We had been to Vancouver the year before and I was excited to be back in this beautiful country. Stanley Park had towering eucalyptus trees with the strong scent I remembered so well. There were totem poles and walking paths. Then there was English Bay, the lovely protected beach I had played on the summer before.
I was in third grade, having learned so much in the six months of Sacred Heart Cathoic School that they moved me up from what otherwise should have been second grade. I could write in cursive, could read well and made friends with some very nice girls. They were all of well-to-do families since the neighborhood was wealthy, and I was invited to birthday parties at some pretty fancy homes.
But there was a war on. Pearl Harbor was alarming. My mother moved us to an apartment when things got impossible at the Klaugsey's. I remember my eighth birthday, July 31, on the sunny front lawn, being "bumped" eight times, and one for good luck! Held by hands and feet, the birthday girl was lowered to the ground and up again by friends, nine times.
remember blackout curtains on all the windows, and air raid drills. Would they strike Vancouver next?
That Christmas all I wanted was a rubber doll that could be fed with a bottle and wet at the other end. This was before plastic was invented, and all rubber was scarce, needed for the "war effort" for tires etc.
My mother managed to find such a doll, with moveable arms and legs that could be bathed and fed and diapered like a real baby. She would sit in the little kitchen and make beautiful knitted and sewn doll clothes, while I slept. That was a special Christmas. I called my doll Heidi after the Spyri heroine of the same name. I played with her for hours.
Birthday Party York House
Being bumped.
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