So They Were

Married

by MARJORIE (55-B-1)

The most important event in my life between birth and marriage in fact the primary cause of my marriage, was falling off our fence soon after my sixth birthday.

To explain, I will have to go back into family history. Father was born at the time when women all over the world fearful of atomic warfare and the ter- rible effects on fall-out on their unborn children, ban- ded together in a worldwide movement to make their influence felt in all decisions affecting their famil- ies and loved ones, particularly in the field of educa- tion and child care. Boys no longer romped about shoot- ing toy pistols and guns at imaginary foes or each oth- er, nor were they allowed to play with toys that had the least allusion to war and violence, rather they were taught to amuse themselves with quieter games and pastimes. Just as in the past, Mothers loved to dress their children in pretty clothes, bringing back the fa- shions of the Victorian era when small boys remained in dresses till six or seven and even older. Public o- pinion no longer frowned on boys or even males of all ages dressing according to their tastes and wearing their hair in attractive coiffures.

When young, father had an illness that left a bad- ly damaged heart. He could never engage in heavy work or most sports. He was very mechanically minded and took all the shop work he could at school. He started to work in a large machine shop in the town, and by the time he was 21 was a foreman in one depart- ment. Soon after he married. He and mother wanted a place of their own with room for garden and fruit trees. They found a well built but run down house with a lar- ge lot just outside town. In his spare time, with help from friends, he rebuilt the house as they wanted it. Alice was born the year after their marriage, Irene two years younger, and myself, Jack, three years aft- er her.

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