Always looking Out for Me.

This weekend as I was busy around the house doing this and that I was playing my music as I love to do. I selected some of the older groups from the 80’s and 90’s and when “Three Dog Night’s” Joy to the World began to play my mind automatically went back to the Young Men’s Club days with Willie, Charlie and other family members enjoying food, song and dance together. There are many songs that bring Wilma to mind when I hear them but that one song is especially joyful as I see her and Charlie out on the dance floor like two young kids just having a blast. The first few notes of that song was like an alarm going off and they were generally the first couple on the floor. Wow, how she loved to dance and I was so happy for her that Charlie also loved to dance. They spent many hours of their marriage on the dance floor somewhere just enjoying life.

Music was always a part of Wilma. She started playing the piano by ear when she was a young girl. Dad gave us all some piano lessons as children but Wilma had the knack for it while the rest of us just became a grateful audience. My younger sister Tootie and I would beg her to play for us and we would sing and dance around to her wonderful notes. We of course never let on that we heard the off keys and the missed rhythm and broken melodies. We loved them all. What incredible times we had dancing to Tommy Dorsey’s Boogie Woogie, Singing in the Rain, and so many of the wonderful big band songs that you could actually sing. Of Course chop sticks was one of our daily treats and we would take turns playing duets to that one. Life was good at least sometimes.

We were so poor after dad died that our coats each year were donations from churches and schools and our school lunches were provided free by the school lunch program, but we were happy go lucky in those days, except for Willie that is. Her life was tough. She had to drop out of high school when dad died and take a job to help support the family. She worked as a car hop at a drive inn for quite a while and then she got a pretty good job at an optical company making lens for eye glasses. As busy as she was she always kept an eye out for me and Tootie. She made sure we had food and gave us money for movies and treats when she had it.

In the summer, Wilma played on a girl’s softball team. I loved to go to her games and watch her play. I too played on a softball team and actually got to play on her team a couple of times to fill in the catchers spot when needed. How big I thought I was to play on my big sisters team. How gracious Wilma was to let me play and to watch over me as they were already of age and partaking of cigarettes and beer. She made darn sure I was not around the girls when they were partaking. Always watching out for me. Loved her so.