| Biographical Non-Fiction posted March 3, 2021 | Chapters: |
...105 106 -107- 108... 
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All my children have the melancholy trait.
A chapter in the book Remembering Yesterday
Melancholy Personalities
by BethShelby
For new readers, who may not have read my author notes, this is written in a conversational way as I talk to my deceased husband. When I refer to someone just as "you" this means I am addressing my husband, Evan.
On November 8th of 1988, the country elected its 43rd president. George H. W. Bush had been Reagan’s vice president, so it was no big surprise when he was elected. He ran against the Democrat candidate, Michael Dukakis. Presicent Bush chose an Indiana senator, Dan Quayle, as his vice president. Quayle had a way of putting his foot in his mouth when he spoke, so the media was giving him a hard time.
Since Connie was grounded most of the time, some of the boys she had met at school started coming over to see her. We were okay with that, as long as they sat in the great room and watched TV. You took Connie to her Juvenile Court hearing. She was fined $65 which you paid, and she agreed to work it off. In addition, she was required to do 25 hours of community service, cleaning a Baptist church. Her friend, Danielle got 75 hours of service, because it wasn’t her first offense. They told Connie if she stayed out of trouble, the record would be erased when she turned eighteen.
She started the community service right away, and she didn’t seem to mind it at all. She really liked the people she was working with, especially the man in charge. She indicated that maybe after it was over, she’d be interested in volunteering and continuing to work there.
However, it wasn’t the last time she got in trouble with us. It happened just before Thanksgiving, when Carol decided to spend Thanksgiving with us, and she flew to Atlanta. You drove there to pick her up. It was Connie’s last day of school before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Connie claimed she had to stay late at school to pick up trash, and when she called home, you’d gone to pick up Carol. She called a boy in our neighborhood named Willie to come and pick her up. I’d met Willie, and he was a spooky-looking seventeen-year-old, who had dropped out of school. I didn’t like Connie hanging around him at all. When she got home, she was so drunk she couldn’t walk straight. She said the kids at school had been drinking vodka, which they thought wouldn’t reek of liquor.
She went straight to the bathroom and started throwing up. She was extremely nauseated. Carol tried to talk to her, but she was so exhausted that she finally went to sleep. We hoped she had learned a lesson. She seemed very remorseful and not nearly so cocky.
We all went to Mississippi to spend Thanksgiving with our families. Your family seemed to be having their share of troubles. Maxine’s son, Chuck, was getting a divorce, because Allison didn’t love him any more and Helen’s son, Jimmy, was getting a divorce from his third wife. Maxine’s other son, Gary, whose wife, Cindy, was two months pregnant, but she had all kinds of health problems and would likely lose the baby. Everyone seemed depressed. We weren’t the only ones with problems.
******
On the Friday after Thanksgiving, Connie and I went to Hattiesburg, Mississippi and met our best friends from New Orleans, Diane and her daughter Lesley. It was fun spending time with them. Both Connie and Lesley talked us into buying them expensive name-brand purses from an outlet there.
The following Sunday, you and I took Carol back to Atlanta to catch her plane home. Even our married daughter had her issues. Carol gave me her journal to read. She said it would help me to understand her better. After reading it, I realized that she was a very deep person. She seemed to have such intense emotional struggles. Abstract and spiritual things were more important to her than the concrete, day to day things that occupy most people’s thoughts. She'd had a real struggle trying to learn to love Glen. It made us wonder if their marriage would last over the long haul.
Our children all seemed to be plagued with that black demon, depression. I think that is the curse of a melancholy personality type, which was more likely inherited from your DNA than mine.
I’ve been asked to list the names and ages of the family members.
This is Us:
Evan is 59 and a retired drafting supervisor from Chevron Oil.
Beth is 51 and has had a variety of jobs. She is presently working a new job with a local printing company.
Carol is 28, a nurse at Florida Hospital in Orlando. She is married and living in Florida.
Glen Egolf is Carol’s husband. He is 25 and soon will get his nursing degree from Southern College in Orlando.
Don is a twin. He is 26 and plans to go to Life Chiropractic College for the spring semester.
Christi is Don’s twin and she’s had almost enough hours for a college degree. At present, she is selling cosmetics.
Kimberly Dye is Don’s girlfriend. She is a nurse and is living in an apartment and working at Valley Hospital.
Connie is our youngest daughter. She is fifteen. She is in her second year of high school.
Others mentioned in this chapter are Valerie, Connie’s friend, Maxine, Evan's sister, her sons, Chuck and Gary, Helen, Evan's sister,
mer son, Jimmy, Diane, my friend from New Orleans, and Lesley, Connie's friend from New Orleans.
For new readers, who may not have read my author notes, this is written in a conversational way as I talk to my deceased husband. When I refer to someone just as "you" this means I am addressing my husband, Evan.
On November 8th of 1988, the country elected its 43rd president. George H. W. Bush had been Reagan’s vice president, so it was no big surprise when he was elected. He ran against the Democrat candidate, Michael Dukakis. Presicent Bush chose an Indiana senator, Dan Quayle, as his vice president. Quayle had a way of putting his foot in his mouth when he spoke, so the media was giving him a hard time.
Since Connie was grounded most of the time, some of the boys she had met at school started coming over to see her. We were okay with that, as long as they sat in the great room and watched TV. You took Connie to her Juvenile Court hearing. She was fined $65 which you paid, and she agreed to work it off. In addition, she was required to do 25 hours of community service, cleaning a Baptist church. Her friend, Danielle got 75 hours of service, because it wasn’t her first offense. They told Connie if she stayed out of trouble, the record would be erased when she turned eighteen.
She started the community service right away, and she didn’t seem to mind it at all. She really liked the people she was working with, especially the man in charge. She indicated that maybe after it was over, she’d be interested in volunteering and continuing to work there.
However, it wasn’t the last time she got in trouble with us. It happened just before Thanksgiving, when Carol decided to spend Thanksgiving with us, and she flew to Atlanta. You drove there to pick her up. It was Connie’s last day of school before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Connie claimed she had to stay late at school to pick up trash, and when she called home, you’d gone to pick up Carol. She called a boy in our neighborhood named Willie to come and pick her up. I’d met Willie, and he was a spooky-looking seventeen-year-old, who had dropped out of school. I didn’t like Connie hanging around him at all. When she got home, she was so drunk she couldn’t walk straight. She said the kids at school had been drinking vodka, which they thought wouldn’t reek of liquor.
She went straight to the bathroom and started throwing up. She was extremely nauseated. Carol tried to talk to her, but she was so exhausted that she finally went to sleep. We hoped she had learned a lesson. She seemed very remorseful and not nearly so cocky.
We all went to Mississippi to spend Thanksgiving with our families. Your family seemed to be having their share of troubles. Maxine’s son, Chuck, was getting a divorce, because Allison didn’t love him any more and Helen’s son, Jimmy, was getting a divorce from his third wife. Maxine’s other son, Gary, whose wife, Cindy, was two months pregnant, but she had all kinds of health problems and would likely lose the baby. Everyone seemed depressed. We weren’t the only ones with problems.
******
On the Friday after Thanksgiving, Connie and I went to Hattiesburg, Mississippi and met our best friends from New Orleans, Diane and her daughter Lesley. It was fun spending time with them. Both Connie and Lesley talked us into buying them expensive name-brand purses from an outlet there.
The following Sunday, you and I took Carol back to Atlanta to catch her plane home. Even our married daughter had her issues. Carol gave me her journal to read. She said it would help me to understand her better. After reading it, I realized that she was a very deep person. She seemed to have such intense emotional struggles. Abstract and spiritual things were more important to her than the concrete, day to day things that occupy most people’s thoughts. She'd had a real struggle trying to learn to love Glen. It made us wonder if their marriage would last over the long haul.
Our children all seemed to be plagued with that black demon, depression. I think that is the curse of a melancholy personality type, which was more likely inherited from your DNA than mine.
I’ve been asked to list the names and ages of the family members.
This is Us:
Evan is 59 and a retired drafting supervisor from Chevron Oil.
Beth is 51 and has had a variety of jobs. She is presently working a new job with a local printing company.
Carol is 28, a nurse at Florida Hospital in Orlando. She is married and living in Florida.
Glen Egolf is Carol’s husband. He is 25 and soon will get his nursing degree from Southern College in Orlando.
Don is a twin. He is 26 and plans to go to Life Chiropractic College for the spring semester.
Christi is Don’s twin and she’s had almost enough hours for a college degree. At present, she is selling cosmetics.
Kimberly Dye is Don’s girlfriend. She is a nurse and is living in an apartment and working at Valley Hospital.
Connie is our youngest daughter. She is fifteen. She is in her second year of high school.
Others mentioned in this chapter are Valerie, Connie’s friend, Maxine, Evan's sister, her sons, Chuck and Gary, Helen, Evan's sister,
mer son, Jimmy, Diane, my friend from New Orleans, and Lesley, Connie's friend from New Orleans.
On November 8th of 1988, the country elected its 43rd president. George H. W. Bush had been Reagan’s vice president, so it was no big surprise when he was elected. He ran against the Democrat candidate, Michael Dukakis. Presicent Bush chose an Indiana senator, Dan Quayle, as his vice president. Quayle had a way of putting his foot in his mouth when he spoke, so the media was giving him a hard time.
Since Connie was grounded most of the time, some of the boys she had met at school started coming over to see her. We were okay with that, as long as they sat in the great room and watched TV. You took Connie to her Juvenile Court hearing. She was fined $65 which you paid, and she agreed to work it off. In addition, she was required to do 25 hours of community service, cleaning a Baptist church. Her friend, Danielle got 75 hours of service, because it wasn’t her first offense. They told Connie if she stayed out of trouble, the record would be erased when she turned eighteen.
She started the community service right away, and she didn’t seem to mind it at all. She really liked the people she was working with, especially the man in charge. She indicated that maybe after it was over, she’d be interested in volunteering and continuing to work there.
However, it wasn’t the last time she got in trouble with us. It happened just before Thanksgiving, when Carol decided to spend Thanksgiving with us, and she flew to Atlanta. You drove there to pick her up. It was Connie’s last day of school before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Connie claimed she had to stay late at school to pick up trash, and when she called home, you’d gone to pick up Carol. She called a boy in our neighborhood named Willie to come and pick her up. I’d met Willie, and he was a spooky-looking seventeen-year-old, who had dropped out of school. I didn’t like Connie hanging around him at all. When she got home, she was so drunk she couldn’t walk straight. She said the kids at school had been drinking vodka, which they thought wouldn’t reek of liquor.
She went straight to the bathroom and started throwing up. She was extremely nauseated. Carol tried to talk to her, but she was so exhausted that she finally went to sleep. We hoped she had learned a lesson. She seemed very remorseful and not nearly so cocky.
We all went to Mississippi to spend Thanksgiving with our families. Your family seemed to be having their share of troubles. Maxine’s son, Chuck, was getting a divorce, because Allison didn’t love him any more and Helen’s son, Jimmy, was getting a divorce from his third wife. Maxine’s other son, Gary, whose wife, Cindy, was two months pregnant, but she had all kinds of health problems and would likely lose the baby. Everyone seemed depressed. We weren’t the only ones with problems.
******
On the Friday after Thanksgiving, Connie and I went to Hattiesburg, Mississippi and met our best friends from New Orleans, Diane and her daughter Lesley. It was fun spending time with them. Both Connie and Lesley talked us into buying them expensive name-brand purses from an outlet there.
The following Sunday, you and I took Carol back to Atlanta to catch her plane home. Even our married daughter had her issues. Carol gave me her journal to read. She said it would help me to understand her better. After reading it, I realized that she was a very deep person. She seemed to have such intense emotional struggles. Abstract and spiritual things were more important to her than the concrete, day to day things that occupy most people’s thoughts. She'd had a real struggle trying to learn to love Glen. It made us wonder if their marriage would last over the long haul.
Our children all seemed to be plagued with that black demon, depression. I think that is the curse of a melancholy personality type, which was more likely inherited from your DNA than mine.
I’ve been asked to list the names and ages of the family members.
This is Us:
Evan is 59 and a retired drafting supervisor from Chevron Oil.
Beth is 51 and has had a variety of jobs. She is presently working a new job with a local printing company.
Carol is 28, a nurse at Florida Hospital in Orlando. She is married and living in Florida.
Glen Egolf is Carol’s husband. He is 25 and soon will get his nursing degree from Southern College in Orlando.
Don is a twin. He is 26 and plans to go to Life Chiropractic College for the spring semester.
Christi is Don’s twin and she’s had almost enough hours for a college degree. At present, she is selling cosmetics.
Kimberly Dye is Don’s girlfriend. She is a nurse and is living in an apartment and working at Valley Hospital.
Connie is our youngest daughter. She is fifteen. She is in her second year of high school.
Others mentioned in this chapter are Valerie, Connie’s friend, Maxine, Evan's sister, her sons, Chuck and Gary, Helen, Evan's sister,
mer son, Jimmy, Diane, my friend from New Orleans, and Lesley, Connie's friend from New Orleans.
 Recognized |
I'm continuing to recall memories of life with my deceased husband, Evan, as if I am talking aloud to him. I'm doing this because I want my children to know us as we knew each other and not just as their parents.
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