I only remember bits and pieces of my childhood. I was born in San Antonio, Texas but I don't particularly remember the years that we lived there. You have to understand that by the time we moved to Alabama when I was in second grade that we had moved from Texas to Oklahoma, back to Texas and back to Oklahoma again, so my time in those places only comes back in fragments. I remember visiting my grandmother and our great-uncle Johnny and great-aunt Charlene when we lived in Texas. Oddly, we had no cousins or aunts or uncles - both of my parents were single children. I remember that my grandmother had a mid-sixties Chevy Bel-Air four door sedan, beige colored, that she would take me to the store in. I remember living in a Spanish style two story home in Harlingen, Texas because it had blue ceramic roof tiles, and because that is where I defied my daddy's instruction not to try to roller skate alone when he took a phone call and gave myself what I believe was my first concussion...or it could have been the time my sister pushed me too hard in the swing so that I fell out and hit my head. And I remember the park in Oklahoma City that Daddy used to take my brother and I to - it was at a hotel, but they opened it to the public. Our favorite part of this park was a rocket ship - it was red and yellow and had a ladder that you climbed up to the top where the cockpit was. From here we captained our ship to the moon. This is also the time when I had my first boyfriend - a blond- haired, brown- eyed boy named Bobby who held hands with me on the playground and even kissed me on the cheek once! I remember saying goodbye to him on my last day at school before our move to Alabama - odd that I can still see him standing there after all of these years. I also had chickenpox during those years - I think we lived in Oklahoma then, but I'm not sure. I remember chickenpox because 1) they were so bad that I couldn't even wear pajamas - they irritated my skin too much and 2) I had chickenpox on my birthday. All of the kids in my class made me a book of birthday cake pictures, which I still have to this day...and instead of a party a friend who had already had chickenpox was appointed to bring me my book, while some other children stood outside my room and wished me a happy birthday.
Our move to Alabama must have coincided with my advance to an age where I would retain more memories. I remember flying into Mobile in the spring when the azaleas were in bloom. The old Southern homes lining the streets, the oaks and the Spanish moss and the vibrant colors of the azaleas made a lasting impression on my young mind. We stayed in the Holiday Inn on the old causeway until we could move into the house that Daddy had rented. That first night he came "home" from work and wanted to go right away to show us where we would be living. We had dinner and by the time we got to the house it was dark. This was the second oldest home in the area. The power was not yet turned on, the brick was painted dark gray and a storm was moving in when we got out of the car. As we looked up at this forbidding house lightning struck in the distance behind the house, giving a certain six year old girl a very scary first impression of the place that we would be living in. Maybe it was a premonition since, to me, this is where our lives started taking a turn for the worse.
