Part 3: New Jersey To Ithaca and Back
Irvington, NJ: upstairs apartment in an old two-story house, summer 1968
I use the living room as my painting studio and sleep on foam rubber. John’s father installs a washer and dryer on the back porch. I paint the walls of the small bathroom Chinese red. I get a new, better job. They pay for night school so I can finish my B.A. At the company Christmas party, I hook up with Herb. He tells me that he and his wife are separating. Two months later moves in with us, and it takes three coats of white paint to cover up the Chinese red.
Pinkney Rd., Ithaca, NY: 2-bedroom garden apartment, August 1969
Herb and I are both depressed about our new jobs. He’s teaching business communication at Ithaca College. I’m teaching junior high Math and English at St. Mary’s in Cortland. Two little boys who live in the apartment complex are Blixy’s best friends. After falling asleep too many times while driving home in the winter, I quit teaching, but I can’t find another job in Ithaca.
Berkeley, California: Mary’s house, March, 1971
Mary and her husband, Braum, have a leather craft shop in downtown Berkeley. Their house in the hills is sparsely furnished and the beds they’ve rented for Blixy and me don’t arrive until the day after we get there. I learn how to make leather bags and belts while working for them in the store. Blixy gets dropped off with their baby at the sitters. On my days off, Blixy and I baby-sit for Mary’s baby or hitchhike to a park. Herb and I fight on the phone but are nice to each other in our letters. Or vice versa. Braum gets into a fight and Mary takes him to the hospital while the other employees and I board up the broken windows of the store. I know I have to get us out of there.
Pinkney Rd., Ithaca, NY: back with Herb, May 1971
I make leather belts and handbags and we sell them on weekends at craft fairs. Herb plays his guitar and sings. We meet other crafter families and Blixy plays with their children. Herb keeps his job.
Nelson Rd., Ithaca, NY: larger 2 bedroom apartment, April 1972
We have leather tools, workbenches or supplies in every room. I have three or four part-time employees stamping and dying belts, stitching bags. Our neighbors have a nasty German Shepherd who kills our cat in front of Blixy as she waits for the school bus. I go to trade shows and hire a sales rep in Boston who sends in more orders than we can fill.
Horton Rd., Newfield, NY (10 miles from Ithaca): we buy a ranch house, May 1973
We install workbenches and lights in the large basement. We take down an outer wall of the family room in order to haul in a two-ton clicker machine, which will automatically cut the leather bag patterns. One of my best employees brings his dog to work and often has to borrow my car. I open a retail shop in Collegetown, but don’t have time to supervise my employees, who smoke pot on the front stoop. I find out that the Boston sales rep is a crook. Herb and I fight more and more as business gets bad. Blixy spends a lot of time with her best friend Patty at her family’s dairy farm down the road. A lawyer friend of ours advises me to file for bankruptcy.
Main St., Newfield, NY: one-bedroom apartment in an old house next to a bar, 1975
Blixy sleeps in the bedroom and I sleep on a cot in the living room. She gets free lunches at school because we are poor. I write a book on how to open a retail store while recuperating from major surgery. John’s mother stays with us for a week to help out after my operation. Herb and I still see each other and sometimes we stay at his house. Blixy has to remember each day whether to walk home to our apartment or take the school bus to the house.
Chatham, NJ: new one-bedroom apartment, winter 1976
My sister Laura calls and tells me an apartment in her building is available, so Blixy and I drive down through ice and snow and take it and we move in. It is new and clean and bright with shag carpeting and a balcony. I buy a sofa-bed for myself for the living room and Blixy sleeps in the bedroom. I get a part-time writing job at Economics Press that pays really well and even better when it becomes full time. Laura is also single now and we have lots of parties with strobe lights and loud music. We meet guys in singles bars and then try a video dating service, where I meet Adrian.