B

The return to Texas was less exciting than the reverse trip. The one really good thing that came from this new development was that I admired S more than ever. His trying to do something worth while for his half sister, made him a hero in my eyes. I tried to do my share of helping, but her inertia made it difficult. S and I often wondered what made her so retiring and so without any self confidence. She had a domineering father who had been brutally abusive to S. Maybe that man had robbed her of what she needed to get along in this world.

I told you some time ago that the sergeant's wife who lived behind our kitchen changed my life. She listened o soaps on the radio about seven hours a day. I had to listen unless I wore ear plugs. And I had watched S's mother listen to the radio every morning when Helen Trent was on the air. And so it seeped into me. And so my part of helping B was sitting down to a card table working on a Jigsaw puzzle and letting this surrounding noise invade her. Probably the worst thing I could have done to her. But somehow we had to survive.

We, all three of us, survived. B was introduced to all our friends. She was exposed to a lot of GIs when we were invited out to the post to play Badminton. And we always went out to the post when the troops were reviewed. S was the adjutant of his company and we loved seeing the funny steps he was required to use while doing this.

We were speaking of Helen Trent. When S retired and we moved to the North West we joined a class given at the Junior College. The teacher's name was Bob Sidney. His mother had been playing the role of Helen Trent for something like 25 years.