The war was over!!! We were alive, had a nice home, our families were all right, we had a new project, building up our little packing case business - we felt very good about our future...
We had been married two years by August 1945. We were ready to have a baby! By the end of the summer every other young woman in the countrywas pregnant. I was no exception, and our baby was due in May, 1946.
Andy drove his big truck to the forest, but we needed smaller transportation, so we bought a motorbike. It was a Hungarian made "Csepel 100," fast, cute and reliable. I had no fear of riding on the back seat all through my pregnancy. We had a lot of fun going on weekend trips, being able to go to the theatres, movies, concerts (the night before Gabe was born we went to the theatre - we were young, carefree, reckless).
The summer went by, I was so very happy expecting. preparing, shopping for the baby!
Our little factory was growing, we had six men working by the end of the year. The pine forest was almost fully harvested but by then we had better connections. Buying lumber was no problem, the demand for our packing cases grew constantly, and we slowly outgrew the place. We were ready to move to the wholesale fruit and vegetable market. Andy was looking for a new place there but we did not make the move until our baby was born.
My doctor had a small private clinic within walking distance from our home. The baby was not due for another week or two, but I felt something different, so we walked over to see him. The elevator was not working that day, so we had to climb up to the fourth floor (I never forget, how I was counting all those 160 stairs). When he examined me, he said, that we better stay right there, the baby will be here by the morning!
What a glorious day! Our baby boy arrived quickly, with no complications by early morning!
A beautiful baby with long black hair, long fingernails, a big boy - weighing almost 12 pounds - was ready to face the world...
The clinic had six private rooms for patients to stay for a few days. When they took me to my room, it was full of flowers. Andy bought all the available lilacs, tulips, and lilies of the valley and covered every little space with flowers. We were very, very happy... we started a new chapter in our life, where our son wasat the center, the focal point in every decision we made from then on.
I spent a few weeks at my parents' house before I went home. We talked about them moving closer to us; they were ready for a change. For a few months we were looking at available condos in the neighborhood, when a nice, spacious one happened to be on sale in our own house. It was the ideal solution, better than we had ever hoped for. It was easy to sell their house and in the fall of 1946 they moved to the new place. It was still too big for them so my grandmother and my aunt Elizabeth (Bozsi) sold their house and moved in with my parents. It was wonderful to live in the same house, just one flight of stairs separating us from them.
My father missed his beloved garden but created a nice geranium display on the balcony and played with it for the rest of his life.
Gabe (Gabika) was a wonderful baby! Healthy, smiling, alert, quiet and had a great appetite. I breast-fed him as long as I could, more than six months, but then I had to look for good fresh milk, since I could not trust the dairy shop. Just like the rest of the food, you had to be careful for many years after the war. We ate what we could buy at the farmers' market hoping that it will be fresh...
I was not alone with my problem, many mothers of the baby boom looked for reliable milk. With three other neighborhood friends with babies, we bought a goat. Remember the big apartment house around the corner getting a direct hit and collapsing, killing almost 300 people? It was an empty lot now, with tall grass growing from the neglect.
We made a deal with the owner to bring the goat there, who would mow the grass by eating it - a fair exchange for both parties. Andy built a little shelter for the goat, put some hay there, and she was seemingly happy in her new home. We named her "The Bearded Lady".
One of the women, who had grown up on a farm, knew how to milk her. That little animal fed four babies for almost two years. When they started to rebuild the apartment house, we gave her to a farmer as a present.
We needed a bigger place for our packing-case factory and found a good building within the freight train terminal, right next to the wholesale fruit and vegetable market. Our lease was up by the end of the year. We did not renew it and instead moved the machines to the new factory. The building needed some work - painting, electrical, larger entrance , etc. - but by spring it was ready for the new season. We invested in a few new machines, big circular saws and such, and hired more men, keeping the original six as foremen. Within a year we were in full swing with 20 workers, loaded with orders from the wholesale market.
We had the lumber delivered and the customers picked up the packing cases, so we had no need for a truck. There was plenty of storage place, two or three acres of land around the building to store the lumber and the finished products.
Meanwhile Andy decided that he wanted to get an engineering degree. He started evening classes at the University of Engineering. Both of us had so much energy, we wanted to make up for all those miserable lost years. It took him five years to get his degree in Electronic Engineering but he never gave up and was determined to finish, graduate and have an engineering diploma in his hand. It became a very important asset during his working years.
We had a truly good year in 1947. We were full of hope and big plans. Our baby was our pride and joy, a wonderful little person, smart, good, happy and beautiful.
The new factory was doing a good business, Andy started the engineering classes - and we had a new motorcycle. We gave up the little "Csepel 100" for a "BMW 250," a much bigger, more powerful bike. Andy also bought a huge English motorcycle, a "Matchless 500," which needed a complete overhau. He worked on it for at least a year in a little dust free room at the factory.
By the fall we started to notice some strange happenings in politics. The Communist Party took over as the leading party. Nobody had any idea that we will become part of the Soviet Block. It took place slowly and gradually. The newspapers started to change the tone, the radio became a tool for the communist propaganda and we had a feeling that our lives will change soon - the calm before the storm lasted only a short time...We are facing trouble again!
Copyright 2008 - Gabe Dalmath Foundation
