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We had decided while we were there that when we came home we were going to buy a house instead of renting. We had had enough of that. The first house we bought was a little house that used to be beside the present Methodist Church . We bought it from Maude Bollinger and I don't remember exactly what it cost, but I think it was about $3850. I know that doesn't seem like much money now, but Marion didn't have his job back yet, but he had his discharge pay and with what we could borrow for a down payment, we thought we could pay for it, and we did with him having two jobs most of the time.


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We painted the little house and got it all ready to move into. We had some furniture in storage so we were able to get along fine. The little house was so much bigger than the apartment that we had had that we felt like it was almost palatial. The only problem was we became so lonesome and homesick for our friends that we had made in Virginia that Marion almost reenlisted. Since we had been married such a short time before he was called up, the only mutual friends we had were the ones we had made while he was in Service. We discussed it at great length, and decided that those people wouldn't be there either so we just stayed here and became accustomed to the life and made friends here, some who have been life long friends. Jack and Coke Mellinger certainly come to mind in that category.

"I'm
Syl Morris
Who Are You?"

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We met them through Phil. As I said before, he never saw a stranger, so when we lived in the little house he was a little past 2 and he would stand out on the sidewalk and introduce himself to everyone who went by. He would say , "Hi, I'm Syl (not being able to say F's yet) Morris , who are you?" We met a lot of people that way . One of them was Coke as she walked to work. Gene and Larry Jarrett moved next door a few years later and they are still our friends.

When we lived here, I lost my Dad who was only 52 when he died and my wonderful Aunt Marybelle who was the world traveler. I always felt very close to my Dad, so that was a real blow along with him also being a parent. We lived the normal small town life. I became pregnant with Rick and we welcomed the birth of another boy and felt that now our family was complete. Rick was entirely different from Phil. He was a healthy little baby and such a pleasure after Phil had so much trouble getting started. I had a miscarriage when Rick was 16 months old. It would have been nice to have had another brother or sister, but that was not to be.


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I was determined that the boys would learn to swim because Marion had never been able to overcome his fear of water, so when Phil was either about to start school or shortly after we started going to the Pool every afternoon. Then it was in the Creek where the dam is now. I know Rick could swim before he started to school and Phil was a real water baby. I loved it too and I think we spent about ten summers doing that. I know as long as we lived in the little house we did.

Sometime during these years I started playing bridge with a group of girls at that time. There were eight of us and that Bridge Club is still going on today with some of the "girls" who were in it at that time. It is an association and relationship that has lasted all these years and no amount of money could possible buy the friendship that we had and still do.

Our
First
TV!
In the early 50's, we got our first TV-that was really special! It was black and white and there were only 3 channels and they didn't come on until evening so we always had our evening meal over with so we could watch TV. I don't remember anything in particular that was on except wrestling on Saturday night and we watched that faithfully.


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We lived in the little house 8 or 10 years and then we bought a lot on old State Road 132, the road to Lapel, and built a house there. We sold the little house to the Methodist Church and that is where the present Educational Unit is.

By then, both of the boys were in school and we became very involved in school activities. Also Marion helped in the formation of the Little League. Our time was completely taken with Little League in the Summer and School in the Winter. Marion coached, umpired and was President of the League at the same time. The year he was President, it was my job to take care of the concession stand and the money it took in.. We enjoyed all of it and didn't feel it was a chore or a duty. We took great pleasure in all of it.

At one time he was President of the PTA and I was President of Band Boosters. He also served on the School Board for 10 years. During that time was when the reorganization took place and Pendleton Schools became South Madison. There were a lot of sleepless nights spent worrying over the kids in Little League and the Consolidation of the schools.

I felt one of my greatest achievements during that time besides raising two fine sons was getting the Marine Band to Pendleton for two performances when I was President of Band Boosters. That was a year long project. We started working on it according to their directions in January and the performances took place in September. We had committees who called on all the businesses, factories and individuals for miles around and well as selling tickets to everyone we could think of. We even called on the then Governor of the State. June Hanna and I always said we wore out three sets of tires getting the job done, but we felt it was worth it. June and I said they would put on our tombstones "She was a good worker".

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