The weather started to break and it was time for Edie and Susan to go back to their home. Mary hated to see them leave and Edie didn't want to leave either. They were good company for one another. With Mary's husband working the night shift and sleeping most of the day. Mary and Edie did the chores together. Edie did most of the cooking. Mary said she was the better cook. The kids agreed. And after all the kids were all in bed, Edie and Mary talked and drank coffee, cup after cup. They talked about old boyfriends and husbands and friends and neighbors and laughed. Everything about their childhood. Mary cried when Edie told her about her father breaking her nose and how mean he was. Mary's dad was like Santa and as big. Mary's husband was no company for her. Even on his night off he would go play darts and have a few beers with the boys at Pat's Beer Garden down the street. It was a man's bar. Very few women came in and they had to sit at a table That was the law in Pennsylvania). The bar had a large jar of food, like a jar of deviled eggs, another with sausage, another with sauerkraut, and one with pickled pigs feet. Oh, and baskets of peanuts in the shells which were thrown on the floor. Pat said he was going to clean them up someday but he never did.
Mary pushed Edie's chair with a bundle of clothes from her lap while Susan carried an armful of a variety of things that Mary had given her. Clothes, toys and books her kids no longer wanted. Susan ws glad to get them. One of her daughter's was her size a year older. The clothes were store bought: Sears & Roebucks!
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