Essay Ten, Age 13, 1959 (Chronicle notations)

I remember my thirteenth birthday more than all the other childhood birthdays, because it was the only one that was celebrated with a party, cake, and many gifts. Looking back now, my mother probably had in her mind that it was the start of my teen years and she may have wanted to commemorate it for me. Well, that she did. It was a day that will stay in my mind always. She gave me a new dress, and my hair was styled nicely, combed and made as pretty as possible. My hair was always soft, silky, and fairly thin. It was like baby hair. At that age, I was so very young, so raw, so innocent. It is hard to retrieve what I felt and thought about then, all these years later. That little girl is someone I do not know very well at all. All I can say is that I was quiet, and had an inner strength that was surprising for someone so young and so female. My weight must have been only about 60 pounds, because at age 18 through 20, I only weighed about 80 to 85 pounds. Regardless of my size, I was sturdy and lean. Most of the games that we children played together were invented by me. We played the Shadow, in the early evening, with me being the Shadow, lurking around the family car, with the others trying to see me, and me trying to avoid being seen. If all they could see was my shadow, they did not win the game. One of them had to actually see me and or capture me to win the game. In those childhoods we also played Monopoly, Checkers, Chinese Checkers, and Dominoes. Dad played Dominoes with us, and the aim of the game was to catch him cheating. That surpassed the real purpose of the game and made it more fun. I was one of the three oldest girls; we formed a triad that was quite apart from the younger siblings. We three oldest took turns doing dishes, alternating days so that each of us did dishes all day for one day and then had two days off. On top of that, each of had our own special assignment. I was the queen of making tight beds; Rosalie was the one who took charge of cooking, and Margaret took charge of the vacuuming and sweeping. The younger children generally did smaller things we told them to do, such as folding clothes or putting away the socks and tidying up the bathroom and toys. Of course, we all had books to read, embroidering to do (except for my two brothers), and our own shoes to keep clean and polished. For me, my favorite shoes were my penney loafers. I kept shiny pennies in them and rubbed the leather with vasoline so they would be soft and at least a little waterproof. There were two styles of dresses that were popular then: the French chemise, with a blouson back, and the shirtwaist, with buttons down the front and cuffed or turned back sleeves. Mother made sketches of the new dresses on the rack at Sears where she worked and then sewed them for us on her machine. She added embroidery, lace, piping, and other touches to make them one of a kind. I had a collection of shirtwaist dresses in brown and butterscotch shades. I kept them in good condition, ironing them with no wrinkles at all. My other sisters were not as particular about their dresses as I was. I wonder why as I think of it now.