What Things Has Char Patton Done in Her Life?

I was born a long, long time ago!  My life started out living in a one-bedroom house with Dad, Mom, and two older sisters.  We had running water, hot water and heat but no indoor bathroom.  One evening when a cousin was babysitting, there was tornado strength winds that blew our outhouse over.  Dad was a pretty resourceful guy and went to work installing a flush toilet in our home.  We moved from that house to a grand 3-bedroom home!  It was luxury to us.  The family grew to add a boy and another girl so we were now a family of seven.  The only boy of course got his own bedroom and the four girls shared one.  Bunk beds were very necessary.  One bathroom was shared by all with a claw-foot bathtub.  Showers were not much of a thing then. I remember the odd number of people in the family sometimes being a problem as food items usually came in even number packs.  Pop was six-packs.  Donuts were packages of six or eight so we were one short or one over.  We learned to share or fight over the extra.  I remember a phrase Dad used to say - "he who eats the fastest, gets the most" which wasn't good for me as I had an overweight problem all of my life.    

Growing up I guess was pretty normal.  TV came out when I was still a child and we watched the popular shows like Gunsmoke (which I still enjoy reruns today), Lawrence Welk (my maternal Grandparents lived in Los Angeles and on a visit there, Mom & Dad were on the show and we got to see them dancing on the show), Lassie, Sky King and others.  On Saturdays, we had to do housework before we could go outside and play.  It was a time when times were simpler - there were no organized sports for kids.  We'd gather at a park and play softball, ride our bikes, roller skate, ice skate (walking 3/4 mile to and from the rink) and build leaf or snow forts in the yard.  Occasionally, we would have a parade down the sidewalk with kids dressing up in costumes,  playing cards clipped to the spokes on our bikes, pets in homemade costume, and wagons decorated with lots of crepe paper and balloons.  I remember always being in the role of a clown rather than a princess.  My friends always seemed to be prettiest so they got the princess role.

Our home didn't have air conditioning but we had a window fan in our bedroom for hot summer nights.  My sisters and I would make silly noises as the fan blew a breeze to cool us off.  We would watch out the window to see if things were going on outside.  There were some neighbors that didn't seem to have a very good life.  The mother was not in the picture that I remember.  The father was a drinker.  There were two boys, one was one year older than me and the other a few years older than that.  We would see the older boy at night with a sack, probably stealing from homes but never had that confirmed.  We had a wonderful teacher who taught 3rd and 4th grade, Mrs. Lind.  She tried very hard to help the younger boy through troubled times.  He apparently resented it as one night when I was in 5th grade, we were awakened in the middle of the night with our grade school (on the same block we lived), was on fire!  As kids, we always said the school should burn down but when this actually happened, we were tearfully upset.  I can't verify the truth to this but we believed the boy across the street set the fire.  The local store had newspapers and lighter fluid stolen that night that were used to start the fire.  

During those years, I remember some fun times.  We had newspaper drives at school where each class was challenged to bring in the most newspapers, bundled in twine and piled high by the curb.  After the contest was over, the recyclers would come and collect it all.  We were conscious of environmental issues way back then.  

Mom and Dad taught us early to "pay yourself first" and save money.  Each Monday we'd bring 10 cents (or whatever Dad gave us depending on our age) to school where we made deposits of our money.  

I was in Girl Scouts of America and our troop leader was someone who was a "war bride" and immigrated to the United States from England.  Her accent was so exotic to us.  Later in life, I was a troop leader for my daughter's troop although I'm sure I wasn't thought of as exotic!  

Our family grew up in a Wesleyan Methodist Church.  My Mother was a charter member when she was three years old!  Her father helped construct the church.  Saturday nights were spent polishing our shoes, taking baths (we didn't have daily ones at that time) and watching Lawrence Welk.  The five of us kids would go to Sunday School on Sunday morning with a short break until the church service that Mom and Dad joined us for.  There was a little candy store on the corner that we'd have just enough time to spend our allowance on between services.

 

I've been thinking about my life and realizing I have had opportunities to do so many things most of my friends and family have never even known about.  While I can still remember many things, I know there's things I have not thought about in a long time so maybe writing some of it down will jog even more memories.  I like to think of it as my brain is full!  The memories are not lost - it just takes a while to find them!  So here goes!

First and best of all - I have raised two children!  My beautiful, talented daughter is a risk taker like me and pursues her dreams.  My smart, trustworthy son has given me TWO awesome (also very smart) grandsons and brought his fun loving wife into our family!  

As an adult, I had always been responsible in raising my kids, maintaining a house and enjoying many things in life.  Brownie Leader for my daughter's group and Assistant Den Mother for my son's Cub Scout Group.  Volunteered at school events in the concession stands.  My kids were involved in theater in school so I enjoyed many "after parties" at our home.  The kids were so fun and talented, there was no need for me to plan activities - they come up with great entertainment.  I participated in leagues - bowling, golf, racquetball oftentimes serving as officers of the leagues.

In my mid 40's (midlife crisis era) I took an opportunity to make a big change in my life.  Up until then, I had been employed in office environments.  At my peak, I was a Firm Administrator for an Accounting/CPA firm in downtown Minneapolis, IDS Tower.  My office window overlooked the MN Vikings football stadium.  I felt like I was at the top of my world!  

Then the bottom fell out - the firm was sold.  I had the option to go with the new firm but decided to make a big change when I saw an ad to "work on a cruise ship".  I decided to go for it.  This was before internet so I had to do a lot of research at the library to find out what type of work I could do.  I had always had a knack for accounting.  Crew members had to be paid - right?  Money had to be counted.  The job of Purser meant "keeper of the purse".  Handling money and numbers.  So that is what I pursued via snail mail!  

It took six months before I landed my first ship job on a small cruise line that sailed from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Freeport, Bahamas.  We would sail there in the morning, drop off the passengers who stayed for a few days, then pick up passengers whom we had brought there a few days prior and bring them back to Ft. Lauderdale.  I had never been to the Caribbean so it was exciting to begin my career this way.  Going in and out of the US several times a week quickly taught me the documents required for a ship and it's passengers to exit and enter.  That was also part of the Purser position.