Back to the mundane

   When we settled into our little flat (apartment) we went about really starting our married life. Our furniture was given to us by our parents. It was old, but we were very grateful for it. My parents had given us an old double-bed which sagged in the middle, but we learned how to lie so that were not rolling into each other all the time. The living room was mainly furnished by Mel's folks. We were very comfortable! The flat had no stove so Ma bought us a Baby Belling stove which consisted of one small oven and one large hot plate which covered the whole top of the stove. "Baby" was very good description as we were able to stand it on a small table. It is amazing how I learned to cook meals big enough and tasty enough to feed us and any guests we had! Usually a small roast with potatoes and carrots cooking with it -- yum! Mom had taught me how to make a roast with cheap, tough meat into a tender, delicious roast, a method I still use to this day. The flat was on the first floor (second in America-- we called the first floor the ground floor), so we had to climb up one flight to enter. It was situated
very close to a railway line and we got so used to it that we just automatically raised our voices when a train was passing. This amazed our guests when they first visited with us, but they got used to it after they had been a few times.  
    Our flat was within easy walking distance from my job with Income Tax Department. It was also fairly near to Mel's photographic quarters on the railway station.  Up until my marriage I had been Assistant Supervisor in the girls' sorting office, but the rules of the department were such that no married woman could hold the position because, you know, they may suddenly become pregnant, so I was replaced by a girl who had been with the department for several years longer than I was. This didn't bother me at all. They didn't cut my salary, so why worry. Our job was to keep the dossiers of the taxpayers in the files. Each day we had to go on a "Cook's Tour" of the assessors' offices and collect all our missing dossiers. The "Cook's Tour" was named after the man who discovered New Zealand, another British Colony and founded a travel company.
    I soon earned the reputation that I did not appreciate dirty talk or swearing, and one day I entered the office of a VERY frustrated assessor who was swearing profusely in his agitation. When I walked in he stopped immediately and offered his sincere apologies -- I really appreciated that. One of the habits in most businesses was that at about mid-morning we were allowed a ten minute tea-break, when tea was brought to us and we would congregate as a  group and socialize. I joined that group and after while, even though I did not participate, the talk became dirtier and dirtier. One day I thought, "Lois,  you have no right to be listening to this trash!" We had a married woman who always took her tea alone, so I asked if I could join her. She agreed, but that was not the problem -- the next day two of the younger girls came and asked if they could also join us. Of course I was delighted. Another of the girls came and stood in front of me and said, "We don't care if you don't like us,"  to which I replied,  "I like you all, but I just don't belong in that group." Well, I thought that was the end of it, but my  Supervisor called me into her office and said, "Miss Claassen, I have been wondering how long you would sit and listen to that nonsense." (Of course, I was only engaged at this time. But it made me aware that people are watching Christians all the time -- so we really need to take care. Incidentally, the girl who confronted me was later converted by one of our church members and she and her new husband both became Christians. When she saw me at church she came and gave me a big hug!! By that time we already had two kids.