Sisters

Did you ever go on a double date?

David: Then, you know. Switch. Yeah. Uh, I don't, I don't think we ever did go. And, and we used to go to Cleveland to see some relatives. And there were, we, we would get to, it was along Cleveland and they had all these, The house was along a big beach area where we played and there was this boy, a neighbor boy, of our relatives, cutest thing, Billy Quail, and we both thought he was just darling.

Margo: But we never had any competition or jealousy between us, and I can remember he liked my twin, so that was [00:23:00] it. I mean, I didn't, you know, I didn't pursue anything like that with him, but, well yeah. I really had to retract it to Mrs. Quail. It's the same type of man. I wonder if you were trapped because you're genetically the same.

Our husband's entirely different. We're different, yeah. Entirely, that's what's amazing. So it must have been hard for you when she got married and went to Texas. Terribly hard. Crying. And when she met Rick, cause he was in the army in Michigan? He was stationed at Michigan in the Navy. In the Navy. Out in repair ships in Dry Dock.

Okay. And, yeah, it was very difficult, very difficult for both of us to be on our own. Did she get married first? Mm hmm. About a year before I did. And, uh, but anyway, it was, you know, as I reflect on it to this day, it's just been a wonderful feeling to have someone that totally understands you, that we, I don't know, we're just so much [00:24:00] alike.

And it's nice, been a nice thing in my life, so I feel. I've had, been very lucky to have had a twin. And you still talk every couple days, don't you? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I know. So, doing a lot of reminiscing. Okay. No way. Am I talking too much? No, no, no. I'm curious about, I wanted to ask about Allison, too. I mean, she, Uncle Rob, Rob Cutler was stationed in Michigan.

He was in Michigan. See, there were a lot of He was a serviceman, Navy and Army at Michigan during the war, learning specialized areas to serve and getting, and be second lieutenants. And he was learning Japanese for when we invaded, he was in something called civil something. And when we were going through the islands and, you know, fighting with Japan, he was in that area.

Why, as we take an island and these civil Something where they would move in and get [00:25:00] everything up and running and organized for living and occupying the island. Did he actually go overseas? Yes. In fact, he went to Japan after the bombing. And I think, we think, he died of cancer. And all three of my older sister's children have had cancer.

One of them died. And I think maybe the radiation had something to do with that. Did she meet Rob before he went? Overseas. Did she what? Meet Rob Allison. Meet Rob before he went overseas? Yes. And, but they weren't together very long. It was a pretty quick, pretty quick decision. Oh, he, he was terrific. Boy. I really cried when he died.

Dick enjoyed him. So we've had wonderful memories and they, uh, they were in Virginia. He was from Virginia and Allison lived there and we'd take like to go to Pinehurst, his family would have a place there and play golf and Rob loved to play golf and they, we just had some wonderful time. The Cutlers went [00:26:00] to Pinehurst too?

Uh, well, Allison and Rob would come over to Pinehurst and, and, Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, sometime to join us there. Huh, okay. Wasn't he sort of a flamboyant speaker and involved in politics? Yeah, he was, in fact, he was mayor of Newport News for a while, and he wrote during the war. He was like an Ernie Pyle, which was a correspondent that wrote weekly reports on what's happening.

And he wrote, uh, he wrote back to the newspaper and, and, uh, about what was going on. And, you know, but he, he just had a wonderful, delightful personality. And, uh, we were all just, Tink and I were just attracted to him. He was so I don't know, it was just fun. And, uh, Mother would come in and say, Leave him alone.

He'd kiss me. Oh, that's alright, darling. Love y'all. He just was so good natured. Was Allison very serious? [00:27:00] Yes. Allison was the perfectionist and the intelligent, the intellectual one. She had, she had her routine and we couldn't disturb her. She studied between this time and that time and we couldn't come into her room until the alarm went off.

Okay. How much older was she? Three years. Okay. Did she boss you around or anything? No, no. She was like a mother to us. Oh, okay. She made some clothes for us. No, I don't know. The three of us just were so close. Did Rob also manage, I thought I heard he managed the shipyard. Yes. He was, uh, would you call it work?

He handled the relations, social relations between the different, People and companies and dignitaries. When dignitaries would come to town, he would, uh, entertain [00:28:00] them and, and, and, He was very involved in, in all the, in all that. That's a huge shipyard. Yes, right. I know it. Oh, but I gotta tell this story. So, his mother was in the Red Cross and involved with the soldiers coming in.

A lot would come in, uh, and she got us down to the docks. And the ship was coming in. The war was over and a ship was coming in, bringing them home. Wow. And, uh, they, uh, we were there and they, we get, were standing where we could see them all on the standing along the rail of the ships sitting. And they were playing sentiment journey home as they got off the ship.

And they were, they leaned over the railing. Up and down and said, have you got some milk? That's what they seemed to want. And, uh, but that was very, very exciting to see that. Yeah, the music. So you were down there visiting when this happened? [00:29:00] Visiting, yeah. She got us, because being in the Red Cross, she got us down to watch and get off the ship.

That was very exciting. Powerful. By this time, Allison was living down there with Rob? Oh, yeah, she was. Yeah, she'd been, they were married, well, they married before he, he deployed our, oh, okay. We, we came home from school and he was sitting at the house and he said, I've gotten my orders to go overseas. So, within a few days, they, they arranged a wedding at the house and off he went.

Oh, okay. And, uh, yeah. Um, so. Now, at Allison's memorial, we went, her kids got up with a stack of envelopes. Oh yeah. Remember that? I know. And, uh, and she would save all of her bill paying envelopes and use them and keep her budgets and her household notes. Oh, wow. Save every envelope. [00:30:00] Oh, yeah. And keep them rubber band together and have her pencil and mark everything off.

And she had all, all recorded what light bulbs she'd put in what lamp. She was very new to them. Oh, I remember at your house, she was doing dishes. And at the end she goes, Oh, all this good soapy water is going to go to waste. I know. I don't know quite what to make of that. Because she'd done the dishes, but she hated to throw out the water.

I know. It's interesting. I found in that generation they would pour it into the garden. Yes. So I think it can be a holdover from harder times. Sure. And then they said,