By the time we got to Aunt Eloise's house on Tuesday night Mom not feeling good at all. Monday, as we packed for our super cool trip, mom thought she was tired from all the work it took to get a family of eight ready for a two week vacation. Tuesday as we drove from San Diego to Los Angeles, stopping at a beach to swim and picnic, she assumed it was trying to keep the sand out of our lunch and Julie and Sharon, who were only four and three years old, from drowning in the ocean that was giving her a headache. But by the time we drove into Aunt Eloise's drive way and happily invaded her house mom knew that something else was going on in her body. She was sick!
Aunt Eloise could tell mom wasn't feeling good, as well. Aunt Eloise was mom's big sister, ten years older than her. Mom always told us about Aunt Eloise fixing her hair as she combed ours. When we cried because of a snarl mom would tell us that Aunt Eloise used to say, "It hurts to be beautiful!"
Aunt Eloise moved to Los Angeles to become a beutician when she grew up. Eventually she married Uncle Eddie and established her own beauty salon in Beverly Hills. We thought she was famous! As a matter of fact, she did tell us about some of her famous clients, like Linda Carter (who was Wonder Woman), and we were so proud of her!
We didn't often get over to California to visit Aunt Eloise, but when we did it was exciting! I vaguely remember the first time we visited. Mom took Keith and I on the bus while dad spent a week in the Army reserves. Keith was three and I was two. We were pretty good on the bus ride over, but Keith was getting kind of antsy towards the end of the trip. A nice older fellow asked mom if he could give Keith a piece of gum to help settle him down, and she agreed. It worked. Keith loved the gum and soon fell asleep on the seat next to mom, but when she woke him up to get off the bus in L.A. she discovered the gum had fallen out of his mouth and was stuck in his hair. What a mess! Aunt Eloise had to cut his hair to get it all out.
The other thing I remembered from that trip was the sweet little purse and M & M's Aunt Eloise gave me as a present. She was the spoiling kind of aunt. I also remember one night when Aunt Eloise ordered Chinese food for dinner. They delivered it to her house in white paper boxes, and it was so amazing to me! There were even long pieces of wood for the grown ups to use to eat, and fortune cookies in the sack with the dinner!
On this trip, however, we didn't order Chinese food. We did play in Aunt Eloise's back yard, though, which sloped down a grassy hill to a small creek that ran along the back of her property. It was such a pretty place. Aunt Eloise spent the evening trying to help mom get feeling better. Mom's head ached, her throat was sore, and she was burning up with a fever. Aunt Eloise called her own doctor to come look at mom's throat, and sure enough, she had strep. He gave her some antibiotics and told her they should start working in 24 hours. Mom went to bed early instead of staying up to visit with her sister. So did the rest of us. This was only the second day of our vacation, but we were already exhausted from swimming at the beach, and we were super excited for tomorrow, because we were going to go to Disneyland!
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