Beginning of Married Life

The beginning of the married life of Margaret and Irvin happened after the wedding ceremony.  We were to go by train in the afternoon.  We had lunch with the family and wedding party, then went back to Mother and Dad Olson's house.  We were tired and the train wasn't to be boarded until later in the afternoon.  We had only told Irvin's Mother where we were going for our honeymoon.  Aunt Mabel had made arrangements for us to use her apartment in St. Louis and she would stay for the time in Waco.

We knew if anything happened she would know how to get in touch with us.

We thought we would like to rest a while so we started to go into my room and Vivian quickly said: "Just a minute and I'll straighten up my room for Irvin".  I let her know she didn't have to do that, we could lie down together!

At the train station we tried to be quiet when we told the porter our destination, but he repeated it loudly.  We also tried not to look too newly wed,  but they had thrown a little more rice on us.  Vivian said she heard them say St. Louis but she figured we would be stopping in Dallas on the way.  But we just took the overnight trip to St. Louis and arrived in the morning.  All was well and soon we had a call from Aunt Mabel's maid.  She wanted to make sure that everything we might need was there for us. It was fine.  Even had food for us in the refrigerator.

We had a great time and went downtown.  I don't think they had many stop lights in those days in downtown St. Louis.  It seemed that when a crowd arrived at a corner, they started out into the street and then the cars stopped for them to cross.  I think this has changed over the years.  We also located a nearby Presbyterian Church and attended church on Sunday.  Later that day the phone rang and we answered.  It was Mother and Dad.  Aunt Mabel had asked Mother if she would like to call us.  Mother said she didn't know where we were.  So Aunt Mabel asked if she had her new phone number.  Mother did and they called.

While in St. Louis we also had an evening cruise on the Mississippi River.  Also Mabel came home a day before we had planned to leave and stayed with a friend and she took us to the Zoo.  It was a famous one and was close to her apartment.  We had a great time.

On to Louisville on the train and to the Seminary.  The apartments for the married couples had not been finished so we spent several weeks in the "Catacombs" (an underground connecting hall for all the buildings) with the other couples.  There was a common kitchen and the bathrooms were down the hall.

We had no furniture when we moved into the apartment except for what we picked out while living in the Catacombs.  It was nice when we got into our own apartment.  There was a Pullman kitchen, a living room and a bedroom, and bathroom in each apartment.  The kitchen had a cabinet, stove, and sink,  All were quite  small and a door closed over the whole thing.  Very efficient.  The only phone was one on the second floor and it was for everyone. 

We were on the first floor and were very comfortable but we appreciated our own apartment for privacy sake if nothing more.  Irvin's sister Betty and her husband Henry came by for a short visit with us and I was glad to meet Betty and their son Len who was about 3 years old.  We had a nice visit and then they went back to Pennsylvania.

Irvin went to Washington DC for a conference and it was the day he was supposed to come home.  I got a call from the president of the seminary.  I was pregnant with Ken and had a near loss of the baby and was supposed to stay in bed. But I got up and dressed to go see the president and found out that one of Mama's girls had died.  I asked if it was Mildred, who really took care of Mama McArthur.  He didn't seem to know.  Later his brother's called and talked to me and I found out that it was Betty.  They wanted to know if they should stop and pick up Irvin on the way to Pennsylvania.  I told them he was in DC and should be home before too long.

When Irvin got home we talked for a bit but when I heard the phone ring I somehow felt that this would be the boys telling him about the service and when they would pick him up. I had to tell him right then that Betty had died. It was totally unexpected. She had gone to have her tonsils out and when they injected the medicine to deaden the tonsils she had a reaction to it and died.  I encouraged him to go with his family for the service.  He did decide he could leave me for a bit longer.

One of our friends at seminary was the blind organist who played for the chapel.  I took lessons from him for a while.  I'd swear he could tell if I used the wrong finger on a key.  One day the power went out at the seminary and one of the students was walking through the Catacombs.  He had no idea how he would get out of there when he heard the footsteps coming through the hall.  He immediately called to Bob and was gently led out of the Catacombs.

Bob used to like to go downtown so we would take him with us.  Saturday was usually the day we went.  He kept asking why they let so many people out at one time.  He was full of humor and really enjoyed life.  He was blinded when the doctor put the wrong medicine in his eyes when he was first born.  But he had memorized all the hymns in the hymnals of the Presbyterian Church.

Irvin graduated in May and we headed for his first assignment under the Rural Church Department of the Board of National Missions.  Our new home would be in Nesbit, Mississippi.  It was a 4 church parish and we had a manse, a car and a salary, and our first child on the way.  The men of one of the churches brought up a truck to move our goods to our new home.  But that's enough for the start of the marriage.

Santa Fe

Mother and Dad enjoyed the atmosphere and living in Santa Fe.  They  made many friends.  Dad did some appraisals for houses as he had done before in Waco.  They were really into the pottery of Maria Martinez from San Ildefonso Indian Reservation. Often trips were made to the reservation and Dad especially liked to collect the small animals that she made.  There were also bowls and other pieces.  I believe that Elizabeth Herman now has the collection of the pottery.  Irvin and I also went to the reservation at times with Mother and Dad.


Dad also liked taking pictures of the scenery of New Mexico and did a lot of looking for good opportunities to add to his collections.  He was really enjoying life and retirement.


In March of 1962 John Caperton Pace III, was born in East Northport Long Island.  Mother and Dad had gone to be with Vivian and John and take care of Elizabeth when the baby came.  The day John went home from the hospital, my Dad went into the hospital.  He had prostate cancer.  He had an excellent doctor and all went well.  For a while everything was just fine.   From then on Dad was the optimist that thought everything was going right.  He planted roses in the back yard as well as raspberries.  The house was a nice 3 bedroom house and we stayed there several times throughout the years that followed.

But cancer came back, along with other health problems.  He had specialists in most fields of medicine and even went to Mayo's for a checkup.  This went on for about 5 years.  At one time, just before the Presbyterian General Assembly in Portland, to which Irvin was to be a commissioner, Vivian and I arranged to go to Santa Fe without any children or husbands.  We had a wonderful time and Dad seemed very good while we were there.  As I was leaving Dad said to me:  "Enjoy the Assembly and come back and tell me all about it."

I went home and we had arrangements made to leave on a Saturday to go to General Assembly.  I'm not sure when Dad was taken to the hospital, but we got a call on Friday saying that they weren't sure Dad would make it through the night.  Friday night Ken was in a play at the high school.  I made arrangement to fly out on Saturday morning from Grand Junction.  Irvin would stay until after services on Sunday and then bring the kids down.  

When I got to Santa Fe, I went to the hospital and Dad was still alive.  He was not very responsive and the time would be short. Irvin brought the kids to Santa Fe.  Ken was the only child that wanted to go in to see Dad.  That was fine with us.  Irvin and the kids stayed with a family who were friends of the folks.  (I remember that they had a beautiful white carpet in their house.) Aunt Mabel and I stayed with Mother.  We took turns staying with Dad at all times.  Monday we celebrated John's birthday and Monday night Irvin said that he would stay the night with Dad and then take the kids back to Delta the next day.  He and Mabel came home shortly after midnight just after Dad had died. So we all stayed and Mother quickly arranged a service for Thursday morning, and got it in the paper.  The service was held in a packed church.  The family had dinner in a restaurant and we packed up and left. Mabel assured me she would stay with Mother until I returned.  Mother insisted that Dad would have wanted us to go to the General Assembly and we must go!

We stopped in Gunnison for supper.  Irvin said he wasn't hungry and only wanted a bowl of chicken soup.  When they brought it, it was not hot.  So he sent it back to be reheated.  When it came back it looked and tasted like condensed soup that had no added milk or water, He tried to send it back again, but the waitress was afraid of the cook and just went and got a pot of hot water!  Irvin would add a little water, take a few bites and then add more.  We were all tired and we got the giggles, except for Jean.  After all, Irvin didn't want much to eat, and he was still eating soup when the rest of us had finished.  The waitress brought the check, and Jean told the rest of us to go ahead,  she'd come out after we left.  

We got home and had a good night's sleep.  Did washing the next day and packed our bags and headed with another couple to Portland and the General Assembly on Saturday.  One of the church members stayed with our children while we were gone.

When got home I called Mother, she had sent Mabel home.  She said she would have to adjust sometime and as long as she slept in Dad's bed she was fine.  It was OK for her bed to be empty, but not Dad's.


Mother enjoyed being in Santa Fe and we didn't press her to move.  But after a few years Vivian became concerned about something happening to her.  Mother went to visit in East Northport and then came to Lakeland to see us.  She asked one day if we worried about her being alone, and I told her I could get a plane out any time she needed me.  Vivian's children were younger and it would be hard for her to come.  Vivian had told Mother that she worried about her being alone.


I took Mother to see the plans for the new high rise apartment building in Lakeland which was being built for moderate income people.  She could put down a $25 returnable deposit and reserve an apartment.  They were to be finished in February.  It was just a couple of blocks from the Westminster Presbyterian Church which we attended and that was less than a half mile from the Presbyterian homes where we were living at that time.


She made the decision to come and everyone was happy about it.  She sold her house in Santa Fe and Vivian and I helped her get rid of some things and decide what she would need in Florida.  I think she gave her car to a fellow worker from Ghost Ranch who had a young family and needed a car.  She didn't want to drive in a new place (and we agreed it would be best for her not to).


The Apartment building wasn't finished when she arrived in Lakeland so we put her things in a room off of our garage and she stayed with us until it was finished.  They were moving people in from the top down.  Mother didn't like heights so she had selected a 3rd floor apartment.  
But I think she was so ready to move in that when she found they had an apartment on the 13th floor and looked out of the window and decided that it was a lovely view of the lake and the height didn't bother her, she took it.  We were all very happy that she was with us.

  

Ghost Ranch, New Mexico

Ghost Ranch outside of Abiquiu, New Mexico was given to the Presbyterian Church by Arthur Pack.  He had a trailer house on the ranch but spent much of his time in Tucson, Arizona.  My Mother and Dad were hired to go and help get things built and the dining room up and running.  On the gate into the ranch was a metal replica of a painting by Georgia O'Keefe.  


They moved from Waco to Ghost Ranch in the fall of 1958.  We were on our way to Colorado that December and stopped for Christmas with my folks.  They had a small house just outside the big alfalfa field.  In the evening the deer would come down from the hills and feed and sleep in the field.  It was rather exciting to us and our children to see them come.  


Behind .the house was an arroyo.  It could be very dry at times, but if there was any rain around, you needed to be very careful and not get too close.  They would fill with water rushing down from all sides and hills.  We learned that the ranch hands often sent groups into the hills to help rescue people who were trapped and couldn't get back to the ranch.  They would go out for a hike and then it might rain a little, but the flood that followed took it's toll.


Mother and several other women had gone into town and when they came back it either was raining or had rained.  There was a bridge over the arroyo and just after they crossed the bridge, it collapsed because of the high water.  They were glad the bridge didn't fall in when they were on it.  A new and stronger one was soon built. 


Mother was a consultant on the design of the kitchen.  On it's completion she managed the dining staff and planned the menus and supervised the serving of 3 meals a day to campers, sometimes up to 300 people or more.


One time on a visit a man (I think his nickname was T. Bone) from the Board of Christian Education (which supervised the whole operation) was building a teepee village.  He and a crew were stripping the bark from some tall tree trunks.  Ken (our oldest son) had the privilege of helping do some of the stripping.


One day Irvin decided to take the kids up the face of Chimney Rock.  There are lots of formations called Chimney Rock in the Rocky Mountains.  We got part way up but the altitude was a bit much for me, so I decided to wait part way up.  After quite a while Irvin and the kids came back.  They had gone up pretty far and Irvin realized that they couldn't really walk back down, so he told the kids   (I'm not sure if John was with them) to sit down and dig in their heels and slide down until they got to a less steep slant.  That night Dad told us about the trail up the back side which was rather easy to hike.  We used that one from then on.


Dad took endless pictures of the area, but the film was not so good in those days, and many of the pictures are faded.  One of the ranch horses had twins one year.  They were named Abi and Que.  


We made many trips to the ranch when we lived in Cortez and the folks came to see us often also.  It was nice to be so close.  We would often go on to see other relatives. As we came back from Mississippi one time, John was getting all stuffed up in his head.  When we got to Ghost Ranch he went in the pool and he made a fast recovery!


Mother and Dad would come to see us in Cortez, and on one return trip, they had an accident on the way home.  I don't remember if it was summer or winter, but the car went off the road and Mother got a broken collar bone. For some reason the road was slick and the car slid.
As we passed that spot many times I was amazed that the car hadn't gone way down an embankment.  I couldn't find a spot that looked wide enough the keep the car on the side of the road.  After that trip Dad always took a hundred pound bag of pinto beans back to the ranch.  They could always use beans at the dining room!


After everything was built, Dad worked on the bookkeeping end of the business and that went on until Jim Hall was hired as manager and Dad and Mother retired in 1962.  They moved to Santa Fe and became very active in the First Presbyterian Church there.