TITLE: Adventur Ron Hucklebery,..#27-1 Ron's Mom gets jealous By gene hudgens 11/20/08 |
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Until age five Ron lived in Nashville with his parents. In 1940 Dad was transferred to Huntsville, Alabama to open a branch office of a loan company. Some time later Dad and Mom opened a lingerie shop in Huntsville. Sometime around 1942 Dad was physically classified 4-F, which meant he was not qualified to be in the military service. In stead of active military service he served America’s military effort by being the Personal Director at Red Stone Arsenal in Huntsville. He worked half-days at Redstone until the end of the war.
Mom and Dad always had a great marriage and Ron and little Sis never even witnessed a fuss. If there ever was a fuss Dad and Mom were both very careful to insure that Ron and younger sister, Sandra, never knew about it.
This is why Ron remembers so well the one time he and Sandra did witness a major fuss between their parents.
The family lived on Ward Avenue in a large old house in a beautiful neighbor. Dad had built two bedrooms in the attic and that is where Ron and Sandra and the house maid had bedrooms. Ron was about nine or ten and Sandra was about four or five.
The family had one automobile and Mom normally did the driving. When Dad was not at Redstone, he and Mom worked in down-town Huntsville. Dad’s normal working hours at Redstone were 1 p.m. until 6:30 p.m.
Normally Mom and Dad grabbed a quick lunch together and then she would drive him to Redstone. She would then pick him up at 6:30 p.m. It was only about a ten minute drive and Ron and little Sis normally accompanied her in the evenings.
The Redstone personnel section was quite large. Except for Ron’s dad, all employees were female. The senior secretary was also assistant personnel director. Since Dad did not work in the morning, his assistant had a tremendous responsibility. She was an older woman, and qualified. Unfortunately she became ill and resigned.
Dad chooses another lady because she too was extremely well qualified. She was twenty-seven, tall,and very pretty. Unknown to Dad this lady wanted his job…and perhaps him too. Dad was tall, thirty-four.and good-looking.
The older assistant left each day at about 5 p.m. because she had worked since 8 a.m. The new assistant made a point of never leaving the office before Dad left. She definitely had a plan working in her brilliant brain.
When ever Dad received a phone call it was the new assistant that took the call, even though there was a clerk hired to do that. When Mom would phone the assistant would always make overly friendly remarks just to try to make Mom feel uncertain about the office atmosphere etc.
The Redstone Personnel Office was tasked to do the hiring and firing at both Redstone and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Because of the situation at Oak Ridge, the work load constantly increased. It became necessary to often stay later at night just to keep up with the increasing workload.
The shrewd assistant insured that Dad's office staff was not increased, thus allowing her to increase her importance in the section and have excuses to stay later and more often with Dad in the evenings.
It was long after the war that Mom and other learned the reason for the great secrecy and increased workload at Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge was developing the Atom Bomb.Intelligence agencies had decided that employees at Oak Ridge would not work at the same job for more than a few days. They would then be moved to another field and area. The constant moving of personnel on Oak Ridge and off Oak Ridge continually increased, thus the Redstone Personnel Office was buried more and more under paper work.
Since Dad did not work in the mornings, he relied more and more on his assistant. This played well into her big plan as she insured she was the only one to take Mom’s calls. She would often hint that Dad was too busy to talk to her or phone back later. The truth was she was not even telling Dad that Mom had phoned or that he was supposed to return the call. Naturally Mom was concerned and got jealous.
Finally the assistant got so brave that she hired a clerk to stay until everyone left. This clerk would then answer the phone and pass on to Mom the messages that the assistant wanted passed on to Mom. Often the message was that Dad and his secretary are tied up behind closed and locked doors on secret work and can not be disturbed.
This went on for some time until Mom complained to Dad. Dad stated that he had never told the clerk or anyone not to disturb him. When Dad confronted his assistant she smoothed it over be saying it must have been a mistake…the new clerk was just too zealous.
One particular evening Dad and his assistant were to be in a meeting with Dr. Von B. and his staff from 7 p.m. until about 8:30 p.m. The assistant did not tell the clerk that she and Dad were going to a meeting. Instead she told the clerk that she and Dad had a social engagement and would not be back to the office after they left at 7 p.m. The also instructed the clerk to stay and answer the phone and take messages until 8 p.m. then close the office and go home.
So when Mom phones a second time round 7:30 to check on Dad, the clerk told Mom that Dad and his assistant had left before 7 p.m. for a social engagement.
When Dad and the assistant lady completed the meeting with Dr. Von B., it was late and she suggested that she drive Dad home to save time…that she too was running late and did not want to go back to the office. Dumbly Dad agreed.
When Dad arrived home, chauffeured by the ‘blonde b…(as Mom referred to her}, Mom was waiting outside.
Mom immediately confronted them just as Dad was getting out of the car. The ‘blonde b…’ yelled quickly that she was late and drove off.
All heck broke loose right then and there in front of the house. Ron and Sis looked out of the upstairs window to see what the noise was. At first Dad did not know what was wrong. He finally got Mom into the house. She was screaming that she was mad, jealous, and sick of being treated awful by his blonde whore girl friend.
Not knowing anything that his assistant had done or said in the days or weeks past, he at first tried to take the side of the assistant and tried to tell Mom there was no reason for her to fall apart and act like a child.
Ron and Sis had opened their bedroom door and were trying to listen and understand what the fuss was all about. This was the first fuss they had ever witnessed and they were terrified.
Mom was soon screaming and crying…and throwing everything she could get her hand on.
Ron and Sis were now very quietly scooting down the stairs to where they could hear and see everything.
Dad tried to hold Mom’s hand and she kicked. He let go of her hands and she began hitting him on the head and trying to scratch his face. She was totally wild.
Finally Dad got Mom on the floor and lay on top of her…holding her hands behind her and holding her legs between his legs. Mom was still crying and screaming and jerking her head side to side and trying to bite Dad.
Suddenly Sis (Sandra) stood up and began screaming and crying. Dad yelled for them both to go quickly to their room and close the door.
Mom was screaming, Dad was screaming, and Sandra was screaming.
Dad again ordered them to get in the bed room or he would use his belt on them both. Ron was finally able to pull Sis up the stairs, but they did not go in to the bed room. Instead they both sat at the top of the stairs so they could at least still hear.
Finally, out of pure exhaustion, Mon went quiet enough for Dad to keep asking her over and over what was wrong with her. Finally Mom explained everything that had happened in the last two or three weeks.
Dad kept saying that he was not aware of any of the things she was saying.
Mom must have yelled fifty times that she was going out and kill the blonde whore.
When Dad finally got a chance to explain the events of the last three hours both he and Mom realized that the assistant was the little devil behind all of this trouble. Dad assured Mom that he would fire the assistant the next day. All was somewhat quiet for a while and finally Mom stated, “OK, if you promise to fire her, I will promise not to kill her”.
For an awful long time Mom and Dad lay there on the floor, near the bottom of the stairs, next to the front door, in the living room. Both were wet with sweat. Dad still had his tie on, but there were no buttons on his shirt. Dad was still lying on top of Mom, but now they were kissing.
In a few moments they both started up the stairs. Ron and Sis tried to get back to their room with out being seen, but didn’t make it. Mom and Dad took them both into their arms and said over and over how sorry they were that they had acted so childish and that it would never happen again.
Ron and Sis were soon tucked into their beds and Mom and Dad went back down stairs. As expected, in a few minutes Sis was crawling into Ron’s bed, as she did every time she was scared or upset.
The next evening Mom, Ron, and Sis picked Dad up a 5:30 p.m. and went to do some shopping. Dad and Mom did not say a single word about the evening before.
When they got home and were sitting at the table eating. Mon said, “I’ve waited long enough. What did you do with Blondie”?
“I fired her this morning, just like I promised you I would do”. Dad said.
Ron remembered feeling so ashamed of his dad for hurting that woman. It was a long time before he understood what ‘firing’ meant. He thought Dad had really set her on fire or something”.
© GENE HUDGENS
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