Friends/Family:
Mom and Dad, Brother, Grandma G, Aunt Olive, Gloria
We moved to a town 3 hours north of where I was born. It was called Greenville. My dad was transferred with the Patrol. We moved into a house on Oaktree Drive. It was at the edge of town and it was down a long dirt lane. It was a very cute house and I loved my room. It had knotty-pine paneling and built-in bunk beds. It also had a very large basement and that is where my brother's rooms was. Soon after we moved in, I started itching like crazy. I was covered head to toe with flea bites. No one else got bit as much as I did. My mom said it was because I was so sweet! Anyway, I remember being covered head to toe with calamine lotion for there was not one spot that did not have a flea bite. Needless to say, my parents replaced the carpet immediately.
My dad made a skateboard for me. He made it out of a piece of wood with a skate pulled in two and nailed to the bottom. I did not care that it was not store-bought. It was a very cool skateboard and it went fast. I would sail down the hill by our house. At the bottom of the hill was a curve. It was always a tricky maneuver to manage that curve to keep from going into the neighbor's driveway or getting hit by a car.
My mom worked so, in the summer, I would spend the entire day at the swimming pool. I would get up and have Honey Comb cereal and then take off on my bike for the swimming pool, waiting outside until it opened. Gloria, our neighbor who was in high school, would sometimes go with me. At the pool, she would launch me from the bottom of the pool into the air, we would see how long we could hold our breath under water or just hang out on her towel, dousing ourselves in baby oil and iodine. She liked Danny so we would giggle about him and sometimes he would come over and talk to her. It was always so embarrassing when he did because they would act goofy.
We had a great neighborhood of friends all near our age. There was an empty lot near by and my brother and I
would go over there and play baseball all the time. I was a pretty good hitter as I recall. (Must have been from those days at the brick house when I would play ball with my brother.) We would play out there until we could hear our moms yell for us to come in. Then we would go back out the next day and do it all over again. Sometimes we were allowed to stay out at night so we would get flashlights and look for earth worms. We would shine the lights on them and scoop them up off the grass before they made it back down their holes. I am not sure what we did with them but I do remember catching them.
Grandmother G. would come and spend Winter with us every once in a while. She would make her rounds between her children and this was our year to have her. She would stay in my room which meant I stayed in the top bunk. It was fun but by the end of the winter I was so sick of Ben Gay. To this day, when I smell it, it reminds me of my grandmother. One day, before Christmas, my grandmother was snooping under the tree. My parents were gone. She liked to shake the presents and guess what was in them. She got too close and knocked the tree over. We laughed and had a hard time getting the tree to stand up again. I am not sure what happened after that but my dad fixed the tree when he got home.
My Grandmother G. would always read me poetry and stories. She loved Ogden Nash and Dr. Seuss. She had a great sense of humor so it was of no surprise that she loved this type of reading. She would read to me and make funny voices for each character. It was always very entertaining. She also played the piano. She had her college education in music from Maryville College. She taught piano lessons and always encouraged me to play the piano because I had long fingers. When we would go to visit her, I would go into the front parlor of her house and play the piano by ear (sound) for hours. I got pretty good but never learned the way she wanted me to. I guess that was the first signs of my ADD.
Grandmother G was a huge influence in my life as well as my Great Aunt Olive. They were educated and always treated me very well. Even though I was only a child, they related to me as if I was older. They were always in a teaching mode with me. My grandmother wanted me to learn how to play piano so would show me the scales and teach me songs. She also, gave me National Geographic to read which I found fascinating but got embarrassed by the naked native pictures. And my Great Aunt Olive, who was a missionary in India who worked with Gandhi, would tell me tales of her adventures in India. I don't recall my grandfather that much other than getting a spanking from him one time for making too much noise. Or, when he was sick in bed because he had diabetes. Nor do I remember Great Uncle Murray, other than he was always finely dressed. So I guess, besides my mom and Mrs Adamson, this is the beginning of my being influenced by strong women.
I was so in love with Micky Dolenz! I would come home from school and watch the Monkees on TV until my mom got home.
In history, this happened: 1965
http://www.infoplease.com/year/1965.html
Mom and Dad, Brother, Grandma G, Aunt Olive, Gloria
We moved to a town 3 hours north of where I was born. It was called Greenville. My dad was transferred with the Patrol. We moved into a house on Oaktree Drive. It was at the edge of town and it was down a long dirt lane. It was a very cute house and I loved my room. It had knotty-pine paneling and built-in bunk beds. It also had a very large basement and that is where my brother's rooms was. Soon after we moved in, I started itching like crazy. I was covered head to toe with flea bites. No one else got bit as much as I did. My mom said it was because I was so sweet! Anyway, I remember being covered head to toe with calamine lotion for there was not one spot that did not have a flea bite. Needless to say, my parents replaced the carpet immediately.
My dad made a skateboard for me. He made it out of a piece of wood with a skate pulled in two and nailed to the bottom. I did not care that it was not store-bought. It was a very cool skateboard and it went fast. I would sail down the hill by our house. At the bottom of the hill was a curve. It was always a tricky maneuver to manage that curve to keep from going into the neighbor's driveway or getting hit by a car.My mom worked so, in the summer, I would spend the entire day at the swimming pool. I would get up and have Honey Comb cereal and then take off on my bike for the swimming pool, waiting outside until it opened. Gloria, our neighbor who was in high school, would sometimes go with me. At the pool, she would launch me from the bottom of the pool into the air, we would see how long we could hold our breath under water or just hang out on her towel, dousing ourselves in baby oil and iodine. She liked Danny so we would giggle about him and sometimes he would come over and talk to her. It was always so embarrassing when he did because they would act goofy.
We had a great neighborhood of friends all near our age. There was an empty lot near by and my brother and I
would go over there and play baseball all the time. I was a pretty good hitter as I recall. (Must have been from those days at the brick house when I would play ball with my brother.) We would play out there until we could hear our moms yell for us to come in. Then we would go back out the next day and do it all over again. Sometimes we were allowed to stay out at night so we would get flashlights and look for earth worms. We would shine the lights on them and scoop them up off the grass before they made it back down their holes. I am not sure what we did with them but I do remember catching them.Grandmother G. would come and spend Winter with us every once in a while. She would make her rounds between her children and this was our year to have her. She would stay in my room which meant I stayed in the top bunk. It was fun but by the end of the winter I was so sick of Ben Gay. To this day, when I smell it, it reminds me of my grandmother. One day, before Christmas, my grandmother was snooping under the tree. My parents were gone. She liked to shake the presents and guess what was in them. She got too close and knocked the tree over. We laughed and had a hard time getting the tree to stand up again. I am not sure what happened after that but my dad fixed the tree when he got home.
My Grandmother G. would always read me poetry and stories. She loved Ogden Nash and Dr. Seuss. She had a great sense of humor so it was of no surprise that she loved this type of reading. She would read to me and make funny voices for each character. It was always very entertaining. She also played the piano. She had her college education in music from Maryville College. She taught piano lessons and always encouraged me to play the piano because I had long fingers. When we would go to visit her, I would go into the front parlor of her house and play the piano by ear (sound) for hours. I got pretty good but never learned the way she wanted me to. I guess that was the first signs of my ADD.
Grandmother G was a huge influence in my life as well as my Great Aunt Olive. They were educated and always treated me very well. Even though I was only a child, they related to me as if I was older. They were always in a teaching mode with me. My grandmother wanted me to learn how to play piano so would show me the scales and teach me songs. She also, gave me National Geographic to read which I found fascinating but got embarrassed by the naked native pictures. And my Great Aunt Olive, who was a missionary in India who worked with Gandhi, would tell me tales of her adventures in India. I don't recall my grandfather that much other than getting a spanking from him one time for making too much noise. Or, when he was sick in bed because he had diabetes. Nor do I remember Great Uncle Murray, other than he was always finely dressed. So I guess, besides my mom and Mrs Adamson, this is the beginning of my being influenced by strong women.
I was so in love with Micky Dolenz! I would come home from school and watch the Monkees on TV until my mom got home.
In history, this happened: 1965
http://www.infoplease.com/year/1965.html
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