Читать книгу From Melon Fields to Moon Rocks - Dianna Borsi O'Brien - Страница 13

After the year in Columbus, Charles and Virginia returned to Marshall. The next spring, with Charles closing in on thirty and Virginia approaching twenty-eight, they welcomed their first son, Charles W. Gehrke Jr., on May 27, 1947. At last, Virginia’s arms were filled.

That summer, when Charles returned to Columbus to finish his studies, Virginia remained in Marshall, and Lil, Charles’s sister, came to stay with the new mother. It was not an idyllic summer for Lil or Virginia. A strong, if quiet, personality, Virginia wasn’t used to being helped. Although only six years older than Lil, she saw herself as Lil’s guardian and tried to supervise her. It wasn’t a particularly good fit.

Lil was twenty-two and, like Charles, had experienced little direct or curbing supervision from her mother while she was growing up. She chafed at Virginia’s well-meaning guidance. Lil said her solution was to try to stay out of Virginia’s way while Virginia attempted to make sure Lil wasn’t getting into trouble.

In the end, however, Lil said Virginia’s suggestions about learning business skills and earning teaching credentials served her well. After attending Missouri Valley College, Lil returned to Ohio and taught business in high school while she continued her studies, eventually earning a Bachelor’s Degree.

When Charles returned to Marshall, however, he began a different approach to helping his sister, a tactic Lil recalled with a chuckle. He enlisted one of his students—a good-looking one—to help Lil with her chemistry studies and other coursework.

Like Charles, Lil saw education as her ticket out of Coshocton and poverty. Before moving to Marshall, Lil had had her own taste of menial work. In high school, she worked as a housekeeper and then a nanny for a local family, and, like Charles, she recalled her wages: fifty cents a week plus meals and lodging. Once the war had heated up the economy, Lil left those jobs and worked in a local Coshocton war plant, sealing gas tanks and making better wages.