Fall and New Beginnings

We got back to going out every night, ..either walking and talking or to a movie , to visit some of our families or going to our hangout, the Corral, and getting a coke...Irvin after much thought decided to go and enroll in Massey's Business College, now this was downtown..a couple of blocks from where I worked..he was interested in taking an Accounting Course...I had gone there before I started working for the Gas Company for a few months, and took a typing class, along with English, Shorthand(which , I droppped after a few classes)..I loved the typing, and the English , and Spelling(I need a refresher on that one, badly)..Mainly these courses were just a extention of High School courses., but I learned so much more in the typing class, and was able to apply to get my job at Houston Natural Gas...We met almost every day for lunch at Steve's Barbeque , which was right next to Massey's Business College..A lot of the people from the Gas Company went there to eat..A small place, with almost like school desks around the walls to sit at, you put in your order at counter, got it, and went and sit down, the way I remember it, they served mostly barbeque, and it was good..there were not many places to eat in that area at that time, so that was pretty much it...i worked from 8:00 to 5:00 with two, 15 min. breaks,..we usually went up to 6th floor to the workers "lounge"..where we could get either coffee, hot tea, or cokes..a lot of the time, I got hot tea..we had an hour for lunch...sometimes , since Kress Store (a popular store at that time, which at least in Texas has gone out) was only a few blocks from where I worked , I would go down and shop very quickly..I remember buying a lot of things for my "Hope Chest" there in the "basement" of Kress"es..it was a earlier version of Walmart, with cheaper prices than the High End stores like Foley's, etc...to get back to Business College, ... Irvin would come over and use my Typewriter (which, by the way was a Remington Manual ) to practice ....Daddy had bought this for me, when I enrolled at Massey's...at that time, we were taught to type, by covering up the keys with tape(white tape) , as we couldn't see the letters, and  therefore were supposed to be able to type without looking and build up our speed...well, as I had a lot of the books that he needed, I gave him mine..Now, he is very good in Math(which I never could master that subject ), so he did really well in that and typing..well,...Fall came with the cool weather, and thoughts of the Holidays just ahead...I started my Christmas , shopping , I think that year in early November..I would go on my lunch hour a lot of times , to Foley', walking as fast as possible (which in high heels was not all that easy, but at the age I was then, It was normal to me to have to walk fast almost every place I went during the day) I would grab a pkg. of chips, and a coke on the way back to the office, and gulp them down in maybe the five minutes I would have left in my lunch hour.. then back to work..our lunch hour was from 12:00 to 1:00...My best friend at work , was a woman about 14 years my senior, she was what we call now "a single Mom"..she had been married to a Lawyer, and had a young Daughter..her husband just came home one day and told her, that he was leaving to marry his secretary...Helen(my friend) had worked and helped him pay for his Law education..she was a hard working woman...and such a good person.. her family came from Germany, and she had a accent, that pretty much stayed with her...she was heartbroken, and after he left,..she and her daughter moved to a small apt. (now at that time, there were apt. buildings mostly, and there were small apts. in these buildings...she lived in the "Heights)..one of Houston's oldest Neighborhoods now, ..this was a lovely part of Houston then, with large trees, sidewalks, and pretty homes, etc...Her and I would go to Lunch together, well, at least before Irvin..then sometimes she would sit with us at Steve's at Lunch time..she liked him, and they became friends also......Thanksgiving came and we had Dinner   actually at my house, and I think , we went to his house also to eat...now , my Mother never made Turkey in those days..she baked  Chicken, made dressing, and veggies, and the trimmings..with my Brother not liking Chicken, I often wondered why she made that instead of Turkey, ..but I finally decided it was probably the cost  of the turkey , being much more , that made the difference..she had to watch the money so carefully,..everyone did...needless , to say, we had a busy Thanksgiving, and 4 days off from work, college, and we enjoyed being together and being with our families....