My little Indian

Gilbert, our first child, had just had his fourth birthday before we moved to Diablo. His favorite present was an indian suit. He might have received a head dress and a hatchet but I only remember the suit. There was plastic fringe on the sleeves and on the side of his pants. He wore it every day and sat by the dryer when it had to be washed. After we moved in he escaped and ran up the street. The front door at the neighbors house was open and he ran into the living room where several adults were peacefully having a post breakfast conversation. He circled the coffee table and exited the room and returned home. Not a word had been spoken during his attack. It was the house of the Greers where Mike Bray spent his teenage years. Harriet Greer was the first one to ask me if we were Catholics. The three tiny children and me being very pregnant made people suspect that the church had been guilty of some pressure. It was difficult convincing people that it was because we got such a late start.

We were quite a conversation stopper when we would go for our evening walk. About five in the afternoon, when little people usually get cranky or restless, we would all walk up the street to Mrs Murphy's house to see the ducks in her front-yard. Early on we had one child in the stroller and two walking along-side. It would usually take half an hour or 45 min. and by the time we got home supper would be ready. If Sam were in the neighborhood, we would wait for him so we could have dinner together. Then there would be Hydrotherapy for the two younger children. I would fill the kitchen sink with warm bubbly water and get out all the orange juice cans and the macaroni and nothing soothed tired toddlers better than that. After Jane was born, a month later the stroller was exchanged for the baby buggy and then Martha would sit at the foot of the buggy and Gilbert and Anna would hold onto the buggy as we wandered up the street. And then the Hydrotherapy still consisted of the two youngest. It worked well for a long time. I wish they could all have remained under five, for I felt so secure as a mother. Then they got smarter than their mother. But we were very lucky. They were all healthy and grew p to be wonderful people.