1HW continually urges me to complete a chronology of my childhood and adolescent days so that any children and grands may by some chance be able to follow my path. It does not seem as interesting as his follies, I might add at this point! But historically speaking, it is a good idea. And so I will continue from the point of having visited Eisenhower's departure for NATO, whereupon my dad left DC, finished his MA at Columbia, and taught at West Point for a year. That was quite a fun year, to see the cadets, live at the Point, and also be close to grandparents. It was also sad for me to hear quite undercover that my grandmother had cancer. It terrified me, especiallly since I didn't feel I could talk to anyone about it. Mom and Dad spent several weeks in Europe that summer while we stayed with grandparents in Ohio, only to learn that we would then be moving to the Philippines later that year. Only decades later would I learn that Dad had become a clandestine member of the CIA while wearing an Air Force uniform. After spending five months of my sixth grade year back in Columbus, the family finally headed to the Philippines in February of 1953 on a ship that had previously been destined for the NW Pacific. It was not fun. The only fun we kids saw was when sailors had shore leave on Guam and came back drunk, as we watched in great amusement. The Philippines came as a great relief, albeit shock, as they were still overcoming the ravages of WWII Japanese occupation.
Our house at Clark Air Force Base north of Manilla was huge and lovely, and we had servants to do everything for us. We kids thought it was fun because of the Japanese bullet holes in the walls from the Japanese occupation during WWII. We also had huge spiders, crickets, hooded cobras, and boas. Lovely environment. After 9 months there, with all kinds of Communist infiltrators trying to imperviate our homes, we moved to Okinawa, or Uglinawa, as we called it. What a God-forsaken place! It was awful. There were snails the size of Labrador Retrievers there, and terrifying poisonous snakes that lived all over the place. It was not fun to live there, for sure. I seriously cannot remember anything fun or good from the time we spent there, and I most certainly never want to return. Awful time! All of it!
And so we came from there, the frying pan, into the fire, as we moved to the scenic Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Do you detect a note of sarcasm there? What a sham the whole society was, and probably still is. I think I have mentioned before that I never knew what "colored people" were until we moved there. And I never had seen such prejudice before or since. And, so, unlike 1HW, my junior high and early high school days were not particularly happy ones, which is why I have not written more about them. It was more like I survived them until we moved on to the next place. It was like that for me throughout high school.
After we left Gulfport, we moved to Rantoul, Illinois, which I really did like, and Herb and I made friends in the community. However, my dad decided that a boy I was dating was becoming too close and stopped that immediately with a firm hand. So in spite of friends and high school successes there, it was just as well to move to Albuquerque in 1959, as Dad was assigned as head ROTC Professor at the University of New Mexico. It seemed like the end of the world at first, but Herb and I became accustomed to it and quickly made new friends, usually mutual ones as we stuck together. I do need to say that having a brother as Herb made my life so much easier through the years. We were buddies and stuck together, helping each other out. He is still my good friend. While we were in Illinois when my granparents were visiting, I discovered my grandmother was in such pain, and learned that her cancer had returned. That haunted me, until her death during my senior year in high school in Albuquerque. I still miss her, even as I miss my mother, and I still think of both of them. But oh, the wonderful memories I have! I only hope that my daughters and all of the grands will have such fond memories of some times with me! More to come...
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