Page 52 - Always Virginia

40 Virginia Day Fritscher

now a judge in Granite City, Illinois. Uncle John’s daughter, my
cousin, the doomed Loretta Day, used to come and stay a week
at a time with us, so that her fiancee Phil, the dentist, could visit
her at our house. Loretta had a signal set up with my Mom to call
down at a certain time when Loretta wanted Phil to leave at night.
Loretta married Phil, but she died of pneumonia when she was
seven months pregnant. What’s sadder than a dead bride? Later,
Raymond Draper accidentally ran Phil over, and Phil had to have
a metal plate put in his head.
On occasional weekends we’d also drive over to Carrollton,
Illinois, to visit the Ruyles I mentioned earlier, the family with
the brother and sister, Orland and Eustacia, who moved from
Kampsville to Carrollton, and they’d also come visit us. Eustacia,
“Sister,” and I when we were quite young decided to mow the lawn.
Eustacia was smart enough to push at the handle. Dumb tomboy
me pushed at the blades, and a little cut finger taught me a lesson
about where to push.
Those weekends we had to drive back to Kampsville by Monday
so Daddy got back for his mail route and us kids for school and
my Mom for the house work. When Daddy would get home early
in nice weather after dinner, which we ate at noon, we’d all go in,
all five of us kids, and lie down with him on the floor with all our
heads on one pillow, and Mom said it looked like the spokes of a
wagon wheel. It was very hot and no such thing as even a fan on
those days, and we couldn’t go out and play right after noon, so we
got to lay around with Daddy, until Daddy would go to the post
office about 2 P.M. and put up the mail for the next day.
When I was eleven years old in 1930, my parents decided to
move to Jacksonville as my brother John was already going to school
there at Routt High School and College, and my brother Jimmie
was ready for his senior year. Kampsville had only a three-year high
school. My Mom and Daddy thought it’d be cheaper to move there
than send all five kids away, because my older sister, Norine, was
ready to start high school. Daddy transferred up there to that post