A few weeks after I arrived back in Pomona at my parents' home Walter drove back also, after making a brief stopover in Tucson, Arizona to obtain his official discharge from the Airforce. He had served from June, 1942 until Dec., 1945. Was five days a private, then promoted to Staff Sargeant until graduation from advanced training, in Dalhart, when he became a Flight Officer and subsequently a 2nd. Lieutenant, finishing his tour of duty as a 1st Lieutenant.
Jack came home from his tour of duty about this time also, which meant that he, and Lalie, with their baby, Candace, plus Walter and I, were now living with Mother and Dad. Available housing was simply non-existent in Pomona, at this time, or anyplace else in Calif. All building materials were assigned to military use during the war years, and with so many military bases in Calif. all surplus housing had long since been utilized. Dad had acquired a piece of land some time earlier, which he divided into three lots, selling one to Lalie and Jack for 500 dollars, and since he'd given them a car earlier, he now gave us one of the lots. He was also going into the business of building homes, on a small scale, and Walter was hired as a carpenter on that project. He was working on the roof of one of the houses on the day that I showed up at his workplace to inform him that I'd just had work from my doctor that I was going to have twins! He was so excited about the news that he came home that evening with his hands in pretty bad shape; just kept hitting his hands, instead of the nails. I was just starting in my eighth month, but the doctor said I could have the babies anytime, since most twins were born early. Time inched along, though, and nothing happened and I proceeded to get bigger,, and bigger. The day they were supposed to arrive was March 10, and on March 6 I'd driven Mother downtown to do some afternoon shopping, but instead of walking around with her I opted to sit in the car and wait for her. By the time she returned to the car I was pretty uncomfortable, with too much sitting, I thought. Anyway, we went home and I began putting away some baby blankets that Mother had just purchased, but again became so uncomfortable I waddled into the livingroom and flopped down on the couch. Mother came in to ask if I felt alright and I replied that I'd felt much better, but was positive that it wasn't labor pains. She immediately became very upset, because Lalie had gone off somewhere with the car, and she was supposed to be on hand at all times during the day in case I needed transportation to the hospital. Lalie arrived back home soon, though, and Mother ran out to the driveway to tell her I wasn't feeling well, and when they both came back into the house I, again, reiterated that it wasn't labor pains, merely a tummyache, but Lalie replied that she didn't much relish the idea of delivering twins, so I'd better start thinking about going to the hospital. Finally, Walter arrived home, from work, a little after 5 p.m., and was met by Mother and Lalie instructing him to phone the doctor and tell him my symptoms, which he did. It was the doctor's day off, but his nurse said that he was at the hospital, and considering the date it would be best for me to get over there, even though I still protested it was not labor pains. Walter wanted to clean up and shave before going to the hospital, which he proceeded to us, much against Mother's wishes. She was most anxious for me to vacate the premises, for sure. One time she came into the livingroom and with a very disgusted tone of voice said, "Do you know what Walter's doing while he's shaving? he's whistling, that's what!" Soon he came in and said, "O.K., Honey let's get going." I started to raise up from my prone position and couldn't move. So, Walter carried me out to the car, and between he, and Lalie, they pushed and pulled me into the back seat. Lalie sat on the floor while I tried to get into some kind of a comfortable position all over the seat. When we arrived at the ambulance entrance of the hospital a nurse met us with a wheelchair, but Lalie jumped out of the car to tell her I couldn't sit, to go get a gurney. Needless to say, Walter and Lalie must have been glad to see me disappear up the elevator so they could relax in the visitor's waiting room. Meanwhile, up on the maternity floor, a nurse checked me and said we'd better proceed directly to the delivery room. By this time, it was almost six o'clock and time for the shifts to change, so the delivery room nurses were less than happy to see this "customer" show up just as they were supposed to get off duty. When I told them it would be twins, they really groaned, because it usually takes much longer, but the last thing I cared about at that stage was the possibility the nurses would have to ear cold dinners in the dining room that night. After the head nurse made several phone calls the doctor strolled in, and less than five minutes later, David Alan was born at 6:07 p.m., weighing 6 lbs. 2 1/2 oz. Four minutes later, at 6:11 p.m. Richard Jon arrived weighing 5 lbs. 14 1/2 oz. Down in the waiting room Lalie suggested to Walter that he ought to inquire at the desk, on maternity, how things were going, which he did, and was told that the twins had just gone by on their way to the nursery and I'd be down in a few minutes. We'd all been at the hospital a total of approximately 20 minutes. In those days it was not at all unusual for the new Mother and baby to stay in the hospital for ten days, which I did, bored out of my mind. I had a private room and bath which cost $ 10 per day. The doctor's bill totaled $ 125, which included prenatal, delivery, and care of the two babies for ten days in the nursery.