Claude did not have to serve long (six months) as he found a way to get out because of a hardship at home. However, Smithers had to serve two years before he got out of the Air Force. Howard used to tease Claude about that. All together Claude really served with the Air Force seven years.
While Claude was gone I learned how to drive a car. My neighbor helped me and it was great for me. Claude had tried to teach me earlier but everything was so easy for him. He couldn’t understand why I couldn’t just learn. We had some very tense moments.
We lived in our double for about four more years and then Eve Lee and Howard moved away and so we decided to sell and move into a new housing development. We sold our house shortly after and moved into a brand new home on Exeter Street, in Indianapolis. It was just about three miles from the Smithers.
Ed and James came to live with us. They fixed up the downstairs and stayed with us. Claude was great about it. He loved the boys so we had no real adjustments to make. Ed and James both were old enough to go to the service then. While Ed was overseas, our sister died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Oh, what a sad day that was for all of us. I had a hard time for the next five years without her.
We really loved living on Exeter Street. The kids had others to play with and we had good neighbors. It was still a very simple time and the kids could play until after dark without us having to worry about them. It was a new development so houses were still being built and the kids would go play in the huge dirt piles, ride their bikes anywhere and play ‘Kick-the-Can’ and ‘Hide and Seek’ for hours. Even the adults, especially Claude, would play with them sometimes. It was so much different. Life was at a slower pace and dinner was still a sit down affair every night. Kids were safe on Halloween and parents could send their kids off without having to hold on to them every second or check the candy they brought home. It is a shame that today’s kids will never have that safety.
Ed came back to live with us after he got out of the service. He only stayed a short time. James moved back as well when he got out of the service and the boys moved back downstairs. Then Ed went to college in Michigan. While Ed was in college he got married and all was going well with them. He was to graduate in three more weeks when suddenly Faye, his wife, had a heart attack and died. He came back to stay with us after he graduated.
Ed got a good job in Indianapolis as a CPA. After two years he met Ann and got married. They moved to Carmel, Indiana and he became a partner in an accounting business. Ed and Ann had two kids. They have grandchildren now and one of his grandsons goes to Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.
James stayed a little while longer but finally decided he didn’t want to be in the cold any more. He moved back to Arkansas and eventually married. He landed a fabulous job working in the aeronautical field. Unfortunately, his marriage didn’t last but James has since remarried to a very special lady, Ruby, and they have been together ever since.
While all of this was going on, Marshall started to Washington Elementary School, a short distance from our new house. Claude’s mom, Elsie, was living with us and I decided I would go to work. I got a job at L.S. Ayers, a big fancy department store in downtown Indianapolis. It was a part-time job but the extra money was a big help in those days. I worked mostly in the credit department.
When the Sears Catalog would come in the mail, we would all sit down and look at every picture. We would make up a list of what we wanted. Of course it was mostly just for fun. We would pick the kids' new clothes out for the following school year. We mostly only bought clothes that one time and they had to make them last until the next Sears Catalog came out.
When Pat was eighteen months old we began to notice that she was not talking or responding to loud noises or when we called her, she wouldn’t come. The doctor had told us she had whooping cough just a few months before so he believed she had lost her hearing then. She wasn’t born deaf.
I began a long journey with Pat and her hearing loss. It was very hard as we didn’t know anything about what to do to make her life full and happy. She was so beautiful and her dad and I adored our children. I spent hours with books and papers talking to Pat and taking her to lip reading classes.
We joined a group of people that had deaf children and we all decided to start a nursery school to help our children learn. The hearing society helped with getting a teacher who knew all the ins and outs about what to do for our deaf child. The teacher had a girl who was 15 years old and had been deaf since she was a baby. I took Pat to everything that would help her feel loved and normal. My mother-in-law, Elsie, was a great help because she took care of Marshall.
ANOTHER NEW LIFE BEGINS!
Claude and I visited the deaf school but after talking to them we decided we didn’t like the rules they had. The children would only get to go home one weekend a month and that blew us away. We had a group of people who had deaf kids and we began to try to change things so our kids could come home at night like all other children.
It was a long battle and a lot of work at the State House before we got the law changed. We finally won and that is how “mainstream” began in the schools and it still working today.
At first the State of Indiana passed a bill that said we could have six cities with day programs with hearing children and deaf school children being in the same classroom together. They would be bussed home every day. They could attend school just like every other child.
Marshall was now in the 4th grade. Pat had been going to a school for handicapped kids when they finally set up the schools for deaf kids. The schools were to be in Muncie, Terre Haute, Evansville, South Bend and Ft. Wayne.
Claude and I were so happy that Pat would be going to a regular school. Claude quit his job and found another one with American Greeting Cards that would allow us to move to Muncie where one of the schools would be located.
We sold our house and said goodbye to our dear friends in Indianapolis and moved to Muncie. It was hard on Claude and me because of all of the friends we were leaving behind. Claude really liked working at Koch News Company and was friends with just about everyone there, especially Ed Koch, the owner of the company. They got along very well since he considered Claude to be one of his best employees. He never missed a day and would show up even if the snow was so deep it seemed impossible to get around. One thing about Claude, he was a hard worker and always dependable.
We found a wonderful old house on Burton Drive with great neighbors. It was secluded and had a private drive. We had just over an acre of land with huge walnut trees. We had so many great times there. All the people in the neighborhood helped each other. We would all play games together and have Sunday picnics, rake leaves and skate on the big driveways we all had. It was such a great place for the kids to be free and life was really good for all of us. It was still a simple time and the kids could go all over without worrying about something happening to them. In the fall all the leaves would turn a golden color and the drive was beautiful. Of course when they finally fell we had huge piles to rake up. All the neighbors would get together and we would rake up huge piles of leaves and burn them. Yes, in those days you could do that. Afterwards we would all have a pitch-in dinner at one of the houses.
The railroad tracks were just a short distance off and the kids would spend hours walking up and down finding great treasures. Or so it seemed to them. One of the great things about Burton Drive was that neighbors looked after neighbors. No one ever came down into the drive without someone watching what was going on. If they thought they didn’t belong there, someone would walk outside to let them know they were being watched.
Claude had to travel a lot his first few years with American Greetings but he came home every night no matter how late it was. He was a homebody and never wanted to be away from his family. He was a dedicated family man from the word go. I never had to worry about what he was doing. He would always call when he was going to be coming home late. I knew I could always count on that.
Okay, here is one
story that I will share with you about me not being at my best. One day Pat and Marshall were driving me crazy. Patty was a baton twirler and really quite good at it. I was up on a ladder cleaning the ceiling lamp and Marshall kept bugging me about going to get a model car to build. He was always doing that. I told him to knock it off but did he listen? Heavens no. He just kept on. Finally I had had enough and I saw Patty’s baton beside the couch. Without thinking about it much, I grabbed it up and bonked him on the head. You never heard such screaming. He held his head and rolled around on the floor. Now I was really getting mad because I didn’t hit him all that hard. I figured he was just trying to get sympathy so I would go buy him his model car.
“Oh for heaven’s sake,” I yelled at him, “You are acting like I killed you. All I did was hit you on the head with the rubber tip of the baton. Now get up and stop acting like that.”
Of course he went on and on and I finally had had enough so I said, “You big baby. It didn’t hurt near that much,” and to show him I hit myself on the head. I almost fell to the floor. The tip was solid hard rubber. I had no idea. I thought it was soft on the end. Needless to say, after my head stopped hurting, he got the model car.
We had some very good friends that had a deaf boy named Dennis. They were Marion and Eleanor Dickover. They were just a barrel of fun to be with. We would go to the state parks and spend hours hiking with them. They would often come to our house and play games, cards, and have cookouts. They had a boy Marshall’s age as well, named Butch. The Dickovers soon became our best friends and we were always spending time with them. We would go bowling, sledding in the winter, and even on a few vacations with them. Pat and Dennis were very good friends and to this day they still are friends. I remember going on one trip to a state park and getting lost while hiking. We walked for hours and hours trying to find our way back. Finally we found a road and started to follow it. A nice old man in a truck came by and helped us get turned in the right direction. He let us all climb in the back and he drove us back to the parking lot.
Marshall was in lots of sports and we had fun watching him. Claude would travel to every game he was in. It made no difference what the sport; he would be there to watch him. He would play basketball with him, throw the football around and play pitch and catch (until Marshall started throwing so hard it would hurt his hand - not that he would ever let on). Marshall was skilled above the average kids in all five sports that he played. He would play on teams with scouts, church, and everywhere he could. He had a paper route for a long time at 5:30 in the morning. It was the largest single route in Muncie at the time. He would get up at 5:00 a.m. and go collect his papers then roll them and deliver them on his bike. He would get home just before school started in the morning. I used to help him with collections. I was amazed at how many deadbeats there were.
We belonged to a new swim club and we would spend the long summer days at the pool, especially Marshall, who got a job as a lifeguard. He would have lived there if we would have let him. Claude and I would attend every swim meet to watch him. He won almost every time and had a two-inch thick stack of ribbons at one time.
Then when Marshall was sixteen and Pat fifteen, we were blessed with a wonderful surprise. I was pregnant again and it was going to be a little girl. Both of my kids were so thrilled and so was Claude. We still had Claude’s mom with us and we had a great life. Elsie was getting sick by this time, however, but loved Debby. Claude’s mom died the year before Marshall graduated from high school.
We were so thrilled to have a little kid again at home. We could once again go to the circus, fairs, shows, and play with her. We had such a great time with Debby she was such a sweet and good little girl.
We would have huge family reunions every other year and we would all get together and have the greatest time catching up on our lives. We could all tell some great ‘tall-tales’. It was a wonderful time. They would change from one time to the next. We had them in Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois. We had them a few times at Dad’s house when he was still alive. It was the best time and we could all catch up on what was going on in our lives. We could see the grandchildren as they grew up and life was good.
I am sad that times have changed so much. Now we are all scattered throughout the country and we seldom get to see each other like we used to. The last reunion we had was when Gerald died. It was fun but it wasn’t the same because not everyone could make it at that time. But life goes on and things are always changing.
By now Marshall had graduated from High School and started to college at Ball State University. Pat graduated from the deaf school. Debby was going to a play school.
Marshall quit Ball State after his freshman year because he didn’t really know what he wanted to do yet. It seemed like a waste of time and money so he decided to join the Navy. That was a real surprise to Claude because he was in the Air Force and thought Marshall would join that. He had even been in ROTC while at Ball State which was an Air Force program. I think Claude was a little disappointed that he chose the Navy. He was sent to San Diego, CA for boot camp.
Pat was working at Prestige Portrait and Debby’s play school closed. She was so disappointed that I decided I would open a nursery school so Debby would have something to do. She was four and had no kids to play with in Burton Drive. They had all grown up and gone on to other things. Her brother and sister were off doing their own thing with kids their age. Marshall would come home from some sport and check in to see how she was doing. He would call her ‘Miss America’ all the time and sing, ‘Here she comes, Miss America’ to her.
I was the second nursery school in Muncie so I had a long list to pick from and lots of help from mothers and Ball State students that needed to do volunteer work for their teaching certification. I had forty children each day, four days a week. Twenty kids in the morning session and twenty in the afternoon. It was a tremendous success and I had a waiting list almost from the time I opened it. It grew so fast that we added another room onto the house just for the nursery school.
Marshall had won the American Spirit Medal while in Boot Camp. It is only given to one person during the year. He had been selected for Nuclear Power School because of his test scores and was sent to Vallejo, California at the Nuclear Power Submarine Training School after he finished Boot Camp. Once he graduated from there, (third in his class of eighty-five), he was sent to Idaho Falls, Idaho. The government had a special nuclear training facility at Atomic City for submariners and other nuclear power operators. His next assignment was aboard the USS Kamehameha SSBN-642, known as a ‘Boomer’. He was later stationed in Norfolk, Virginia so we were able to go see him every once in a while. He started writing Judi while he was in Virginia and when he was home on furlough they got married. She went back to live in Virginia with him. Like all service people they moved around quite a lot but he was always trying to get to go to every school the Navy had to offer to get out of going to sea so often. One around the world cruise was enough for him.
Pat was getting bored living with us because all her friends lived in Indianapolis and so off we went to help her find a job in Indianapolis. We were so lucky we met a nice man on the parking lot at Lilly. He was a big boss there and he helped us get a wonderful job for her. Many of her deaf friends worked there so she had her cute apartment and lots of deaf friends.
She met Glenn at a ball game for the deaf and started dating him. He was a teacher at the deaf school and after a year they had a nice big wedding and got an apartment in Indianapolis. Marshall came home for Pat’s wedding.
She and Glenn decided to move to Texas because he had a better teaching job there at a deaf school. They only stayed a year and Pat was not happy there so they came back to Indianapolis.
Pat got pregnant and had a darling little girl named Kim. Soon they bought a home and things went really well for them. We saw them quite a lot when Kim was little. Pat would bring Kim down to see us and Glenn was working for the Indiana Deaf Society. Kim was such
a precious little girl and her grandpa loved to play with and tease her.
Kim was our second sweet little granddaughter. Then along came our next grandchild Kevin and we were thrilled to have a little grandson this time. He was such a sweet kid and he was such a joy to us.
Debby was into horses so we bought her a horse (Marin - Arrow Tail Tonka). She and I had some wonderful times going to the horse shows that she rode in. She won many ribbons and Claude would go with us sometimes but usually he would go golfing while I took Debby’s horse to all the horse shows. I have to tell you, those barns were darn cold in the morning while I was waiting for Debby to ride. The biggest thrill was the year Debby won first place over all the horses at the State horse show. We have a great picture of that big day. It was an incredible honor. Oh, what a big thrill it was!
Then the bad news, Marshall and Judi were shipping out for Italy. They adjusted there very well and loved living in Europe. Judi got pregnant and they had Dominique in Italy. They were able to come home on furlough a few times at Christmas time. At first Claude and I didn’t much like the name they had chosen for their daughter but once we saw her it seemed like the perfect name. She stole Claude’s heart immediately.
When Dominique was about three years old, they decided to leave Italy and return to the US. Nique would start school soon. Marshall and Judi came back to Muncie and Marshall started back to college at Ball State. He worked also while he was going to college. He really liked working for Cork & Cleaver restaurant while he was finishing school. He interviewed for a management position and soon was moved to Bloomington with that company. Later he joined Noble Romans and became the VP of Operations. He met Steve Hughes and he went up fast with the restaurant business and soon became the Executive Vice President of Hughes Food Group.
The Life and Times of Mary Lou (Stage) Huffman Page 3
