Our move to Denver happened in 1964, sometime during my fourth grade. I don't remember what month it was in, but must have been during the summer, between school years. I remember we all piled into the red '64 Ford Falcon, with Cowboy, the dog, and drove to Denver. It was a long drive, but we were on our way to a new life! Our furniture was coming later. We had seen a picture of the house Dad bought already - one that he had brought back with him from the realtor - and we thought we were really going to be living in a mansion!! It looked huge in the picture, and sooo pretty!He picked it out by himself, without mom's help!
In actuality, in WAS bigger than the house we lived in in Dewey, but still was not huge by Denver's standards. Nevertheless, all we knew was that each of us kids got our OWN bedroom, unheard of up until that time; even little Chuck got his own room, as small as it was. There were stairs; there was a little round window in the walk-in closet of one of the bedrooms, and there was even a basement with it's own bathroom, too!! A bathroom on each floor! We could hardly believe how wonderful it was! There was a big fenced-in backyard, where Cowboy could run to his heart's content..a couple of nice flower gardens that Mother could love and tend to. And a big tree, perfect for a swing. A garage and a covered patio, where we had our picnic table and porch swing....lots of lilac bushes across the back to hide the neighbors. And a nice neighborhood.
I don't remember how my brothers and I got acquainted with the kids in the neighborhood, but I know, over the years, we had quite a few friends up and down the street. I had one close friend who lived across the street named Cathy. She had two sisters, and she and her parents attended the nearby Catholic School. In fact, most of the neighbors were Catholic, as their church was only a few blocks away. This afforded me a close look into the Catholic religion, which I liked at the time, but have mixed feelings about now. More about that later...
I attended the public school there, Palmer Elementary, as mom and dad got us enrolled in school pretty quickly. The school was about eight blocks away, and it was there that I met and became friends with Julie. She was to become my best friend all the time I lived in Denver. She says she came up to me and introduced herself to me, as I was the 'new girl', but I don't really remember how it started. I just know we spent a lot of time together, and the she was an only child. She had such a vivid imagination and I think it was because she was an only child. What else did she have to do? We played 'sleuth', like Nancy Drew, and her mom or dad would give us secret codes to decipher. The Nancy Drew mysteries were pretty much the only books I read at the time; we both read them, and it was a fun contest to see how many we could read! I read other books, but it was mostly Nancy Drew. We aspired to be like Nancy...always questioning, always searching for the answer.
I have some wonderful memories of my parents, and I really want to write about them as much as I can before I forget about them, and they are both gone. Mom died on Nov. 11, 2004, and I really miss her. But I bet I don't miss her as much as Dad does. I can't imagine how hard it is to go on living after spending over 55 years with someone who you love so much.
Junior High School at Hill was memorable, to put it mildly. I wasn't there at the same time as my brother Jim, as he went on to high school. There were the normal fears of starting a new school, being a small fish in a big pond, and being in a bigger school.
The Sadie Hawkins dance was coming up. There were flyers advertising it all over school. There was a boy I liked in 8th grade, Bob Smith. He lived a block from us and I just thought he was cute. He was tall, had reddish hair like mine...and I thought it would be nice to get to know him. I invited him to the dance....of course that was a nervewracking experience. I think I called him. I didn't want to do it fact to face! He accepted, and I bought the tickets. I think I must have talked to my friends about it quite a bit, because it was a big thing back then to invite a boy to a dance!! The dance was in the gym, and it was right after school. I met him at the door to the gym, and as soon as I gave him the ticket, he took off and sat with the other boys. I was sooo disappointed! I don't know what I thought would happen, but I guess that is normal behavior for a junior high school kid. But I wanted him to stay with me, and dance with me. It just broke my heart that he took off as soon as we got inside the doors! I thought, he just used me to get in!! Oh well...I got over it, and held onto that somewhat jaded impression of boys for quite some time.
My friends and I hung out a lot, walked between classes together and talked about all kinds of things. We even did our hair the same way for a time. I remember not liking being taller than all the boys, but there were a few that were the same height. I think that's why I thought Bob Smith would be a good choice. Boy, was I wrong! I was in the band and that was a lot of fun. Played the flute. That's where I met a lot of my friends.
Junior High was also where I began to hate math. Ugh..I had some bad teachers, I guess....but I just couldn't get it and I had no interest in it. Dad helped me out a lot, and I had a hard time telling the truth about doing my homework. I hated it! I also didn't do well in science...but I'm not sure why. Both those subjects were what dad was good in. But now I think I'm a lot like my dad....that's weird.
I took to grammar and spelling really easily. That followed me all through school. I also took some home economics classes during this time - sewing and cooking. It was during the 60's, and that's what girls learned! How things have changed!
Julie didn't go to Hill Jr. High cause her parents sent her to a private school after Palmer. She was going to Kent, and I didn't see her much after that. But I made new friends and I think I walked to school with them, I'm not sure. Maybe I walked by myself.
I loved to read...I used to sit sideways in the big overstuffed chair that mom recovered and immerse myself in books. They might be Nancy Drew books, they might be about a young girl having an adventure. I really don't remember. I just know that I loved reading, and I loved being comfortable in that chair. I wish I had a chair like that now that I could lie in and just go away and escape in my book. That's the wonderful thing about reading - you can escape and go places, go wherever the book takes you. and it shuts out the world in a way that is safe and good, and there are so many books to read that I can't get them all read. I want to read them all. I believe in the printed word and that it can say a lot, and just like in books it can take you places, say wwhatever you want it to say. I guess I got the love of reading from my mom and dad. They were always reading, in the living room, in the evenings; they didn't watch much tv at that time. That's what they did to relax, and there were always books around the house. They didn't shove it down my throat, they didn't make me read, but I think I learned by example, and that is probably the best way to teach someone, especially about reading.
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