The Girls Come Along

I guess Joyce and I got pretty good at the Honey Moon thing, cause the girls started showing up 2 years into our marriage.

Not a lot happened of note during the next year or so, and then came Danielle. Dani was born on tax day 1972. 4/15/72. 

We lived in Queens at the time. We had just gotten a two bedroom apartment. We moved into Queens to be closer to my work. I could take the bus or train to work and we only needed one car.

 It was in Queens that I first played Santa for money. There was a department store in the area named Mays. Most of the neighborhood we lived in was Jewish, but there were enough gentiles in the area that Mays wanted to have a Santa Claus roaming the store during Christmas. I was on strike at the time from NY Telco, and had been working as a security guard at Mays. When they decided to have a Santa at the store, they asked me if i wanted to play it for them. I did, because it paid a little more, and I had more freedom to move around the store.

Since there was a high concentration of Jews in the area, the Jewish kids thought it was great fun to tease me about playing Santa. A couple of times I pulled out my license and proved I was the real Santa.

The Santa suit was the cheapest Mays could find, It reminded me of a set of flannel pajamas, and they gave me black rubber Totes overshoes to wear around the store. At night I would get home and my feet smelled so bad from sweating in the rubber boots all day, that I almost gagged myself with the smell. I know Joyce really loved it.

Heather came along in 1975. 7/9/75. We lived in Hicksville when she, Kim, and Kelly were born. Kim was born April 6 1978, and Kelly was born on 8/28/79. 

There was no planning involved in our having 4 girls. We found out we were very fertile. After Dani and Heather, Joyce and I tried several kinds of birth control. Obviously, NONE of them worked.

When we moved down to Texas I fixed that for good. I had a vasectomy. It was a governmental program, and you had to be of a certain age, and have 3 or 4 kids to participate. I fit the criteria and the problem was solved. 

It was pretty stressful on Joyce, because she was home all day with the girls. I got to go out and have fun at work. It was a little stressful for me, because the girls grew faster than my paychecks did. I ended up working extra jobs to help keep the family afloat.

I worked at a couple of gas stations in the area, and at 2 bowling alleys as a counter person. I know Joyce did not like any of these side jobs, because it left her alone with the kids more, and I was gone more. Both negatives in her opinion.

Photos?