Graceless

(Lyndon 18)
Much later Lyndon and Grace broke up.  He said her mother and their priest were against him because he was not Roman Catholic and kept hectoring her until she gave in.  I got the impression the marriage was annulled.  He felt bad about that.

What to do?

(Lyndon 15)
I recall a conversation we had alone one late afternoon.  He said, "Well, I suppose you are going to marry Sir Kay?"  I said yes, I supposed so.  And asked what he was going to do.  He spoke very sadly.  Said he didn't know.  He had no prospects, no talents, no education, no expectations.  I remember feeling very sorry, and helpless.

Lu

 (Lyndon 9)
[After my mother died in 1919] my father married within the year to a woman [Lu] so opposite to my mother.  She was healthy, used cosmetics, had about a fourth grade education, never thought about God, but did go for the right.  She was good hearted, a hard worker, could now sew at all, could cook, no experience with kids.

Outcast

(Dogs 41)  Of course he ran away now and then, but I'll never forget the worst time.  I had spanked him for wetting on the kitchen floor and dropped him outside.  At once he left home and trotted up the road.  When I saw this, I grabbed his leash and hurried after him.  He would have nothing to do with me.

Disappearance

(Dogs26)
By this time we had moved to the West Side and Vica had more country freedom to run.  Sometimes she was gone over night.  We were anxious and did what we could.  [Polly does not explain that just before Thanksgiving Vica failed to come home; she just disappeared.]

Moping

(Dogs 22)
At last came the day of parting when Skip went off to Ripon.  Then Vica was my dog -- but only the care was mine, never the heart.  She waited and waited for school to be out.  She started to mourn and mope and get thin.

Regrets

(Dogs 19)  Vica was a marvelous dog.  She really was.  And sometimes now I feel bad because I was never so very nice to her.  I complained about her size, the mud she tracked in, the new sock she quietly chewed up one evening while her master was translating his Latin and she was waiting for her walk.

Not our dog

(Dogs 10)
Finally it registered.  "Lorin!  This isn't Jennie!"  "Sure it's our dog."  "It certainly is not."  Just then "our dog" proved me right by lifting his leg on a chair and settling the argument.  So nothing for it but to get the car out again and take him back to the clinic to exchange for our own.  "Well," said Lorin, excusing himself with a sheepish grin, "all Scotties look alike at night."

Aftermath

(1930)
[The robber] took money LL left for groceries, about $7, and much worse our fraternity, sorority pins.  I was too dazed to call out at once as he hurried down and away.  Several times the police asked me to come to the police station to see arrested young men parade by on a stage with a strong light, but I never identified him.  ...  Bob Kay was persuaded to stay with [baby] Skip while I answered the police call.

Robbery

(1930)
Lorin always left a few dollars for grocery shopping, and one afternoon I went out to a grocery store in the block to shop.  When I came up the stairs, I noticed our door slightly open.  It flashed thru my mind, this must be the janitor showing the apartment, as I had heard similar tales.  Carrying the tall bag of groceries, I stood in the doorway, expectantly looking at a young man in a soft gray suit.  "Get in here!" he said.  "Get in here!"  I was dumbfounded and did walk in.  As he walked out, I saw the top dresser drawer open and realized finally he was a thief and I had been robbed.

Another flat

(1930 June)
"If you want to stop at any of these places, let me know," he said as we whisked swiftly past lakes and lodges.  "Hell," he said, "there goes another tire."  He stopped the car to take off the tire.  A young officer came along on his motorcycle.  "Why are you stopping in the road?" he asked sternly.  "Officer, what could I do?"  And Lorin put his hand through the hole in the tire.  "OK.  OK.  But get it off the road."  "Yes sir."  And we got underway once more, with a few crude remarks about how Vina kept her car.

First flat

(1930 June)
Somewhere on a country highway, the car started to bump.  Lorin smothered an oath, got out, took off his jacket, and remarked we had a flat.  It surprised me that he knew exactly what to do tho it wasn't his car, nor did he have one.  I was to find out as time went by he knew a great many things.  I have remarked his aversion to labor; this dislike showed plainly as he at last got the spare on and tossed the flat in the trunk.  "That's done," I said.  "Not quite.  We still have to get it fixed."

Self sacrifice

(1980 memoirs)
And yet Frankie had her romance.  A man named Spencer Carrier (I think) thought a lot of her and wanted to be married.  She told me about it once and said so pitifully, "But, you see, I had to care for Mother.  She was sick and had to have care.  And I couldn't leave her."  I could only nod.  No use to make suggestions:  --Couldn't you have all lived together?  --Couldn't something be worked out?  Water over the bridge and all long ago.

Sad doings

(1980 memoirs)
On the night of Florence's graduation from the [Ripon College] School of Music, her parents had a "doings" for her, sort of a social hour, and Herman was not invited as he was only the hired man, and her pleas were ignored.  So the poor girl lay on her bed and cried her eyes out.  Aunt Lois told me, and I think she said she went up to her.  Some time later the lovers laid their plans and ran away together.  I don't know any details about this.

Maid service

(1993 July, Rueping memoirs)
The Rueping "cottages" were built like houses, and both families had maids who did washing and ironing.  William Rueping had two maids and once told me how expensive it was to replace a glass goblet she broke.  About $9 or more.  I suppose better at the town house.

Vitriol

(1992 Memoirs)
One time officers, knowing her habits, came to question her [Olga] but she knew nothing and shaking in her shoes stuck to it.  There were two women in love with the one man.  ...  When they met on the Main Street, the wife dashed vitriol acid in the other's face, burning it and disfiguring her for life.  But no -- Olga had not seen that.  She had been in the next room, the dining room with the big mirror where customers "tried on."

Minnie's health

(1992 Memoirs)
After my brother was about 4 and I was 9 or so [ca. 1914], our family broke up because of my mother's failing health.  Perhaps she did overdo at housework; my father thought she did.  [She had tubercolosis.]

Guns

(1992 Memoirs)
At the top of the stairs of the Kilmer house, called by some "the laundry," he kept his guns, about half a dozen shotguns, always loaded, standing leaning in a corner.  "Oh, Clarence," my aunt would wail, "please take those guns out of the house.  The children--"  "Yup, yup," he'd say.  And then in a grumbling, menacing tone, "You boys, leave those guns alone.  Ya hear?"  "OK, OK" the three would say.  "Oh, Clarence," Aunt Hattie would wail.  And there they stood at the top of the stairs, loaded, as before, as long as I was aware.

Nightmare phoning

(1967 March 20)
Last night I dreamed I was phoning, facing breakfast alcove, when the ceiling came down and an electric shock caught my hand in the phone making it limp.  I called MM from upstairs, and she came, and I told her to get Joe R. to fix the ceiling.  Then you came in all covered with a yellow oilskin, no holes for face (sort of KKK) - but I knew you right away.  You said, "What's all this?"  I said, "A mess.  Where did you come from?"  You said, "Oh, I have been staying with friends who have a little cottage over here on the Wabash.  Been doing a little writing."  This kept pegging at me - Wabash?  Here in Wisconsin?  Until I finally work up.  Queer.

Quite a Saturday

(1966 May 28)
This has been quite a Saturday for your father.  He came home [from the office] at 10 a.m. [instead of noon] to rest for a few moments and found the vacuum cleaner going upstairs; the radio on WRCO and MM ironing on the first floor; and the new lawn mower going outside.  Then off to the court house lawn to help in Kiwanis car check of muffler, seat belts, etc.  He was the one who put the sticker on at end!  Home and found lunch late (I was involved in all other activities - was directing and helping Donna upstairs when MM called - she had made Jello and spilled juice, red, on the clean clothes and what to do? - also out with Gary).  At 1 p.m. he started his Confirmation Class, and from 2-3 to Library and shopped - 3-4 with us after funeral to Krogers, and then we got cones and ate them by the swimming pool.