Far from Home: Memories of World War II and Afterward

5. A Place of My Own

5 A Place of My Own 48 . . . let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new . . . Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach” BY NOW, Eunice and R. C. were living in their new apartment. I had gone with them to see it before they moved in, and I fell in love with the place. It was quiet and old-timey. The house had been built way back, probably in the 1800s. It was large and had back stairs as well as front stairs and funny little nooks and crannies . I wanted to move in with them, but their place only had one bedroom. Their landlord was Reverend Chapman. He and his wife had no children, so they’d had the second floor remodeled into two apartments. Another couple had the other one. We started looking for a place for me. A lady down the street rented all of her second floor to working girls, but she was filled up. However, she referred me to her sister-in-law, Mrs. Jeanette Mosely, just across the street from Eunice. When Eunice and I went to see it, she was pleasant and said she’d let me know the next day. When we went back, she was smiling and said yes, I could rent the room. In fact, she’d already decided when she was talking with me the day before. She said she was just going through the motions. No one lived there besides herself, her husband, and her two adult children, a son and daughter. She took me upstairs to see the room. It was large and airy with a double bed, a dresser, a desk, a chair, and a comfortablelooking hassock. One window looked out on a large oak tree in one corner of the yard. The other showed a good view of the D.C. skyline, including the dome on the Capitol. Her daughter’s room was right beside it, and her son’s room was across the stair landing . Both were on the front. I absolutely loved it. Downstairs was a kitchen, a living room, a dining room, and her and Mr. Mosely’s rooms, along with a sun porch, a side porch, and back and front porches. The rent for that big, clean, comfortable room, which is hard to believe now, was only four dollars a week. One dollar extra would cover freshly laundered bedclothes every Friday and kitchen privileges. I could also use her washing machine in the basement and iron my personal things. The living room and dining room could be used for any guests I had. Everything was spotless but gave you an “at home” feeling. She said that men were not allowed in the bedroom. “Don’t worry,” I said, “we couldn’t have done that at home either, even if we’d wanted to. Besides,” I added, “I don’t even have a boyfriend—at least nowhere near here.” She said she could tell Eunice and I were well-raised girls as soon as she talked with us. Mama would just love to hear that. And so I moved to Scott Street in South Arlington, Virginia. It was sad leaving Cousin Mary and her family, but she understood that I wanted to be near Eunice and to be able to walk to and from A Place of My Own 49 50 FAR FROM HOME work. The Annex was only a couple of blocks away down Columbia Pike, and also, I’d come to visit on Sundays or just about any other day. We’d still be close and I’d still love them. The other two girls who’d stayed there had also moved out. One married a serviceman , and the other had cousins on U Street and moved near them. Now Cousin Mary’s oldest daughter, who’d been in New Jersey, had moved back to D.C. and worked in the Treasury Building. It worked out fine for all of us, because now Georgia would have her bedroom back and I would be close to work and in an area with lots of grass and trees. A city girl, I was not. Some Sunday evenings at Cousin Mary’s, when there was nothing to do and the family would be about their own business, Eunice and I would sit out front on...