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AI: Well, as far as permanence, you were saying that in Chicago, you moved so many different times, and also there were some other family changes, because I had read in your memoir about how you were in Chicago, Jim had also returned to Chicago and had been there for a while, and then at some point, Pat decided to leave California, and she was, I understand, talked to you about coming out to Chicago.

PB: Well, actually, she didn't tell me. [Laughs] I was working out at Seventy-Ninth Street at the Dubois Studio when she called me, but before that, they had decided to buy a home in California, so she wanted me to loan her some money. Well, in those days, it was very hard-earned money, and for me to loan her a thousand dollars, it was really something, because it had taken me a long time to save that. And I was saving it so that I could come back to Washington, but she said that they had found a nice little home and they wanted to buy it. So I said, "Well, you give me a note and I will loan it to you." But they couldn't sell that home until they repaid me for the loan, which I never, never did get because right out of the clear blue sky, she called me one day when I was working, and I said, "Where are you?" And she says, "I'm at the airport in Chicago." I was just absolutely shocked. I was so surprised, and I said, "What are you doing in Chicago?" And she said, "Well, I left my husband, and I'm at the airport." What could I do? I told her to go to my apartment and I'd be home. She had left her husband and taken her two children, three children, they were all babies, actually. Janine was still clinging to her mother and crying all the time. 'Course, she didn't know me, she didn't want to stay with me, and Pat was chain-smoking and she was very thin, and just nervous all the time, chain-smoking. So I had to put up with her and three children and I didn't know what to do, but I had to help her. And she said, well, she had made a mistake in her marriage, and she would listen to me, and she had learned her lesson, all that, but it was just for her talk. Didn't pan out that way at all. She was right back to her old habits as soon as she was halfway settled, she was just doing her way and didn't matter what I said. She didn't tell me anything, she just went on her own and left the children with me, and I didn't know what to do. I had to take care of the children and she'd be gone. It was a terrible time for me.

AI: Oh, my goodness. It must have been a real adjustment to have these three little babies after you had been living without kids for quite a while.

PB: Yes, and my son was living with me, but then he moved out so that they can stay with me. Well, here, she was sleeping in this bed in the living room with the three little kids. And they had to take a bath every day, the children had to be bathed every day, and this is a community bath, bathroom. So that was impossible, so we heard there was an opening next door in another apartment building on the first floor, and at least we had two bedrooms there and a bathroom to ourselves. So right away, we moved over there, but she would leave the children with me, and 'course, she was looking for a job, too, and she finally found a job, but then she started going with a fellow that worked in the same place. And she wouldn't come home; she would just leave the children with me, and she'd be out with this fellow. I said, "What was your promise, that you would listen to me?" Well, she forgot all about her promise, and eventually she eloped with this fellow. And in the meantime, I had all kinds of problems with her, because she had me so worried that one night they were gone and they didn't come back. They had gone for a ride, and I thought they got in a car accident. I was ready to call the police and everything else. And here she had, sleeping next door, but she didn't call me or let me know.

AI: Oh, what a lot of worry. My goodness.

PB: She was terrible that way, she just wanted to have her own way, she's very stubborn. She didn't tell me anything, promised, "Oh, yes, I'll, I'll do this and I'll do that," but nothing worked out.

<End Segment 62> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.