They raided Battuzi’s speakeasy. Closed it down tight. Agnes and my mother were thrown out of a job. Freddy and his buddies in the band returned to Chicago.
***
My mother was a tough-minded optimist. She was a survivor. After several weeks of enduring once again the hardship of finding a job where no job exists, she went to work as a waitress in a popular diner up near 39th and Hawthorne. She worked hard—very hard. Long hours.
Agnes eventually landed a hostess and cashier job with a remodeled seafood house in the Skidmore Fountain district of downtown Portland.
About this time, Agnes, Emma and my mother went on the prowl for lower-cost quarters. They were fortunate.
They found, a comfortable old. flat for rent on Southeast 17th and Taylor, only a few blocks from my
grandparents. At that point, I moved in with the three women.