Reflections of My Life by JL Byars – page 24

Doris wasn’t expecting me for some weeks yet, and since there were no phones, I had no way of letting her know I’d gotten out early.  Kay was playing under the tree in the front yard, and she saw me first and began yelling, “Daddy, My Daddy!!”   and ran to meet me.  Doris and the rest came to see what she was hollering about – it was a great homecoming!!!

The day I got back to Doris and Kay we heard the fighting in the Pacific had ended.  Doris’ brothers, Elza and Dale were in the Navy and Air Force, taking part in the battles there, so it was a great day of rejoicing for all of us.

My sister, Margaret and her family made their first trip to West Texas to see me and there were lots of family dinners and lots of good food but after C rations and dehydrated food, a few bites was all I could hold!  However, I soon overcame that.

After a few days of visiting, Doris, Kay and I moved to Springtown and my stepmother, Lillie, moved in with us.  The job for Southern Pacific Railroad was open to me, but it meant moving from town to town which was fine when I was single and living in the coach rail cars, but now I wanted a home.  I went back to work for Mr. Tidwell.  He had built a big, new store and Doris went to work as a bookkeeper.

 It was very hard to come from a battle zone, where you had to protect your life every minute, to civilian living.  I was very nervous, a door could slam and I would dive for cover.  I had left Doris as a young bride and I came home to a mother, a two-year-old and a stepmother.  It was very different, but we all made the adjustment fine.  I think the thing that made it the easiest was the fact that Kay acted like I’d been there all the time.  She wanted to be by me always.

After a year had passed, Doris’ brothers were out of the Service and home and they along with their Dad wanted me to come back to Ira and build a garage.  The oil field was booming and there was lots of work.  So in May of 1946 we came back to west Texas.  The garage went well and we rented the John Everett house 2 miles east of Ira.   On August 7, 1946 Linda was born and Kay had a little sister to play with.