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| I was born February 23 1960. Sometime after dark, mother can't remember and my birth certificate burnt in a house fire. The hospital here has a copy but they are too busy to go to a trailer they keep records in and find it to let me know what time I was born... maybe one day I'll get another. I have no idea why it isn't on their computer by now... I am the oldest of a 5 pack of Army Brats. (possibly 6) |
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| Right before I was born my Father had been an awful accident with two of his very best friends in the whole world, they were driving along a mountain road (and back in the 50's you could drive alot faster on the roads than we do now because there were not as many cars on the road) they were traveling at a little bit higher speed than they should have and when the road turned they did not. They were all three sitting in the front seat with my Father in the middle, he saw it coming and put his feet on the dash to brace himself against the blow of the tree right in front of them now that they had left the road flying among the tree tops. The tree was struck, the three were battered by the impact and all but one did not leave the scene alive. When he got tired of calling their names and getting no answer, he clawed his way back up the mountain with blood and broken body. He sat as well he could beside the road and prayed and pleaded for some assistance from anyone, anywhere. He continued to call out for his buddies in hopes that if they were unconscious as he called earlier, maybe they had come to. He called for his buddies and rescue until he was hoarse. Finally after what seemed like forever there was the sound of a motor drawing near. He could see the lights that were rounding the curve below him. Thankful that there was help only fifteen miles away, he called out and waited. When the car rounded the curve he thought they would not stop, and then he saw the horror on the faces inside the car. He saw in the lights of the car all the blood that covered him. He knew that he was broke and bleeding and he also knew that he was covered in one other mans blood and possibly the blood of another. He wept as the others were hunted, and he refused to leave when just one was found several feet from impact. The rescuers insisted that he was driving and the other man was the passanger. And he argued with them until someone finally found the driver. He was packed underneath the dash board, driver's side. He healed in a military hospital and was transfered from his current post and away from the place that haunted him with their immediate memories. I was 9 months old when Mother and I left to go to Alaska to be with Father. While we were there I acquired two sisters and a brother. We lived in a very small trailer in a trailer park. I remember that there was a mound in the park where we would play in the dirt in the summertime and play in the snow atop it in the wintertime of Alaska. I love fried eggs, but one day in 1964 we had sat down to eat our breakfast, and the eggs in mine and my siblings plates began to jiggle. We thought it was funny! Soon the merryment of the eggs were tightly woven into my mind by the trembling of the whole house as the trembling soon turned to a violent shaking! The plates with the eggs made their way to the floor as the contents of all the cabinets in the territory emptied into the floor. I remember watching our cereal and pancake fixings fall and hit the floor with the rest of our belongings. It seemed as though it took a very long time before the shaking stopped and then there were the aftershocks just as you seem to believe that it won't happen again, and then your scared to death that it will never stop. Mother had gathered us together under the kitchen table and when she felt safe enough got up to check the phone, with strick instructions for us to stay put. The lines were down and she could not reach our Father. So she began digging out the things that she knew we would need from the rubble that the rumble had left behind in it's quake. As soon as Father could get there he was home and did not think twice that she was packing our things to leave this shook apart home and land. We traveled for 8 days straight from Alaska to Alabama. Father would drive the days while Mother drove the nights. Once we were driving along and I was awake while Mother was driving and we hydroplaned off the road into a snow bank! I hollered,"Wake up Daddy! Momma has killed us all!" What is a 4 year old to think, watching all of this and then everything is white? Luckily there had been an 18-wheeler behind us that witnessed our dilema and very helpfully pulled us out. (Thank you Mr. Truck driver) We made it to Alabama in one piece in a Studebaker. I always loved that car and remember when it was stored in the shed, that I would love to have it when I got big enough to drive. I was a young teen when it was sold and never saw it again...it was black. My Father and his brothers had their old cars and trucks parked after the cars death on my Grandaddy's land and we use to play in them when we were kids, with the warning to be careful and watch for snakes while we did, we always took turns driving them and playing out all sorts of games and dramas in them. We always had the best time! They stood where they had since before I can remember until I was grown and gone from home. I should tell you that my mother and father are 3rd cousins. (that way later some things make sense) I am the oldest grandaughter on my father's side and one of many grandaughters on my mother's side. My father's mother had 5 boys, she wanted girls but never had any... my name is handed down from them. It is a good strong name and I have always been proud of it even though I have always gone by my nick name. "Ginger" It fits me just right. I am a strawberry blonde with blue eyes. My father always called me his "Strawberry Blonde" and he would get upset if mother cut my hair. I have had my hair to my hips 6 times in my life. It just grows fast. Anyway, back to the story... Since Daddy was in the Army we have lived in alot of different places, which was nice but also left me with the feeling that I have never had a true home and wonder if I ever really will....... The first and second grades we spent in Okinawa, Japan. It is very lovely there. Daddy would come to the school and tell them that we had to go get shots (we were always getting shots, I got to the point where I had had so many that I could watch them give it to me. No big deal) but sometimes instead of going to get shots he would take us to the beach. The four of us children would go to the shore and get seastars and bring them back to mother and ask her to watch them for us...she would. She would watch them make their way back to the water! I remember I had a necklace that was made of shells, I loved that necklace. It's long gone now... Third grade was spent between 3 different schools. Fruitdale, Alabama. White Sands, New Mexico Fort Wachuka, Arizionia then back to Fruitdale, Alabama.(my very favorite teacher was here, her name was Mrs. Martin) I told mother I was glad to finally finish the 3rd grade that it had taken me 3 years to do so! She was tickled by that but straightened out my thinking by explaining that it had just been one year but 3 different schools. Fourth grade was also spent in Fruitdale, Alabama. There I had a little boyfriend, his name was Wayne. We use to write those little love letters that children do...I love you, do you love me? Answer yes or no... Fifth,(fave teacher here was Mrs. Hembree) sixth & seventh grades were spent in Harker Heights, Texas, while daddy was stationed at Fort Hood. There was a girl here who did not like me from the start. I think it was before I came that she may have been the prettiest there and then when she saw me she knew she came in second and she did not like that at all! She was very mean and hateful to me, always trying to start a fight... Her father owned the radio station there and I think she was proably spoilt rotten.(Hello Michelle). I called her before we left Texas to tell her that I forgave her for being so nasty to me...she just laughed! Now I never ever did anything to this girl for her to treat me the way she did, so I figure she proably grew up to be a mean an nasty woman...(just my opinion) I could be wrong. Michelle if your read this please feel free to email me. (the mailbox on the index page is a link) I had some good friends while going to Manor Junior High. Hello Jackie and Debbie! While there I was in an art class with a very good teacher, Mr Long. I really enjoyed his class, and did very well. I love art! Eight, ninth & tenth grades were spent in Mannheim, Germany. Germany is a beautiful place with many different places to see and things to do. And I do not remember that the land was all junked up with litter the way our land has become. I went to Mannheim American High School while we were there and have the very best of memories from going to school there and of my classmates! We were always so full of school spirit! More there than anywhere else I had been. I remember going to the castles and to the Rhine River to watch the burning of the castle, so very beautiful! (the burning of the castle was a reinactment of some sort) (if any of my MAHS classmates come across this site, feel free to email me.) Junior and Senior years were spent in Fruitdale, Alabama as Daddy retired and we came back home. The very first day that I was there, a very handsome boy came up to me as he was leaving the room and stepped on my toe. I looked up and there stood Wayne, in all of the moving and travel we had forgotten each other, in fact it was about 4 years after graduation that I had gone to one of my classmates home to visit her mother and she gave me a picture of the class that was taken in the 3rd grade, and I reconized one of the boys and asked her who he was and she said that it was Wayne. (of course I thought, that was Wayne) We use to talk and flirt while we were in High School and he told me while we danced during our Senior Prom that if he weren't dating Pam that we would be a couple, and he told me that he and Mrs. Farrar the english teacher had decided that I was the prettiest girl in school, even prettier than Peggy! (blow me away!) He and Pam got married after High School, I hope that they have had a wonderful life! We graduated in 1978 outside on the football field, and the thing I remember most were the birds that were singing! We were suppose to go get our report cards before we left, but I forgot mine so I have no idea my grades (lol) but I do know that I graduated with 2 more credits than the others there because of all the extra traveling that we did. I never had a science class after the 8th grade and never had a math class after the 10th grade, but I had 3 credits for Cosmetology taken while in Germany that the Guidence counselor used for my science and math credits. I took an IQ test here on the web and it said that I had an IQ of 139 (considered, highly intelligent) most Military Brats are I have read somewhere.... |
| to be continued... |
| I have more stories to tell you , I just wanted to give a little background to begin with... be back later! |
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