Disneyland and Babysitters

Over the years the girls visited Disneyland twice, or it may have been that the first time it was only Muriel and Palma. The first time I was certainly along as I remember, late in the day, that we considered some sort of “ride” for the two of them, perhaps involving donkeys. One of them didn’t want to try it, the other did, but right now I can’t remember which.

It was at a motel nearby to Disneyland that Laurel’s little furry animal “Foxy” was left behind — it had probably been pushed under a bed and escaped our notice. We never went back for it.

Another time our trip to the LA area was coordinated with my going to some technical meeting in downtown LA (probably an AIChE meeting); during one day Jean and the girls went to Disneyland — I think the Ritchies joined them there.

One time Jean and I left the three girls with Mrs. Pyle as babysitter and we went to LA where I was at an AIChE meeting. Late the first or second day Mrs. Pyle called that one of the girls was sick, so we left hurriedly and drove all night to get home. It was I seem to remember a rainy night and it was not a very restful trip back. The illness, whatever it was, wasn’t serious as it turned out.

Mrs. Pyle was one of several babysitters we used over the years — she was perhaps the favorite one of our daughters. She was an elderly lady (actually one of her sons lived across the street from us with his family — down the block two or three houses) who needed the extra income. When we first knew her I think her husband was still living — most of her babysitting for us was after he died.

As I mentioned, [the girls] liked “Pyle” as they called her. On one occasion she was going to make something in the kitchen, with the girls assisting — Jean had salt in the canister marked sugar and Mrs. Pyle had to try to remove all the salt she’d added, which I guess was still in a position to be retrieved. I think the project was ice cream.

She really played with the girls which is probably the reason they liked her. For example she let them play with or comb her hair and I seem to recall there was also a game where she let them “shave” her face

Another babysitter was Mrs. Crescenti — “Senti” to the girls. It was less convenient to use her since she didn’t have a car (Mrs. Pyle had an old Chevrolet I think). Mrs. Crescenti was a rather short plump lady, rather different from Mrs. Pyle who was taller and quite thin. To control her weight Mrs. Crescenti usually had only one meal a day.

On occasion we also used one of the two Pezzaglia girls for babysitting, and we also used a teenager from a couple of doors away (the Nordine girl) quite often. Though relatively young she was quite capable and reliable and was conveniently close.