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.But then I was so stupid I said, We re supposed to be living in our own place. Sowe moved out.We got a place, something really poor on seventh street, whichI decorated.I had never decorated in my life, but I had to do something.I dnever lived in such a poor place before.I lived well with my parents in Paris.Eddie wasn t working when I arrived at his mother s.He was spending allhis time building a car.And that caused our first fight.I was French.Frenchwomen are very strict.I mean they like to have leisure after they re done withtheir work.So I arrive here and I am 19 years old and I see a guy that doesn twork.I say, What s the matter? That was my first sensible question, butI was probably too straight.I had no sense of humor, obviously.Eddie went back to the place where he used to work, where his father was aCEO, and they gave him a job drafting.But the man was 27 years old; he wasnot 18.He felt insecure.He felt bad inside.He felt he was not at that level.He was probably more mature than they were, after seven years of seeingwar.He couldn t readapt.Back then, people didn t talk about the difficultiesGIs had readjusting to normal life.2 It was just like for the soldiers comingback from Vietnam.People just didn t realize.Eddie didn t stay with that company.It was like a slap in the face askinghim to do the same work he did at 18 before going off to the war.He felthumiliated.But he couldn t find any other work, he wasn t qualified, and hedidn t want to go back to school.So, without asking me, he used the$2,000 my father gave him to buy a cleaning business.We had a cleaningshop in Long Beach, and I learned to press.We had a woman who was doingthe repairing.But the business didn t do very well.I wanted to have trucksand things, but Eddie didn t want to; he was very stubborn, very set.Wecouldn t talk; there was no communication.The business really started dwin-dling after I got mad at the Mafia.We had this counter selling uniforms tobus drivers at a discount.And one day these two strong men came up tome I was only 20 and ordered me to do something.I said, No, I won t. And they said, If you don t, you ll never be able to sell those uniformsagain. I said, I don t care if you take those uniforms. Then the guy toldme, You re wrong.You don t know how wrong you are. He was right.I didn t know they were the Mafia.They took away the uniforms and thebusiness we had with the bus drivers.After the cleaning business failed, we had another business.My mother-in-law and her second husband helped us start a picture framing business.I learned to frame pictures, and my husband worked very hard, long hours,trying to get contracts.My husband was a dreamer; he didn t share with 80 French War Brides in Americame.There wasn t enough money to live on, and he had to start working in ashipyard.I got pregnant and then had a son, a lovely boy born in March1948.He s still a lovely boy, by the way.About three months after the baby came, Eddie came home one nightfrom work and said we had no money for the rent.The rent was only $33,so that was a real shock.It really made me angry.I felt I had to make a deci-sion.But my feeling that way probably spoiled everything between us,because you know things have a way of working out.I didn t have to jumpin like that.But I did.I got a job as a waitress.I found a French restaurantand got a babysitter.I had never worked in my life except for helping Eddieout.I didn t like being a waitress, and it made Eddie very upset.He wasalways afraid of losing me.And sure enough, I became more independentafter that, and I later found a smarter, a more intelligent man.There was nothing wrong with my husband, and I don t think there wasanything wrong with me.It was just the circumstances.Somehow he wasnot able to be manly enough with me, I guess.I don t know.He was bewil-dered.I think he always felt I put him down, in a way, because he was noteducated like me.We couldn t communicate.We had nothing in commonat all.I think I also realized I shouldn t have chosen him in the first place.My whole life got screwed up back then because I didn t marry a man I loved.At least when you love somebody, you have the courage to endure a lot more.Our marriage wasn t going well; it was just a matter of time.I had a kind ofaffair.Then in 1953, when my son was five, I went back to France for a longvacation.I wanted to stay there, but my parents wouldn t help me.There wasno satisfaction with them at all.It was a mistake going back there becausewhen I got back home with Eddie it was worse.I got very depressed, verysad.There wasn t all this self-help stuff then even TV now teaches you alot of things.I had these resolutions to tell Eddie, but the minute I wouldsee his face at the door, I couldn t say anything.Finally, I just left.Left allthe furniture and everything.The marriage only lasted about eight years.I went back to Paris again in 1956 and stayed six months.I wanted to staythat time, too, but again my parents said no.And again I obeyed thembecause, well, if they didn t want me to stay in France to be with them,I had no real advantages to stay there.By then I was established in America.I had a car and could move around better.So, my choice was to remain inAmerica, but I would have done it for them.It is hard working in a cafe,and we could have bought a bigger place, and I could have helped out a lot.It s funny, they pushed me away, and yet they were crying.But, as it turnedout, it was Father s plan to go to America. Father Knows Best 81In fact, my parents came twice to this country.They first came in 1946 tosee how it was and stayed six months.They rented their own place, andFather took a look at what he could do.This was America.He was a business-man and he saw right away what he could do, which was build apartmenthouses.But he couldn t do this then because DeGaulle at that time wouldnot let French money go overseas.My parents finally came over in 1960.They sold the café in Paris and Father bought a building on Ocean Boulevardin Long Beach, right there, the best.He really knew what to do.They immi-grated here and even became American citizens.By that time, I had remarrieda Swiss doctor partly because I needed his signature to buy a house so thatmy parents could stay with me.Then they moved into their apartment build-ing.Unfortunately, though, my father got arteriosclerosis, a hardening of thearteries, and died in January of 1967.My mother, who had worked all her lifewith my father, she says, You know, I would really like to sell this apartmenthouse and just have an apartment and live from my income. Business-wise,it was not a good idea on my part to say yes, but I did.My mother died in1974 of breast cancer.If I had to do it all over again, I probably wouldn t have married Eddie andcome to America.I would have said non to Papa.I would have been morecourageous.I was a person brought up to obey men.Mother was doing allthese little tricks where Father was always right.I never confronted myparents.What good would it have done? What s done is done.Besides,I might have married another GI or an alcoholic or something a year ortwo later because I could speak English and was at the age where you arebeginning.[Denise does not finish her sentence].I don t regret anything.Because you might regret your life.There is nothing you should regret, noth-ing.Because you don t know what the other side might have been.I met some other war brides in Los Angeles at a war brides association forFrench women.It was started by French women of the First World War, andI belonged to it for a few years
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