Memoirs

A Good Reason To Stay Up Late

Playing cards with friends topped the list of our weekend entertainment when Jim and I were first married in 1963, and we had such fun it continued to be our major form of entertainment for several more years. We alternated between hearts and canasta. Jim learned to play all kinds of card games in the air force. As a newbie, I learned as I went.

Bill and Donna were our favorite people to play with. They were a few years older than us with two little girls when we first met. They lived just across the street. Bill worked at General Foods and always said he invented Cool Whip. I don’t think so, but back then I was pretty gullible. His kids believed him, too.

I don’t remember exactly how we all met, but we became good friends as well as card mates, babysitting for each other after Jim and I had our children, going on camping trips together, and sharing special nights out at grungy blue crab restaurants, you know, those ones where the floors tilt and newspaper line the tables.

Donna and I never took the card games as seriously as the guys did, but we played our best. Chips and dip were always handy. Dip was made from cream cheese, evaporated milk and ketchup. We rotated back and forth on who was to supply the snacks, but the menu stayed the same. We usually played at Bill and Donna’s because they had more room, and at the beginning, more kids so their house was convenient, the kids in bed by the time the game started, most Saturday nights around 8 p.m.

Donna was the scorekeeper. I’m not sure how this happened, but I do remember she loved to make lists. She actually kept a list of every penny she spent, not because she was a tightwad or thrifty, she just liked to keep lists. She did all the things I expected a good wife and mother to do. She canned, she gardened, she kept a clean house, and she became my role model.

Her first two little girls were tomboys, taught by their dad to love camping and archery and fishing and other out-doorsy things. One day I remember looking over at their house and seeing Deb and Pammy walking on their roof, playing some sort of game. I flew over there to bang on Donna’s door, afraid they would fall and break their necks. Donna calmly came out and told the girls to get down the same way they got up there and not to go on the roof again because it made Aunt Connie nervous. They all thought it was funny.

But back to the card playing. On this particular Saturday night, Donna was very pregnant and overdue. She always said my getting pregnant made her want to try for a little boy again. She had been walking and cleaning and doing all those things woman say to do to hurry up the process, but nothing was happening. We gathered around the kitchen table with dip and chips and played late into the night. Donna and I were not being serious, as usual, joking and laughing about something that had happened earlier. The later it got, the more we got the giggles until tears streamed down our cheeks uncontrollably. Bill and Jim were getting fed up with us when I noticed a strange expression come across Donna’s face. She was no longer laughing and her wide-open eyes seemed to see something beyond me. All of us noticed the change that had come over her as the room quieted.

“My water just broke.” And, then she burst out laughing again. We all let out our breath and Bill went into action, getting towels, clean clothes, and the overnight case. Jim and I stayed to babysit as Bill and Donna hurried to the hospital. We didn’t have to stay up too late although it was into the next day when we heard it was another little girl. Now, they had three tomboys, and Pam and Deb taught Kelly all their tricks. I can’t imagine how boys could have made their parents any happier. And that night was certainly a good reason to stay up later than usual.