Dorothy - A Life in Stories, 2023

most of the day. Add to that a new baby who want- ed all of his mother’s attention, whose bottles had to be boiled, whose diapers needed to be washed and ironed. I had no idea that diapers didn’t have to be ironed. Making baby formula was very time consuming. Things were busy. Then, before I knew it, I was pregnant again. MAE JOINS THE FAMILY It was clear I needed help and it came in the form of a wonderful young woman named Mae Gibson, a very young black woman newly arrived from South Carolina, who became an indispens- able part of our family for years. She was a lovely, kind, intelligent, hard working woman and a good friend. I miss her to this day. Mae would bathe the boys and put them in their footie pajamas while I prepared dinner. The boys would watch a television program called the Mickey Mouse Club and they would dance around the room singing, M-I-C-K- E-Y M-O-U-S-E. I will always be grateful for that program. With Mae’s help everything got done. I was still able to go to the restaurant with Herman when he worked the evening shift. Almost every day I would put Frank in his stroller and walk him the eight blocks to his Nana Dora’s. That was my exer- cise routine. I was also crazy clean about Frank. If he so much as touched a leaf I would be wiping his hands with a warm cloth. Now, of course, we know that kids gain some immunity from getting dirty, but as a young mother I wasn’t taking any chances. Even Frank’s baby food was homemade, a delicious (ha!) combination of mashed bananas and sour cream. I would sit outside on the stoop and feed him this awful concoction and he would gag on every spoonful. I would point out the colors on the cars going by to distract him while he was eating. I used to think that if he missed a meal he wouldn’t live. The dumb things parents do think- ing they are doing the right thing for their kids.

Herman’s woodcarving - the wood came from the pylon of redwood that made up the Shooster’s sign on the drive-in

MICHAEL ARRIVES When Michael arrived the experience was much easier than with Frank. I was so relaxed that I was dawdling around the house while I was in labor and Ida had to make me go to the hospi- tal. I was in labor a much shorter time and was in the hospital for only four days. Michael was a chunky, blue-eyed bundle of joy. His eyes were almost aquamarine. It was obvious I had a talent for making cute boys. But my boys were only thir- teen and a half months apart – it was harder than raising twins. When we got Michael home he was installed in the second crib in Frank’s bedroom, which was now the boys’ room. The boys seemed bonded from their beginning. As they grew Frank was the take-charge brother but both of them were very protective of each other.

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