may remember things differently. Just keep in mind that while I may have made some mistakes, I wrote from memory. I tried to make it interesting and sometimes humorous. Most of all, it was written lovingly.

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DEDICATION

This is dedicated to all of those who have loved me and whom I have loved, especially to my good husband, who has given me so much that enriched my life, to our two fine children, to our wonderful grandsons, and to our delightful great granddaughter.

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On Friday night October 17, 1924, a baby girl was born in the Methodist Church Parsonage in North Madison, Indiana. Her parents were Wallace Clair Calvert and Mattie Jane Morgan Calvert. She was a small baby weighing only 5½ pounds but appeared healthy. She cried and when her father asked her older brothers George Morgan and James Wallace and older sister Anna Frances, Guess what we have in the other room? They said, A kitten! Perhaps they were disappointed to learn it was just a baby sister.

The baby was named Marjorie Jane. Marjorie because her mother liked the name (I don’t) and Jane for herself, after all they had used all grandparents’ names and my father’s name with the three older children. Now that I have introduced myself I will write in the first person.

Although my mother had not nursed the older three children, she tried to nurse me. Now that I have children and grandchildren and know more about the problems of nursing, I think she was unsuccessful because there was not enough time for her to rest, with a husband and four children to care for, a house to clean, clothes to wash on a wash board, water to carry from a pump outside the house, cooking to do, and dishes to wash three times a day - how could she rest?! Anyway, nursing was not successful and I was losing, not gaining, weight. All possible formulas were tried that were available in those days. At two months of age, I weighed five pounds and was so weak, as I was told, that I could not make a noise when I cried. My father’s mother, Grandma Newkirk (her second husband), came for a visit. She said to my parents, This baby is not going to live, unless something is done right away! She needs a wet-nurse!

My father thought about the church members and a lady that had a baby boy, Lester, who was three months old. So he went to her home and asked if she could and would be willing to nurse me. Her name was Maude Shinnis. She said, Oh yes, I’d be glad to. I have much more milk than my baby can take. So, according to the story, I began gaining weight and did well. When my brothers and sister had measles, my mother called Mother Maud to tell her, thinking she would not want to come. I was three months then, I think. But she said, Oh yes, I’ll come. She will need me even more if she gets sick. I don’t know if I got measles or not. I was told about this so I would know how dedicated and concerned she was for my health. Every year from then on, my parents always gave her gifts on Christmas and Mother’s Day. We visited her in North Madison after we moved away. When I was about 16. I took the responsibility for these gifts. After I was married, Wilson and I went to see her one time. She died a few years later.

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When I was almost three, we moved to Lawrenceburg, Indiana. That church had not had a minister with children for many years. I remember my Mother telling me that a few days before we moved, the neighborhood children played Barber Shop. I was the customer and they clipped my hair so badly she had to have it cut like a boy. She was so embarrassed to move to a new church with me looking like a boy. It was 1927 and the time that I begin to remember things that happened when I was small. We moved to Lawrenceburg in September and my younger sister, Berneice, was born December 9th. George and Anne were born at the farm of my Morgan grandparents, a few miles from the very small village of Cordova, in Kentucky. The younger three children were born in church parsonages, Jim at Manchester, Indiana, I at North Madison, Indiana and Bernie in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Now that all five of us have been born, I think that I will tell you about each one. The events will not be in chronological order with this autobiography, but to make sure I don't forget to tell the special things about each one, I'll do it now.

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George Morgan was the oldest, born eighteen months after my parent’s marriage. He was born on the farm of my Morgan grandparents. George was a great big brother! When George was a toddler, Mother was closing up a folding bed. He thought he could help her and just as the bed closed, his fingertip was cut off. Dad picked up the little piece and threw it in the heating stove. Now days, it would have been sewn back on. So, one finger was a little shorter the rest of his life. It evidently did not handicap him at all. He liked to tease the rest of us and especially his sisters. He would do big brother things like give us a ride on his back, play games with us and protect us from other children that might not be very kind. He and Jim let me play soft-ball with them a few times when there were not enough neighborhood boys. I was probably about nine years old one time when we were playing. I kept swinging and missing the ball. George said, Just hold the bat still and I'll throw the ball and hit the bat. You can see why I was never the first one chosen for a team.

While we lived in Lawrenceburg, George had Scarlet Fever. So we were all quarantined for six weeks. A sign was tacked to the house saying Scarlet Fever, so no one would enter. Dad happened to be out of town when George got sick, so he stayed some place else and would come to the house each day and talk to us through the window. Scarlet Fever was considered a serious illness back then. While he was sick, a small fire started in the attic. George grabbed his and Jim's new suits, the most precious items they had, and started down the stairs. Mother met him there and sent him back to his room. The fire was very, very insignificant. Another thing that happened to George, he and a friend were trying to see who could throw a brick the farthest. George threw his brick and went to pick it up. When the other boy threw his brick it hit George in the head. I don't know where my Mother and Father were at that time, but when they came home George was lying on the coach with a bloody cloth on his head. What a shock! They took him to the doctor and he had some stitches.

When he was about sixteen, we moved to Indianapolis. On a few rare occasions our parents were out for dinner. We girls regularly had to help with preparing meals, washing dishes and cleaning up after meals. On those rare occasions when our parents were not home at mealtime, we thought we could delay the dishwashing. Well, not according to George. When we left the kitchen and sat down in the living room, he would come over, give us, well, I think it was us, at least I know I got thumped. He would thump us on the head with his thumb and finger and say, Go do the dishes! He was in charge and took this responsibility seriously. I remember his first girlfriend was Edith Pollard and one time he was taking her someplace, it was snowy and slick. He hit the curb and broke some of the spokes on a wheel, they were wooden then. He didn’t want to tell Dad and made some excuse for Dad not to drive the car. I don’t remember the consequences, but George probably had to pay for the repair. He was working part time at a filling station.

George attended Butler University in Indianapolis on a band scholarship; he played trumpet. He would take Jim to football and basketball games and Jim could sit with the band. I have heard Jim tell about this through the years. He would say, George was a good big brother.

I was 16 when George graduated college. He got a job with Sears as a manager trainee in Marion, Indiana. The first Christmas after he began his position with Sears, he asked each of us what we would like for Christmas. I said I wanted a pretty slip. So Christmas morning, that was what I got! I loved it and it fit! I asked how he knew what size to get. He said he looked at the clerks in the store till he found one that he thought was my size and asked her what he should buy. I'm not sure if that would be considered sexual harassment now or not, but it worked. In April, 1941 George was drafted. He expected to be in the army one year. That was the way the draft was set