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Jean Meets George Sanders, Living in North Irwin (1950 ~ 1968) and in Irwin (after '68)

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1. Getting Work After High School
2. When I First Met George Sanders
3. Second Time I Met George Sanders
4. Our First Home
5. Having Twin Boys
6. Mrs. Bevan's Store
7. Marc's Baptism
8. The J.C. Penny Christmas Catalog

Getting Work After High School (early 1950-53)

The year I graduated from High School, June 2, 1950, the country was in a depression. It was also the very beginning of the Korean War.  The war hadn’t really started yet, and there were very few jobs for girls looking for work, especially since my skills were minimal and I wasn’t sure what I was looking for. I had no idea what I could do, except maybe type and do filing. I certainly couldn’t do shorthand although I must have had a couple years of it.

I had no transportation other than the Trafford Bus at the bottom of Barner Hill.  I lived on Barner Hill with my Mother, Dad, brother Ord and sister Mae. My Dad didn’t have a car since he wrecked his coming home drunk from the Larimer Fire Hall one night. The car conked out in the middle of Route 993 right across from the road to Barner Hill and some guy hit him head on.

I would take the bus to Wilmerding, East Pittsburgh, and put my application in anywhere they would let me. No luck until the second week in September. Then my girl friend, Clara Halava, called me on the phone and said she heard they were opening a Westinghouse Mica plant in Hahntown. This is a little hamlet close to the town of Irwin, where our High School was located. She said she was going to put her application in there.  Well this was good news to me.  I got a ride with my brother Ord, I think, I’m not sure, but I got there and put my application in.  The interviewer said you are hired.   You have to get a physical at this Doctor’s office.  I still can’t remember the Doctors name, but I sure remember the physical!  I had to pee in a bottle.  I had never peed in a bottle in my whole eighteen years!!  It must have taken me fifteen minutes.  The Doctor even ran water so I could try.  It was so embarrassing.

The job itself was very simple; tables were set up in long rows and had mats that looked like wax paper on them four feet by four feet square.  The mica was a thin clear sheet in small packets that looked about the same size as a deck of cards. You had to paint the sheets with varnish then place the mica on the sheets so they over lapped a quarter of an inch in rows, until the sheet was filled.  Then you varnished that and started all over.  We stood all day except for ten minute break in the morning and half hour for lunch then another ten minute Break in the afternoon, from seven o’clock in the morning until three thirty in the afternoon.

I took me until December to decide that I wasn’t going to do this the rest of my life.  I had a hard time getting rides to work, but I managed, somehow.  Then I got changed to second trick.  I had to find a ride to work, Ed Railing lived in Ardara, which was down the road from Barner Hill, and he said I could ride with him for a fee.  I rode with him until one night we had a huge snow storm, I had to walk up Barner Hill because there was no way Ed was going to be able to go up the hill.  I walked up the hill with snow up to my thighs.  I almost froze to death.  I told my Dad He had to get me a car or I was going to have to quit work, well, he certainly didn’t want me to do that!!  He said he would but I would have to pay him for it.  Hey I was making $1.40 an hour, I was rich!!  He got me a Forty Ford - at that time it was eleven years old.  He paid $400.00 for it, I thought it was a Cadillac - I had wheels!  The only problem was I didn’t know how to drive.

When I First Met George Sanders

 The insurance brokerage firm I worked for, at that time, Edwards, George & Co. was having an after work Christmas Party, it was a few days before Christmas, 1953. George was in the army and home on leave, The President of our firm, Jack Grant, had found out that George was home on leave, and invited him to drop by for a couple drinks with the staff, who he all knew,(except me) because he had worked for Edwards. George & Co. before he was drafted, and expected to come back to when he got out. Our bookkeeper Mable Lewis, had told me of this very intelligent boy who was now in the army and home on leave, she said she couldn't wait to introduce us because she thought we would make a great couple, I'm not sure but I think he came to the party in his uniform, when he came in to the reception area where the party was held, she brought him over to me and introduced us to each other. I thought he looked really sharp, and we just hit it off. We spent the evening getting acquainted, then he asked me to go out for New Years Eve with him. I was already going pretty steady with a boy named Paul Reynolds, so in order to go out with George, I had to call Paul and break our date for New years, which I did, Paul was extremely up-set with this turn of events and as far as he was concerned that this was the last straw, which ended our relationship. so long Paul.

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Second Time I Met George Sanders (1954-6)

I left Edwards, George & Co. in 1954. I'm not quite sure but I think it was in the summer months probably June or July, because I was wearing summer clothes when I went for my interview with Ross Holtz, Vic Pres. of Continental Casualty. I got this job with the help of my then boss Howard Voitel, who was head of the independent brokerage firm that was working inside Edwards, George,& Co. The firm had decided to reduce the separate agency that made up the brokerage firm. So that meant low man on the totem pole leaves- that was Me. Sort of a kind way to let go an employee.

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Our First Home (1957-8)

Our first home that George and I set-up, was in the Baldwin Court Apartments, near Pittsburgh, in an Apartment complex, close to a Village called Curry, It was a three room apartment, kitchen, living-dining room and a bedroom, we thought it was great, because we both worked in Pittsburgh, He worked for a Insurance brokerage firm called Edwards-George, Inc. and I worked for an Insurance company called Continental Casualty, We would drive down to a parking lot near a trolley line and take a street car into Pittsburgh,

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Having Twin Boys (1958)

I was married one year and two months when I gave birth to identical twin boys. Identical except in weight. Michael was born fifteen minutes before Craig and weighed seven pounds eight ounces, Craig was born fifteen minutes latter and weighed five pounds seven ounces. I can't remember how long I was in labor but the nine months preceding the birth was about three years long, or at least it seemed that way. To say the least I became very large, I went from one hundred twelve pounds to one hundred fifty seven pounds, my Doctor, Doctor Snyder, the sweetest loving man I have ever known, encouraged me the whole time, don't worry you'll lose it!! I never saw one hundred twelve again my whole life, well, not yet anyway. I've seen one hundred fifty seven again that’s for sure, two more births after this one. 

They brought Michael in for me to see as soon as I was awake long enough to see him. They had him wrapped up with just his little head and two little fists showing. Both little hands were very white but his face was very red and all scrunched up. I asked the nurse what was wrong with his hands and she said nothing really, he has just been through a very trying lot. He’s been through at Lot?? How about stuffing a bowling ball through a knothole, Huh?? 

The first three days were great, I had never been in a hospital before, and to get three meals a day and even a snack at bed time was just heaven. They would bring Michael in to feed him his bottle, and I would check him all over to see if he had all his fingers and toes, and all his other parts. I would feed him his bottle, he would go fast asleep. After the third day they circumcised both boys. They had kept Craig in an incubator because of his weight, until the third day so I didn't get to hold him until after they circumcised him. They brought in this tiny, very unhappy bundle; he looked so little after having Michael for three days before him. He little head was bald and he looked in miniature compared to Michael. I checked him all over and the only difference between him and Michael was his size and no hair. I found out latter that he had pushed himself up to the top of the incubator and it had sort of removed the fuzz on top of his head. 

For the three days remaining in my vacation, they alternated bringing the boys in for their bottles. The first time that I even had an inkling that not all was not going to be a breeze is when one of the nurses said they cried a lot. I really didn't pick up on that until I got them home and found out they both had colic. Let’s talk about hell here; I just knew God was punishing me for having such a good time before I got married. And my Sister Mae agreed, the part about having a good time that is. So I went home to my Mother.

My Father took this pretty well, considering he was still working at Westinghouse Formica Plant in Trafford, about ten miles from Barner Hill, where my parents lived and I had grown up. He only had to put up with the almost non-stop crying, in the evening and on weekends. George and I (this is the long suffering Father of the twins,) would sit in opposite rockers and sometimes watch the sun come up, and then the poor man had to go to work. I at least got to take a nap when my mother got up and helped with the babies.

Doctor Snyder put the babies on lactic acid, which we mixed with whole milk to make it sour, this helped them digest it. We mixed this up in a gallon jug and poured it into sixteen bottles for a days worth of feeding they seemed to be on a four hours schedule but once the colic got better they slept longer. Doctor Snyder said the colic usually lasted about here months. That is if we lasted that long. And he was right; George and I took the twins home to our apartment the first week in January. That was also the first time since they were born that I saw Craig smile. They thrived on the lactic acid milk until they were a year old, and they ate only rice cereal, lamb and green beans for the first six months. It was really fun to watch them interact with each other. I wouldn't wish that first year on anyone, but after the first year it was just great.

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Mrs. Bevan’s Store  (1958-1967)

Mrs. Bevan’s store was right across the street from our home at 101 First Street, North Irwin, We livid there from May 1958, until March 1967, Then we moved to 842 Iris Dr. (which later became 840) When we first lived there it was so nice to just walk across the street and pick up a loaf of bread, have fresh chipped ham, for lunch, The Store was a one room white painted clapboard,with two windows in the front a screen door in the middle, there were two steps up and you were in the store.

         Some Pics from 101 First Street

She had everything you wanted along the left wall were the can goods, or what have you. Straight to the back another counter where she had the meat slicer then a doorway to the downstairs where she lived. Along the right side was another counter, she wrapped your purchase here or put it in a paper bag. Next to that going toward the outside door was a glass-enclosed case. The most magic of all things, a whole-enclosed case of penny candies!! 

Mrs. Bevan would chip a whole pound of fresh spiced lunch meat, or as my kids called it chipped ham. She would sell you a loaf of bread for .27 cents a pound of chipped ham for .50 cents. With a can of Campbell’s noodle soups, I would pour them a glass of Shade’s fresh milk. My Kid’s thought they were in heaven.

Mrs. Bevan was old in my young eye (27), when we moved to N. Irwin in 1958. She must have been all of 50. She was a slight woman, small boned dark hair kept shoulder length, with a permanent, not pretty but pleasant looking.

As the twins got older five or six, they were given a dime on Saturday morning and allowed to spend it across the street at Mrs. Bevan’s penny candy store, as they called it. She would allow only one twin in the store at a time because she couldn't tell them apart, she tolerated no confusion. So one twin sat on the store steps while the other bought his candy then the other one was allowed in. When Kirk was three or four he was allowed to go with them, but I only gave him a nickel. It was fun to watch them. They would get so excited imagining what kind of candy they were going to have in their little brown paper bags.

She was all alone, her only son, Harold visited once in a while, and most of her relatives were gone or moved away. So after she closed her little store, about 5:30 and after she ate her dinner. She would sit on her steps and watch my sons play in our yard across the street. Some times I would sit with her and just let her talk about her life. When her husband died and then her mother. How Harold hated the store and wouldn’t watch it for her when she needed to get away.

Potter McCune a wholesale grocer use to stock her store for her but they went out of business a few years before we left N. Irwin. Things really got rough for her then. She had to rely on other people to stock her store. But somehow she managed to stay in business until we left N. Irwin in the spring of 1969. I don’t remember seeing her after we left.

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The J. C. Penny Christmas Catalog

When my four sons were growing up on Iris Drive, Irwin, Pa., the arrival of the J.C. Penney Christmas catalog in late October heralded the start of Christmas wish list time. Before their Dad managed to get his own insurance brokerage accounts, money was a very tight commodity.

We lived in a blue collar neighborhood, where lay-offs and out of work were a common occurrence. In this neighborhood George, was a regarded as phenomenon , he wore a suit to work. He worked in Pittsburgh.  When the boys were ten, six and two, he rode a special bus to work. A couple years later he got a company car. But at this stage in our lives we still didn’t have a great deal of loose money. Things would get better later on.

Santa Clause brought the toys on Christmas Eve, but Daddy negotiated with Santa how much each son could spend for his
toys. That is where the Christmas catalog came into play. Each son could spend $25.00 on the toys of his choice. Chosen out of the catalog.

My son, Michael the oldest, by fifteen minutes over Craig,  substituted for their Dad while George was running around the world servicing insurance accounts. It was Michael’s duty to check the circled toys in the Christmas catalog for the boys and make sure they totaled no more than $25.00. If it was over the required amount, they chose another toy or it was just crossed off the list. 

Marc was the youngest of the four boys, he was two, Kirk six, Michael and Craig, ten., Marc had the hardest time picking his toys. He would pour over the catalog most of the day. Then sit on the bottom step in our foyer, watching the door. Christmas catalog in his lap, sucking his thumb, our dashhund, Hansel at his feet. The day was just too long for Marc. When Michael and Craig, arrived from school the first vision they would have after opening the door, would be Marc, sitting on the steps that led to the upper floors, in the foyer.

"O.K.", Michael would say, "lets see what you have." Going through the much marked catalog, "nope, nope, too much money, try again."

Marc would sigh and the rest of the evening would be, Marc with the catalog clutched to his chest, following Michael around until they were both satisfied with Marc’s Christmas wish list.  It may not have been a perfect solution, but it solved the problem of who got what for Christmas.

(Note here from Marc: I don't recall ever actually getting the stuff I picked out from the catalogs...  but Christmas never failed to be special, and exhilarating.)

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This Page Last Updated: Wednesday, February 18, 2004

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