Beginning

It was 1945 and the war hadn't ended yet. Dad was being sent overseas and Mom and Dad eloped. As a child I loved the idea of that. So romantic. Now, 60 years later it seems a bit more foolhardy. Dad was shot down (he was a paratrooper) and Mom was pregnant. She had been in (and almost graduated) from Nursing School. I've heard two versions of why she had to quit without finishing. She could never work as a nurse, but what she learned was not wasted. I do know I was born 9 months and 2 days after they married. Mom's Father gave her two red roses for those two days. It was really important back then. Should still be. OOOPPPSS...I did say I would keep my opinions to myself. Anyway, Dad was found in a hospital in Scotland and returned home before the war ended. It turned out to be just one of his many cat lives.

My first real memory took place in New Jersey. We had lived in Iowa where I was gifted with two brothers. Dad was a herdsman working with Angus Cattle. Aberdeen Angus Cattle. That's what they were called way back then. He was on a cattle car going to Colorado when our house burned to the ground. Mom was able to save three kids, an end table by the front door and the lamp and photo album that were on the table. Nothing else. Unable to contact Dad, she had to phone Ohio and Dad's brother to come to Iowa and get us. Later Dad picked up his check and followed us to Ohio. Then we ended up in New Jersey where Dad again worked as a herdsman.

I remember a dog named Boots, who had puppies. I remember a huge hill behind the house where Dad took three babies (under 4) on a sled ride. A long sled that we all could be on at once. Except that Dad fell off about half way down. That is why I still remember the whole thing. I remember Mom running out of the house and screaming. I remember my Father running down the hill after us and yelling, "Tip the sled, roll off, tip it....." etc. They were terrified because at the bottom of the hill was a barb wire fence. We did, or I did, manage to tip the sled and we all fell off before we got to the calamity. S. had a cut on his finger, but that was the total extent. Maybe the fear in my parents voices helped me remember that, but it has stayed with me.

We left New Jersey when Dad almost ended another cat life. He turned a tractor over on top of himself and wasn't found till evening when he failed to come home for supper. Mom had already experienced his Missing in Action, coming home wounded, a total fire with three kids, living in two strange states and now she had to take him back to Ohio again to recover from another life threatening accident. I was just 5 years old. Yup, the story of my life was off to a start that stayed on the edge.