| Biographical Non-Fiction posted June 11, 2020 | Chapters: |
...40 41 -42- 43... 
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Many problems arise as we go about moving.
A chapter in the book Remembering Yesterday
Moving Woes
by BethShelby
| Background After living in Jackson, Ms. for twelve years, my husband, three children, and I are about to move to a new house in a nearby town. |
Since there are those who haven’t read any of this book before, who might read a chapter from time to time, I feel that I need to explain that this isn’t written like a novel. You will find it to be a series of different incidents or memories from a particular time period. You may find the flow of the material may change every paragraph or so. Sometimes I use dialogue to move the story along, but not that often because the whole memoir is being written as though it is spoken aloud to my husband who is deceased.
When school started, all three children began classes in the small church school. Since the school had fewer students than in the big public school, the kids got to know everyone, and they were able to make lasting friendships. The older students in each class helped the younger ones. The small classes grouped together in one room was turning out to be an effective learning system after all. Many earlier schools were taught in this manner. My parents went to small schools where several grades were taught in one room.
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Knowing that we would be moving in October, we decided we needed to try to sell our house. No doubt, most people would have contacted a real estate agent. Our first inclination was to advertise it for sale by owner and see if we could sell it that way. We thought we would have more control over who bought it, and if we sold it, there would be no commission to pay an agent.
Because racial tension was so high in Mississippi, if a house in a white neighborhood sold to a black family, the value of every home dropped immediately. In less than a year, the white families would sell to black families and the area would become a black neighborhood. You and I knew the discrimination was wrong, but on the other hand, you didn’t want our neighbors to have their property values drop because of us. As a result when a voice on the phone inquired about the house, and it was clearly of another race, you made an excuse not to show the house. It was embarrassing to me, and I refused to answer the phone.
We showed the house a few times, but then your sister, Maxine, called and asked if we would be willing to rent it to some friends she knew who were looking for a rental in Jackson. We decided we could rent for a while and sell later. These people were moving from another town and were willing to rent without first looking at it. They insisted they had to be moved in by the second week in October. Our builder had assured us, we could move into our new house by October first, so we thought there should be no problem.
It is amazing how much you can accumulate in ten years. We started trying to pack, but it seemed we had little time to spare. I was working a lot of overtime. We were making frequent trips to Brandon to check on our new house and deal with problems our builder kept coming up with. You were also going to the farm to check on your cows. Often the children had activities, that involved us. As a result, we weren’t making much progress with the packing.
One day, the people who wanted to rent our house called and to say they were moving earlier than they had planned, and they needed to move into our house the last week in September. You called our builder and asked if it was possible for us to move in early. He said the house wouldn’t be finished. He was waiting on material in order to finish our stairs, and he wouldn’t have it until later in the month. He was willing to complete the work after we moved in, if we could deal with no railing on the stairs. We should have said no, but you wanted to make sure our renters didn’t back out.
Needing to save money on the move, we rented a large moving van and started loading our furniture into it. For the next three days, we did our best to finish packing, but as we moved the furniture, we realized how much more needed to be done to have our house ready for the new occupants. The last day, we worked throughout the night, trying to clean up and leave the house in a presentable condition for the family moving in. We were exhausted when we finally realized we couldn't do any more.
We were adjusting to being in our new house and trying to deal carefully with stairs which lacked railings, when we got a call from the renters asking for their deposit back. They had decided our house wasn’t suitable for them after all. You vowed you would never again let anyone push you into moving anywhere. We turned the house over to a rental agency and decided to let them deal with it.
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The weekend after we moved, you felt you had to go see about your cattle, and you left the children and me in Brandon. One of the tires was flat on the truck, so you took the car and left me without transportation. I was busy trying to get my kitchen organized and hanging curtains. You’d not been gone long when Don came running down the upstairs hallway totally forgetting there was no railing on the stairs. He plunged off the edge of the landing and ended up crashing head-first onto the uncarpeted floor of the foyer. I was horrified. I was also amazed he was still conscious. A huge lump was quickly rising on his head. I had no way of getting in touch with anyone as the phones weren’t yet connected. All I could do was place an ice-pack on the knot, and pray that my son would survive without brain damage.
Don told me,” Mom, guess what! When your head gets hit, you really do see stars.
-------------
The following week, I was contacted by a new printing company that was forming in Jackson. Out of curiosity, I went in for an interview. They were anxious to hire me, and they offered me nearly twice as much salary as I was making. You encouraged me to take it. You’d never been happy with me working at my present job. You knew something of the problems I’d had with people I’d worked with there, and although you'd only met him once, you didn't care for Robert at all.
Since Robert hadn’t been willing to listen to my suggestions or to offer me a substantial raise, I agreed that I should take the job. I’d worked five years for this company, which was a record for me. Still, I was nervous about leaving since the company had paid for my recent trip to Nashville.
I talked to Robert and told him I was seriously considering the offer I'd had from the new company. He was extremely upset, but said the company couldn’t match what they were offering. In the end, I gave a two week notice. Robert told me his backers, who’d financed the company, wanted to sue me for the money they had spent on me. Robert claimed he talked them out of it. He was probably afraid I might tell them he’d never stopped trying to hit on me.
I worked out my two weeks and left with no regrets. With a new town, a new house, new job and a new church, things were definitely changing.
When school started, all three children began classes in the small church school. Since the school had fewer students than in the big public school, the kids got to know everyone, and they were able to make lasting friendships. The older students in each class helped the younger ones. The small classes grouped together in one room was turning out to be an effective learning system after all. Many earlier schools were taught in this manner. My parents went to small schools where several grades were taught in one room.
----------
Knowing that we would be moving in October, we decided we needed to try to sell our house. No doubt, most people would have contacted a real estate agent. Our first inclination was to advertise it for sale by owner and see if we could sell it that way. We thought we would have more control over who bought it, and if we sold it, there would be no commission to pay an agent.
Because racial tension was so high in Mississippi, if a house in a white neighborhood sold to a black family, the value of every home dropped immediately. In less than a year, the white families would sell to black families and the area would become a black neighborhood. You and I knew the discrimination was wrong, but on the other hand, you didn’t want our neighbors to have their property values drop because of us. As a result when a voice on the phone inquired about the house, and it was clearly of another race, you made an excuse not to show the house. It was embarrassing to me, and I refused to answer the phone.
We showed the house a few times, but then your sister, Maxine, called and asked if we would be willing to rent it to some friends she knew who were looking for a rental in Jackson. We decided we could rent for a while and sell later. These people were moving from another town and were willing to rent without first looking at it. They insisted they had to be moved in by the second week in October. Our builder had assured us, we could move into our new house by October first, so we thought there should be no problem.
It is amazing how much you can accumulate in ten years. We started trying to pack, but it seemed we had little time to spare. I was working a lot of overtime. We were making frequent trips to Brandon to check on our new house and deal with problems our builder kept coming up with. You were also going to the farm to check on your cows. Often the children had activities, that involved us. As a result, we weren’t making much progress with the packing.
One day, the people who wanted to rent our house called and to say they were moving earlier than they had planned, and they needed to move into our house the last week in September. You called our builder and asked if it was possible for us to move in early. He said the house wouldn’t be finished. He was waiting on material in order to finish our stairs, and he wouldn’t have it until later in the month. He was willing to complete the work after we moved in, if we could deal with no railing on the stairs. We should have said no, but you wanted to make sure our renters didn’t back out.
Needing to save money on the move, we rented a large moving van and started loading our furniture into it. For the next three days, we did our best to finish packing, but as we moved the furniture, we realized how much more needed to be done to have our house ready for the new occupants. The last day, we worked throughout the night, trying to clean up and leave the house in a presentable condition for the family moving in. We were exhausted when we finally realized we couldn't do any more.
We were adjusting to being in our new house and trying to deal carefully with stairs which lacked railings, when we got a call from the renters asking for their deposit back. They had decided our house wasn’t suitable for them after all. You vowed you would never again let anyone push you into moving anywhere. We turned the house over to a rental agency and decided to let them deal with it.
--------------
The weekend after we moved, you felt you had to go see about your cattle, and you left the children and me in Brandon. One of the tires was flat on the truck, so you took the car and left me without transportation. I was busy trying to get my kitchen organized and hanging curtains. You’d not been gone long when Don came running down the upstairs hallway totally forgetting there was no railing on the stairs. He plunged off the edge of the landing and ended up crashing head-first onto the uncarpeted floor of the foyer. I was horrified. I was also amazed he was still conscious. A huge lump was quickly rising on his head. I had no way of getting in touch with anyone as the phones weren’t yet connected. All I could do was place an ice-pack on the knot, and pray that my son would survive without brain damage.
Don told me,” Mom, guess what! When your head gets hit, you really do see stars.
-------------
The following week, I was contacted by a new printing company that was forming in Jackson. Out of curiosity, I went in for an interview. They were anxious to hire me, and they offered me nearly twice as much salary as I was making. You encouraged me to take it. You’d never been happy with me working at my present job. You knew something of the problems I’d had with people I’d worked with there, and although you'd only met him once, you didn't care for Robert at all.
Since Robert hadn’t been willing to listen to my suggestions or to offer me a substantial raise, I agreed that I should take the job. I’d worked five years for this company, which was a record for me. Still, I was nervous about leaving since the company had paid for my recent trip to Nashville.
I talked to Robert and told him I was seriously considering the offer I'd had from the new company. He was extremely upset, but said the company couldn’t match what they were offering. In the end, I gave a two week notice. Robert told me his backers, who’d financed the company, wanted to sue me for the money they had spent on me. Robert claimed he talked them out of it. He was probably afraid I might tell them he’d never stopped trying to hit on me.
I worked out my two weeks and left with no regrets. With a new town, a new house, new job and a new church, things were definitely changing.
 Recognized |
I'm continuing to recall memories of life with my deceased husband 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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