Questions

Re-posting that story on my parents' love story on Pearl Harbor, got me to thinking. What did they do December sixth, 1941? Did Dad take her out to dinner? It would have been Mom's eighteenth birthday, and a Saturday night. So many stories I don't know. Did they celebrate with Grandpa Evans? Mom lived with him then. What did they do December sixth?
Last night, we chose to dine at the Middlesex Diner. I grabbed a Way We Were on the way in, a paper published to reminisce with old pictures. This featured the story of WPIC, the local radio station, with tid bits of its history. It left out, Mom's best friend, Jane Mowry, having her first job there in 1941, after they graduated. Jane was tall and Mom was short. Mom said they were "Mutt and Jeff." Jane hated to read in school and on their long walks to the building in the mornings, Jane would greet Mom with, "Tell me a book, I have a book report due."
Mom read vivaciously, always ready with a different book. On their journey to the school, Mom told Jane a book.
I thought then of the Regule's restaurant on Dock Street in Sharon. It has been torn down recently, as was the Case Avenue School that had been Mom's high school. I cared for the lady who owned it when I did home health. The upstairs was a motel and that is where she lived. Numbers stuck out in the hallway above the doors, and public bathrooms remained in her living space. I had many great conversations with this lively, intelligent lady, regal for any age at ninety four.
Mom remembered her. Mom and Grandpa ate there sometimes. The men from Camp Reynolds spent time at the establishment. Mom's cousin, Paul Goetz, the son of her father's younger sister, Anna, served at Camp Reynold's. He married Jane, so Mom kept her best friend as a cousin. Jane traveled over the years with Paul, as he remained in the Army. They settled in Land of Lakes, Florida. Mom visited her after Dad died for one of their last visits before Death took them.
So I wonder tonight of the details. I wonder how did Paul and Jane actually meet. Did they meet at the Regule's restaurant? Did Paul happened to visit his uncle? When did Aunt Anna move to Sharon? She had stayed in Pittsburgh for awhile. Aunt Edith and Aunt Anna lived here, but the other sister, Aunt Verna remained in Forrest Hills, Pittsburgh.
I see so many stories and I think they will have to be fiction for me to write them. I love the forties time period. My daughter, whose birthday is today, at one time very much looked like she could fit into the forties, from her luxuriously long brown hair curled, her forties style clothes to her demeanor. She hinted she wished she had lived then. Mom said Mary Ellen looked like her dad's sisters, and she always said they were beautiful.
I use these antidotes to make new stories. I don't know all the story. Mom has taken them with her. I listened much, but times change and new questions arise, as my writing career seeks answers.