When I went home at the end of the ten days the doctor tried to persuade me to leave the babies in the nursery for a week, or so, since he knew how crowded we were at home, and we'd only be charged $ 2 per day. He argued that I'd have a chance to regain my strength before taking on the project of the care and feeding of twins... But, I wasn't about to walk out of that hospital without our babies, and besides they were such quiet little darlings, just slept all the time. Anyway, I'd never seen them cry, in fact couldn't get the to wake up enough for me to see them with their eyes open when they were brought to my room, one at a time, of course. Well, on our way home from the hospital they started crying and didn't stop for very long periods, especially during the night, for nine months! Incidentally, the foundation for our new house had been poured the day that the boys were born, so our first little house (800 square feet) was underway, at last, but it would be nine months before we could move in. So, we had a household containing three babies in diapers, as Candy was just a little less than a year old when the twins were born. Lalie's and Jack's house was being built, next door to ours, at the same time. Walter and I spent, at least, part of every night in the livingroom rocking our little ones, or taking them for rides in the car, as the swaying of the bassinet and carbed in the back seat seemed to soothe the colic. Every drivein restaurant, for miles around, knew us, and our babies, since we stopped in so often for cokes, or sundaes, etc. Many evenings were spent around the dining room table with the whole family playing cards and Walter holding one baby and me another. My days consisted of staying in our bedroom changing diapers and feeding the babies, while Mother lived in the kitchen cooking meals and Lalie stayed out in the garage keeping the washing machine in business. Keep in mind these were the days before disposable diapers, not to mention disposable bottles. We always had bottles on the stove being sterilized. I'll never forget the morning of my 25th birthday, after a particularly bad night of being up with the babies almost all night. I had them lying on our bed, changing them, when Lalie appeared in the doorway singing "Happy Birthday". I proceeded to fall on my face between the two babies and started crying my eyes out. Lalie disappeared, only to appear moments later, with Mother and they each took up one baby and ordered me to bed. I haven't any idea what they did to keep them quiet all day, but I fell into a deep sleep and stayed that way until four o'clock in the afternoon. I've always said that was the nicest birthday present I've ever received! Poor Walter had to go to work to get any rest, so both of us looked pretty haggard most of the time. Of course, part of the problem resulted from our determination that the others in the house would be disturbed as little as possible, so we had those babies spoiled, but good, in no time. I never could stand to listen to a baby cry, though, without running to pick it up. It was really great that Candy was such a good baby, and required very little extra attention.
When our house was within just two weeks, or so, of being completed, we discovered that our contractor was using our veteran's priority to obtain materials for a house he was building for himself. Unfortunately, we were also being billed for the materials, as well. So, Walter couldn't put another nail into the project until we had a disinterested party come in to count every board, etc., in order to find out how much we'd been over-billed. Walter was doing most of the construction work, and the only reason we had a contractor was to obtain materials. Jack's, and our houses, sat untouched for at least two months, while we remained in the crowded quarters at the folks' house. Finally, after nine months of waiting for the finished product we were able to move in. What a palace that little house seemed! the babies had their own bedroom, although we soon found out it was best to separate them, especially for naps. Richard was better in the sleeping dept., but David had different ideas & chose to climb out of his crib and get in to mischief. I can't imagine how I could have managed to get through each day, if we hadn't been with my parents during those early months as a mother of twins, but once we were established in our own home I became much more relaxed and the project didn't seem so difficult, although I still had the mistaken idea that any deviation from a strict schedule was disastrous. Also, both Walter and I were very hesitant to leave anyone in charge of the little ones, so we could get away for a breather, which was silly. If we went anywhere the babies went with us, or we stayed home. By this time, Walter had started working in my Father's market, learning the grocery business, and since it was a seven day a week operation, there was very little spare time anyway. For recreation, I joined a bridge club, and often substituted at another, and since the get-to-gethers were held at night, Walter would be on hand to stay with the babies. We'd usually have a couple come over for a bridge game on Sat. night, and that was about the total of social affairs. When the boys were just past two years old, we decided to take our beautiful collie, Rickie, up to Wash. to my Uncle Dan's ranch. David had stumbled over Rickie one day while the dog was sleeping and the startled dog had jumped up and put some deep teeth marks on David's head. It certainly wasn't the dogs fault, but we felt he'd be better off with a large ranch to run around than our small back yard with three little ones, including Candy, making him nervous. Walter took some time off from work and we asked Jeanne and Jack Bare, from across the street, to move in and take care of the boys until we got back from Wash. We though the trip would be a nice change of pace, as we hadn't had any time alone together since we'd been back in Calif., and, I suppose the first day or two was pretty relaxing, but we were soon so lonesome for our little fellas that we could hardly stand it until we got the car turned south once more. We drove all the way home without stopping, arriving at 2 a.m. one morning. Couldn't wait another minute, so got the boys out of bed, thinking they would be overjoyed to see their Mom and Dad after a week's absence, and they acted as if we hadn't been gone at all! Jeanne couldn't tell the boys apart so she'd put a large colored safety pin on one's pants each day before they went out to play in the back yard.