AN UNEXPECTED LOVE Gibson City: Continued On March 1, 1966, George became the new Administrator of Gibson Manor, a 60 bed home that was just a little over half full, with a substantial debt on the books. Within a very short time, the debt was retired, the home was full with a waiting list and the books showed a nice profit. George had also improved relations with the Illinois state board of health and area physicians. I liked everything about Gibson City, the town, the people, the job. There was a big problem in the nursing home though. A small group of nurses aides had been keeping the home together. They didn’t like having to give up their power. George was an even tempered, kind and gentle person, but when confronting the leader of the group, I saw just how strong and insistent he could be. He finally had to fire her. Then everything fell into place. She was a bully and the other help were afraid of her. She made idle threats, none of which came to fruition. When we first arrived, the home had such a bad reputation that finding help was almost impossible, so George and I would dress for Administration during the day, run home before shift change, don our uniforms and come back as nurses for the evening shift. We would bed the boys down in an empty room; then carry them home to their own beds at 11 PM, when we turned things over to the night shift. By doing this we earned the respect of all the employes, the community and the board of directors. During all these double shifts, we never lost the energy to love each other. He still called me his Tiger. Our love grew more each day. He never tired of trying to please me and was always doing little things to show his love. There was only one bothersome thing, he would wake up at night, sit bolt upright in bed screaming. He said he had a recurring nightmare where he saw someone floating in the water, jumped in to save them, but when he turned them over, they had no face. My gut told me it was tied to not knowing his birth family. We had been in Gibson City less than a year when one of the board members offered to rent us his rental house at a reduced fee if we would do some painting and paneling. Since we no longer had to fill in on the evening shift, we jumped at the chance to save some money. The house was located nearer the nursing home and next to Johnson’s garage. We did a lot of remodeling on that house. We painted the outside Charcoal trimmed in white. It was stunning and since all the houses in Gibson City were white, it stood out. It was while living in this house that we answered an ad for a player piano. I always wanted a piano and since George’s family was musically inclined he encouraged me. The piano was an old Kimball that weighed a ton. It took 5 guys to load and unload it. George replaced all the hoses with oxygen tubing and catheters. He was a genius when it came to improvising. I loved that piano and the fact that I could buy all the latest hits on music rolls. George’s drum had a prominent place on the top of that piano. Sometimes he would accompany me on the drums when I played. Music was always a part of our lives. Where ever we lived, George made it a point to install speakers so that we could enjoy music in whatever room we were in. We often put a stack of records on when we went to bed. It was soothing and helped us unwind from the days activities. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson were friends of my Uncle’s who was President of the Illiana Antique Auto club. Mr. Johnson, Harold. as we called him, had a garage behind his house. He also had a large collection of antique auto’s stored in a warehouse in Saybrook, Illinois. One weekend he took us to see his collection. We were hooked! He had an old 1929 Model A on a trailer in the weeds. He sold it to us for $250, then helped George get it running, put fenders and a new roof on it just in time for the Antique Auto Club’s trip to Vincennes, Indiana. We packed a bag, a cooler full of food and set out on our adventure. It was an adventure! There were 20 antique cars on the tour. When we stopped in small towns along the way, everyone came out to look at the cars, ours being the roughest. Oil kept spewing out on the windshield. I had to reach out with a rag to get what the inadequate wiper didn’t take care of. Somewhere along the way, my uncle’s 1929 Dodge (in mint condition) quit on him. Our shabby unpainted Model A had to tow it. We had a blast on that trip and every other one we took after that. When we went to car shows, George would wear a white shirt with sleeve garters and a straw hat. I had a flapper dress, long beads and fish net hose. Everyone dressed for the era of their car. I remember one show in Danville, we walked to the Nook for lunch. All the ladies winked at George and the men wanted to know if I could shimmy. I showed them, twirling beads and all. Of course I had a lot less to shimmy back then. We had traded our little white Ford Falcon for a brand new one. It was a lemon! Before the warranty was up, the transmission went out so we traded it for 2 VW’s, a Kelly green Beetle and a white Square Back (Station wagon) We found a duplex down the street from the nursing home that had been built by a local contractor as his first residence. It was extremely well built but had been on the market for a long time. We had one of the board members, who was a contractor look at it. He told us he could make it into a one family dwelling for a reasonable fee because the original contractor had built it with that in mind. Tearing out some walls would reveal doorways already there. Of course, George would help with the remodeling. It was a two story duplex, so we took the upstairs kitchen out and made a huge master bedroom that included a sitting room, knocked out a wall between the Living room and kitchen downstairs and made a great room. When we were done, it was very livable. We wanted to paint the outside in something just as bold as the charcoal on the house we just left. We finally settled on Federal Gold. The literature said it would cover in one coat. It did! It went on so smooth it was as if the paint brush was painting by itself! We painted the trim charcoal. Everyone in town remarked on our house. We were trend setters. Soon we saw the landscape turning from white to color. Chalk another one up for George, the idea man! George was concerned about replacing the second door on the outside of the duplex. He didn’t want it to look like there had been a door there, so on our weekend trips, we kept our eyes open for ideas. We finally decided to use Cedar siding. After putting it up, George installed 3 black wrought iron flower pots staggered down the Cedar and then installed black wrought iron railing around the porch. It was the perfect touch. Those who didn’t know it was a duplex before never would know it now! Next project on the agenda was a garage. We didn’t build it ourselves but contracted to have it built. It was a nice addition to the property and was soon filled with bikes, grill, tools, lawn chairs, coolers, everything but a car! Our friend at the local furniture store sold carpet samples for one dollar each. George bought up all the carpet samples he had, purchased some double faced tape and began carpeting the boys bedrooms. I bought comforters for their beds that were patchwork patterned, then we sorted the carpet samples to coordinate with the room decor. It turned out fantastic so we did the guest bedroom too. Our home always reflected us and our ideas astounded our friends. The boys wanted a dog, so we ask around and found a farmer with a new litter of pups. We went to pick one out. Of course, the runt was appealing to them. We brought the Boarder Collie home, they named him “Puddles” because he peed all the time, but Puddles contracted Parvo and died before he was a year old. The boys were crushed. George contacted the farmer and told him to notify us when he had another litter. Soon we were making another trip to the farm. Again, it was the runt that appealed to them. This one had black rings around it’s eyes that made it look like it was wearing glasses, so they named her Specs. Specs lived to a ripe old age. I submitted articles for the Gibson City paper about what was going on in the nursing home. We had a stray calico cat who made her home in the crawl space under the nursing home. She would have a litter of kittens almost every nine weeks. They were beautiful, mostly long haired. We had no trouble getting rid of them. At one point a clever reporter ran the headline: “Multiple Birth at Nursing Home”, told about Patches and her promiscuous ways and how her children needed adopting. From that point on we had people calling to see if we had any kittens. To be continued:
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 00:43:16 +0000
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