Kathy Schmitt: parenthood
Do you remember what your kids’ first words were?
I’m going to say the only one I remember precisely is Carolyn, because I believe it was “dada”. I am embarrassed to say I do not remember what the other kids’ first words were.
At the most recent, it was almost 40 years ago.
Mary Ellen always went “uppy, uppy!” because she wanted me to pick her up. I don’t know that that was her first word, but she was famous for that.
Ken was my quietest baby. I don’t remember what his first word was because you could take him anywhere, just change his diaper, put him in the car seat and off he went.
We did a lot of that when we had kids; we’re only working part-time or not working at all for a little bit. We went around each other’s houses, all my friends from nursing school and Marie. We went around for lunch and we’d bring the kids and we put them all together, and then we’d have lunch and socialize. It was only for a couple of hours, but that was my social life then.
What was your favorite food to make for your family?
Wow, that’s interesting. They actually talk about some of the food now. A big one, the Carolyn said to every time I went out, I left her chicken pot pie. I might’ve made a lot of spaghetti and meatballs. I don’t even remember. And I remember making beef stew. I don’t remember what their favorite was.
Jim still talks about the beef rollups.
Oh, I was just going to mention that; it just blew through my head. The beef rollups were like a thing my mother made, I don’t know where she got the recipe, but it was a simple one. She got good beef and then she made some stuffing and she would roll it up, toothpick it, and then she would fry it a little bit. And then she would dump a can of Campbell’s golden mushroom soup over it. She didn’t make mashed potatoes, and you know what? Carolyn loved them too. She was just talking about the other day. Does James like it? Is that what his favorite is?
He keeps talking about he he’s going to try to make it, so he might be hitting you up for the recipe.
Okay. I also have one I might be able to send home with you. I made some for the freezer because when you buy that meat, sometime you buy it in a pack of five. Sometimes I get cravings because with Carolyn being vegetarian, we eat a lot of fish and a lot of vegetarian. And we do eat meat because the girls eat meat, but not like we used to. I don’t make beef roll-ups because I don’t think they’d eat them, but sure.
So you’d be the only audience for that.
I made them and froze them and ate the one I wanted when I was just hungry for it. So once in a while, I’d do that. One of my favorite things to make, and it was very soothing, was chicken a la king. I love to make that from scratch. And, I would make a little batch of that maybe 6 months ago and put some in the freezer for lunch per, but, yes, the beef rollups were running through my head when I was talking.
What was it like going to visit Carolyn and Tim when they owned the record store in New York?
Oh, it was fun. A lot of times James would come with me. He was the one left at home and so he would come. We took a lot of trips, James and I, little trips like New York was one, and one time I took Ken to a college in New Hampshire, we dropped James off at Carolyn’s.
One of the fun things is, they had this apartment was up 3 stories, whatever it was, it felt like a lot of steps with no elevator. They lived on Orchard Street, which is really a bustling little market and actually a fun place. I don’t know about now. They’ve spruced everything up there, but it was kind of primitive at the time we went.
Every time we went, we would do something in New York. We went up to the twin towers. I was so glad that they got to do that before the tragedy. We would go out the Statue of Liberty, up to Central Park, with the merry-go-round. It was fun going to New York. Cause we always could think of something to do plenty to do up there.
What’s your favorite memory of staying out in Los Angeles when Darby was a baby?
I rushed out there. She was premature. So I had my airplane reservation to coincide with coming in a week before she was due. I was allowed 2 weeks off and I thought, that’ll do it. Well, she came early. I had gone down on a Friday to my sister-in-law Sheila’s in Richmond and the 2 of us were driving down to see my brother, John in North Carolina, in Charlotte, because he had had Navy placements and he had been home recovering for a couple months. And I said, we should really go before he’s up on his feet and he’s getting there.
So we called and we went down, the 2 of us. And while I’m down there Friday night and John’s wife made a really nice dinner, and I get a phone call from Carolyn. The doctor’s office sent her into the home on bed rest. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. It’s just, my feet are swelling. My blood pressure’s up.” I said, “okay, we’re here. We’re staying here tonight.” First thing in the morning, the next morning. we went out to see, I have a niece there, their oldest daughter, we went out to visit her at her house. And while I’m there, I get a phone call: “they put me in the hospital”. So I got in a panic and I said to my brother, “I have to go home”.
So I was able to make plane arrangements, and I got out there. Don’t think I could get anything from Monday. I got one for Tuesday by changing my original ones. I went out there and I got a little shuttle to the hospital, which for me, that was something. I went in to visit Carolyn, and she looked good.
Then they brought the baby up. And she was this tiny little thing. I was very thrilled.
Carolyn and Tim were living in an apartment at the time. I stayed with them. Carolyn stayed home those couple of weeks. And I was right in the heart of Hollywood where they had a little mall across the street in their malls are different than ours. They’re like double deckers up to the 5th floor. They had all kinds of shops, pastry shops, cupcake shops, Kmart. And I just went out on a rampage buying premature clothes, because we didn’t know that baby would be early. I bought some nightlights; you need a nightlight if you go up to the bathroom. I was just thrilled to be there and to watch the 2 of them.
And actually the 3 of them, when Tim was home interacting, she was so tiny–she was like a little ball in the car seat and we took her. They let her go from the hospital. She had to come back like once or twice that first 2 weeks.
Then I went home. I came back when Carolyn was getting ready to go to work. James drove cross country with me and Ken, and then I had bought them plane tickets to go home. Darby was born in September, and we went in January. We took that road trip and I am so pleased, to this day, that we did. They took off work and came with me for the week. It took about 5 days. I tried to make it interesting and stop in Oklahoma City at that famous steak place, Cattleman’s.
Jim said that’s the best steak he ever had.
Yep. Yep. We did stop in St. Louis, but it was too foggy to go up in the arch. I think always in St. Louis five times before I got to the arch. But anyway, we drove and we went through Las Vegas. Our last night, we went up Hoover Dam and crossed over why they were still building the bridge. Oh, we went to Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon with snow; I’d never seen that. I was scared they would slip on the garden because Gardendale only comes to your knee. And it was very snowy, and they were going for a hike. And I said, I can’t do it with you. I’m too nervous. So I hung out. They had a nice lodge there where they had like, you know, food and everything. We stayed, it was pretty rustic, but it was a nice rustic. We really enjoyed that.
Then we went up over the Hoover Dam and into Las Vegas and I said, you guys go out, I want you to just walk around the strip. It’s like taking a walk into New York. He’ll always be fascinated. You know? They weren’t crazy about Las Vegas, but I said, it’s, there’s something about it that with the neon. Then we got to Carolyn’s the next day, and the boys stayed for a couple of days.
The boys stayed until Tuesday then. They were just smitten with Darby. I think more than I was because I had seen her at first, they never left her alone for a minute. Even Carolyn said, these boys were just doting on her. It was so cute to see; they would put her between them and play and you know, by then she was about 3 months old. She was fun. Anyway, we had a great trip. They flew back and I stayed for the next couple of months.
And then James flew out and drove back with me. We were going to a wedding in Chicago for his cousin, but we stopped in Utah at Arches and Zion parks. We’re just going to take our time because it was Easter time, I think. So it was more of a tour. We had a great trip that we tried to get us to Omaha because who knew when we were going to be back there. And the only thing I could find was this one restaurant and it was the old stockyards that were open anymore. I said, let’s stop there. So we went there and it’s like 3:00. And they looked probably not even open, but we went in and there were other people kind of mingling around, waiting for a table. But when we realized it in the lobby were pictures of Jack Nicholson from that movie About Schmidt, where he had his retirement dinner and the restaurant is the exact same: famous.
Then we went to Chicago and the rest, and we came home. It was the trip of a lifetime. Oh, it was fun. Yeah. I’m glad that we got to do that.