My year at Herringswell

I was enrolled in Herringswell Manor school in England...at Bury St. Edmunds...a boarding school, because my family had moved to Oslo, Norway. I hated being separated from them at such a young age, but it had to be....so I tried to be grown-up about it. It was close to Newmarket and Cambridge, England, and was way out in the country.

They put me in a small dorm room with another girl, Janet. I guess the head mistress thought that would be good for both of us. We were both spending our first years there...and she probably thought we'd be good for each other. We weren't up there with all the other seniors, but we were still seniors, and had the few privileges that the senior girls had, like tv, and off-limits to the younger girls.

I believe the school was only 8th grade on up to 12th, so there weren't very many kids there.

Janet and I eventually moved in with the other senior girls, in one of the two big rooms for the senior girls. There were five beds in one room and four in the other. They were on either side of the headmistress and head teachers quarters. We had one big bathroom to share, with toilets, showers and sinks. We had to go downstairs to the dining room to eat meals, and breakfast was pretty early. Mornings were crazy, with all of us girls getting dressed, brushing teeth, taking showers, and all the stuff you do before breakfast. We were able to come back up to our rooms after breakfast to grab our school stuff and head out.

This was where I learned to like coffee. I had to doctor it up with lots of cream and sugar, but it was good. I'm not sure why I drank it....All of the high school kids ate in one room. It was probably the whole school, but I'm not sure. It was served family style, where we all sat at assigned tables, and were served the food in big bowls. I found out that the servers, and maybe the cooks, couldn't read. That must have been difficult. "Dunno, do I?" was one of the sayings that we repeated when one of the ruddy-cheeked servers was asked a question.

I got to know all of the senior girls. We would often sit around and talk, exchange stories about our lives, talk about the boys in the school, or some of the younger girls. We would also exchange dresses, too, since we had to wear dresses, and we got tired of the same ones all the time, we thought it would be more interesting to wear each other's clothes. It became a confusing, running joke for the boys. "Whose dress is that?" they would ask? We must have been all about the same size. I also remember wrapping my hair that year. That was a technique that we learned to straighten our hair...even if it had a wave in it. I would roll the top part on a couple of huge rollers - the bigger the better - and then wrap the rest of my hair around my head, securing it with large bobby pins. Looked wierd, but it worked!! Long, straight hair!!

I took piano lessons from an English woman who came to the school once a week or once a month. I practiced and took the lessons in the billiard room of the old manor house that was the school. It just happened to be the room that had a piano in it. I learned a lot from the woman there, and I really enjoyed continuing my lessons at Herringswell.

The school itself - It was in an old English manor home....huge building!! And so beautiful! As far as I could tell, everything was pretty much as it had been when it was a home, but it was now converted into dorms, offices, and dining room. But the staircase was still there...the woodwork was beautiful...you could see some of the elegant things that only an old home like that would have. I'm sure there were servants quarters, or nanny's rooms, and the front of the house was the main part, with the sun room, the morning room, or whatever they were called. The windows were spectacular, giving out a great view of the lawn where we played field hockey and soccer. We were not allowed to go into the woods, but I spent many hours wandering around out there....on the edge of the woods.

I loved England...it was full of history. Sometimes, when we would go to a town on the weekend, friends and I would explore the town, maybe get a brass rubbing, check out the tea places, or look at the shops. Everything was so old and quaint, and I loved the people. They were always very polite, and they tried to accommodate us! The countryside was gorgeous as well, and there was lots of the thatch-roofed cottages that you see only in photos, dotting the landscape. It was easy to imagine Shakespeare, or the Artful Dodger in any of the scenes I saw!!!

The teachers - There was Miss Petrie, who was the head teacher. Prim, proper, Scottish lady. She also taught the senior English, which was mostly vocabulary words and some reading. Miss McFadyen, the headmistress, and lived with Miss Petrie. I think they might have been gay...but I do know they took an alcoholic nip each night. We could smell it on them sometimes. I guess that's what the British did when they wanted to relax. There was also Miss xxxx, who was the French teacher. She was really nice, a bit harsh, but still had a good heart. We girls really liked her. She had come from Belgium, or somewhere like that, spoke really good English, but was still fluent in several other languages. Miss xxxx who was American, and taught math, I think, to the lower grades. I don't think she was ever my teacher, but she would come up to the senior girls room and visit with us. Mr. xxxx was the Social Studies teacher. He was American, had kind or long hair, and was a bit weird, but ok. I fancied myself in love with him. There was also the PE teacher. He was English. I will never forget the times we were playing field hockey and he said "Hard luck. Play on!" when we would fall, or get hurt. It was his Volkswagen bug that the senior boys picked up and moved out into the field at the end of our senior year, as a prank.

I DID learn how to study there. We had a study hall every night after supper for an hour, and everyone was required to go. It was even segregated, so we didn't get to see the boys until the next day. They were real sticklers about the sexes not touching each other. I know it didn't stop some couples - they went into the woods and did their thing anyway!!

Every once in a while we would have a dance, or get to go somewhere on the bus to another town....but mostly we stayed there at the school. The kids whose parents lived in London, or somewhere close, could go home every weekend, but there were also those of us whose parents lived in another country. Some of the girls' parents lived in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and other places far away. I think maybe Norway was one of the closest, actually!!

When it came time to graduate, there were 23 of us. The speech that was given by Miss McFadyen was quite disparaging for our class, I remember. She talked about how apathetic we were, and how she couldn't remember a class that was less motivated to do anything. I thought it was not very nice to say those things at graduation, when all our parents and grandparents were there!

My parents were there, and so were Gma and Gpa. They came all the way over from Ohio...not just to see me, but to travel around Europe, too. It was great that they were there...and I know they liked it. I'm sure Chuck was there too, but I doubt that Jim was. The diploma we got was a beautiful one done with calligraphy. I still have it.

It was a good year. I learned a lot. I am grateful for the experience, and I will never forget it. But, I am also glad that I was only there one year. There were things that were not so fun...and I remember being quite lonely and homesick at times. When it was time to pack up and go, I got all my stuff in a trunk, and a suitcase. I was going to college back in the states...in Kansas!!

Going overseas

It was the summer following my year at East Denver High School that dad came home with the news that we would all be moving overseas...to London. Looking back, that has to be the opportunity of a lifetime for us kids..and I'm sure that's how mom and dad viewed it at the time. But for me, a 17 year old just getting ready to start her senior year of high school, it was a really bad idea! Moving anywhere was a bad idea! Leave my friends? Not be able to finish out my high school years at the same school? I hadn't even gone to the same school two years in a row, and now I was going to yet another school? And overseas? What would it be like? I think I tried to be open minded, but it was hard.

We were going to spend some time in Dayton, visiting Grandma and Grandpa, and then go on to London. My cousin, Becky, and I were going to spend three weeks with Gma and Gpa on the road with their camper as, I guess, a way for all of us to get to know each other better! I was excited about that idea...I always liked spending time with Becky..and the idea of three weeks on the road with Gma and Gpa sounded like fun.As it turned out, it was great!

We left Dayton and headed up through Michigan, Sault. Ste. Marie, crossed over into Canada, and headed east. We made stops in major cities like Ontario, Quebec, Montreal...and also stopped in smaller towns. We camped in campgrounds, experienced THAT particular lifestyle, and visited all the great places we could find along the way. We had a lot of car time, too...and I remember Becky and I listened to the radio and did a lot of snoozing in the back seat.

The scenery was great...what we saw of it!! Niagara Falls was one of the places where we stopped, and it was pretty spectacular! I know I probably won't ever get to go there again, so I was glad to see it when I did. We also went to the place where the 1970 World Expo had been in Montreal just the year before. We had a good time just looking at everything there.Beck and I really got to know each other better on this trip...and she and I got to know Gma and Gpa much better too. It was eye-opening for both of us...probably all of us...and I have had many chances since then to think on that experience. Two generations coming together and spending some good times in close proximity...no better way to learn about each other!!

One night Becky and I would stay in the camper, and Gma and Gpa would stay in the tent. Then the next night we would reverse it. Sometimes we would eat cheese, then raisins, depending on our digestion!! We would sometimes eat out, or cook in the camper. We learned so much about Canada and the area, and Grandpa wanted to check out our name in the cemeteries, too. The Archambeaults came from that area, and it was interesting to him to know more about us. I wish now that I had paid more attention to all that.

We were glad to get home to Dayton. Mom and Dad had already headed over to London, I think, and so I flew over there alone.I don't remember a whole lot about the summer we spent in London. I know we stayed in a nice hotel the whole time, because our furniture was taking a long time to get over there. I was going to go to the American School there in London, and mom took me there to look around. It seemed alright. We ate breakfast most every morning in this cute little Italian restaurant down the street from our hotel. They had the best minestrone soup and "Fantarorange" drink. We got to know the Italian folks that ran that place pretty well. It was fun. I know Mom was having a good time eating out all the time. I learned so much about fine dining, and how to order, and what was the good food and what wasn't.

We visited alot of the places that tourists go in London. Madame Tussaud's wax museum - I loved that! The people were all very life-like and unbelievably real-looking. We also went to Trafalgar Square, rode on a double-decker bus, rode on the Tube, or underground train, and learned about all the various places in London that we could go. It was a huge city, even back then, but it seemed to be made up of a lot of little cities. Mayfair was the name of the little neighborhood that we lived in...in our hotel. We saw Big Ben, the big clock, we saw the guards in their tall red hats guarding the palace where the Queen lives, and we saw a lot of the parks where the nannies take their charges and sit...It was all very ...English...and I loved the experience!! This was in the 70's...and things had stared to get big on the rock and roll scene. The Who, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles....It was fun to be in the middle of it!!

So, by the end of the summer...or maybe before...dad found out that he was going to be transferred to Oslo, Norway. We weren't going to live in London after all! Mom mentioned that it was too bad, cause when you think you're going to live somewhere, you don't always bother to go to all the places you want to...you think..Oh, I'll be here a while, so I can go there then. It didn't turn out that way after all. But, the idea of going to Norway excited mom, I know. However, there was a glitch. The American school there in Oslo that I needed to attend only went to 10th grade, and I was going to be a senior. So we, as a family, had to hurry up and find and choose a boarding school for me to go to...We looked at several in Switzerland, I know, and several in England. We decided on the one that I went to...Herringswell Manor, an hour or so from London.

I don't know how Mom and Dad felt about it...but it was not what I had envisioned for me at the age of 17!! I wasn't ready to leave home!! It all happened so suddenly! And the school was not that warm or friendly. I don't really remember how we all felt...but when I think back about it now, it makes my heart hurt, and lump comes up in my throat. It must have been how my parents felt when they left me there. I knew that I wouldn't see them except at holidays.

On they went to Norway without me....Mom, Dad and Chuck.....

Early high school

I would love to write a book, and I don't think it's for fame or the money, but just because I love books so much, and because I love writing so much.Become a child again...talk about the things that happened to me as a child with the recklessness and freedom of a child...

We went racing outside to join the other kids. I don't know who was out there, cause we had just finished supper, and it was dusk. But we wanted to play hide n seek or Spud, and we had to have several kids to do that! There was the McGrath kids...several of them. They must have their homework done. Their mom won't let them outside until they finished their homework, too. There's Cathy, from across the street. The Enright girls....well, on e of them, and Larry Pomarico...That's enough for a game. Who's going to be it?? Looks like Chris is. He's counting to 50 and now I have to hide. Where should I go? I run off down the street towards a house across the street that is usually pretty quiet. I wonder who lives there? It's a white house, and there is a dog in the back yard.I must be quiet or the dog will bark. I find a crevice in the side of the house that I can squeeze myself into and then I wait for Chris to start looking for people. I hear him. He's finished counting. I can't quite tell where he is, or where he's walking. I listen intently and feel the tingling in my legs. It's kind of a rush waiting for someone to find you when you're hiding. I hated to be caught and I hated to get outrun when I'm running to the base. so I try to hide somewhere where they won't even find me. But the problem is, if I'm the last to be found, I'll for sure get caught or be outrun on the way to the base. I peek around the corner, and see that he's heading the other way down the street to look for kids. Now's my chance! I gotta take it! I run without even thinking about it.,.I take off across the yard, off the curb and into the street. I'm running towards the big tree that we used as base, and when he hears my feet hitting the pavement he turns around and starts running toward the base tree too! Oh I'm gonna make it! I'm gonna be FREE! I hit the tree with my hand and run past it, before he gets there! Whew! I hold off getting caught one more time!

My first year of high school was at George Washington High in Denver. All white kids. That was back when dress codes were still pretty strict and we couldn't wear jeans....really, no pants of any kind were allowed for women. I got sunburned really badly on my legs that year, though, from the medicine I was taking, and had to wear pants. Nobody said anything. It was kind of an uneventful year, and I don't really remember much about it. I remember having a friend named Mona..and a few other friends. That was one of the years that I didn't really like math. I had a teacher who, it seemed, thought he was pretty special. I got the feeling that, even though he was a small man, he was trying to over compensate for it by being arrogant and not helping us at our math. The campus was nice, and the school was fairly new.

The next year I went to East Denver High over on Colfax. That was a memorable year! Because of the mandatory desegregation in 1971, I was forced to go to East. It was predominantly black and Hispanic, and they wanted us all to integrate. I had to take the city bus to get there, and walk a few blocks on either end of it. It was ok, I got to see parts of the city I probably wouldn't normally have gotten to see. Had that time to reflect and talk to my friends. The building that East was in was an old building, and I guess it's still being used. It was a beautiful building, and it was in a mostly black neighborhood. Probably some Hispanic too.

I had a lot of fun there. The friends I made were good friends. I was on the swim team that year too, and we swam at GW's pool. I was in the best shape of my life that year, because of the daily workouts we had. I really liked the meets, and I specialized in the backstroke. We had divers and swimmers on the team, and I just had a great time hanging out with the girls and competing with other schools. I was also in the band, which marched at the football games. That was a lot of fun, too. We were like a family, just like the swim team. We went to all the games, and learned to have a great time watching football, marching, and playing.

Seems like I was really busy that year, between swim team, and band and school. But it was so much fun, and I have the best memories of high school that year.

Also in that year, 1971, a lot of racial issues were apparent. We had open campus lunch and I walked over to the Safeway to get something to eat with a couple other girls. On the way back, somehow we got involved in what I learned later was the beginning of a race riot. At least, that's what they were trying to get started. There was a lot of yelling, and I got hit in the head with a full can of pop. I am not sure what happened after that...if I told any of the teachers or my parents...but it was certainly an eye opener for me. Thankfully, I didn't carry hate with me after that...just the opposite, I think I could see and empathize with those who were angry. I have carried that with me over the years. I am able to look at life through the eyes of those who are trying to make a point, or who are disadvantaged in some way...oppressed....

How peaceful school in this small town I live in now seems. How uneventful and calm it all is. And I guess that's a good thing. I don't guess that people need to be exposed to hate and violence. But I do think that kids especially need to be able to see the other side of things, to see that there are people who are not so fortunate, that there are other ways of living and dealing with life. It seems when you grow up in a small town, and hardly ever leave, it insulates you from what else is going on. You can read about it in books but sometimes it's good to see it and experience it.

Reading...and friends

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.

 

Move to Dewey...

I remember our move to Dewey, Oklahoma from Calgary. Well, vaguely, I remember it. It was not a vivid memory.  I remember that big black car that we had.  It was a Chevrolet of some sort, because I remember the Chevrolet word on the back of the car.  We had a lot of room in the back seat when we traveled, as dad had put a board back there that made it like a station wagon.  It was probably not a good time for my parents, driving all that ways, and moving, but we got it done, and we got to the little house in Dewey. Not a lot of memories...I just remember we got there.

But I do remember the house in Dewey.  It was on Hamilton Drive, and we spent a few years there.  I was in first grade when we got there, and in the middle of the fourth when we left.  

I walked to school every day, to Bluestem Elementary, and it was only about 5 or 6 blocks.  Didn't seem like far, and I always had somebody to walk it with. Walking was not a big deal...we walked everywhere because mom and dad didn't take us anywhere in the car. We didn't think anything about it. That was the way it was. This was probably 1961 or 1962.

Linda Sholl was probably my first friend there.  She was the daughter of my piano teacher, Mrs. Scholl, and they lived across the street.  I don't exactly remember what kinds of things we did together, but I know we were together a lot.  She played the piano, of course, since her mom was a piano teacher.  I also had other girlfriends, most of whom I met in school, and around the neighbor hood. We watched Superman on her tv a lot, and the Mickey Mouse Club. That was my first experience being at someone's house other than my own...and it was eye-opening. Their house was more cluttered than ours, and darker, it seemed. Mom always liked to keep things sunny and tidy...not obsessively so, that's just the way she liked it. 

 

I guess it was during this time that I became aware of who I was. My dad and mom were good about making sure we knew who we were, and showed us a lot of love.  My days were good, and without fear and stress.  I only remember one time that I wanted to run away from home.  I must have got the idea from somewhere or someone that my life was not so good...  One day I actually got up the nerve to leave a runaway note when my grandparents were staying there. Mom and dad were on a trip, probably a second honeymoon. I seem to remember them talking about that.  But, no sooner had I left the note, while Granddad was vacuuming, walked out of the house, did I turn around and come back home.  For some reason I remember this particular time in my young life, and it has stuck with me over the years.  How could I have been unhappy?  I had a good life, the best parents and grandparents in the world!!  I know now it was just a childhood 'wild hair' that came to me out of the blue, and, thank goodness, it was short-lived!  Never tried it again.I stayed there and loved my grandparents, and continued to be good.

Memories of our time in Dewey.... loving the crackle of bicycle tires on gravel; spending time in our backyard with our dog, Cowboy, and mom hanging up clothes;  Dad cutting my hair on the front porch, after taking a 'before' picture, and then taking an 'after' picture;  watching 'The Wizard of Oz' and being scared of the flying monkeys;  Dad turning 'Dragnet' off when it came on tv; eating popcorn and apples on the 'pikey' blanket on Sunday evenings and watching 'Disneyland' on tv;  going with Dad across the railroad tracks to shoot firecrackers on the fourth of July, cause he told us they were illegal in the city; driving to Bartlesville and swimming in the pool at the Phillips building, and dad stopping to get us a Coke and a chocolate bar afterwards!!

I also have good memories of walking to school during this time.  I almost always walked with a friend, Francine, or Linda, I guess, and we made the walk seem less long and more fun that way.  There were good times at that school.  The big, dead log on the playground that we climbed on and played 'King of the Hill' on was very prominent.  I played a lot of tetherball there too.  And I know that I was always very excited when I could have a friend spend the night with me.  We anticipated it all week long, because we couldn't ask that sort of thing at the last minute.  Mom said that was an automatic no, if we asked at the last minute, and also if we asked in front of the person we wanted to stay. Our times as girlfriends were carefree and pleasurable...we talked about all kinds of things.

One of my most vivid memories was of second grade, I think, when I really wanted to have a cowgirl outfit, apparently like what I had seen on other girls somewhere.  At least, I thought, the boots were what I wanted, and of course, they would have been worn with a skirt.  I never did get those.They had to be red!!

 

Earliest memories...

My earliest memory is of kindergarten in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  It seems like it was a long, low building, and I remember a lot of kids there.  We hae nap time and art time. Seems like we were always gluing something, and it made my fingers sticky.  There wasn't much else about that time that I remember, though, except that my mom was an important part of my life. Actually, my mom AND my dad were important, but dad was gone to work a lot. My world seemed to be my family at that time...I was probably 5 years old.

Our pink stucco duplex in Calgary has stayed in my memory too.  I had the mumps that year, and I remember staying home and being around my little brother. I guess I didn't feel too bad. He must not have been very old, because he was born in Calgary.  

One time, he choked on an apple peeling, and mom and dad rushed him to the hospital.  I think he coughed it up before they got there.  It was a scary time for all of us.

 We had a spaniel dog then and his name was Bud. He was our family pet, and we all loved him.  I was very sad when mom and dad said we had to put him to sleep. I don't know that I was fully aware of what that meant, just that he would be gone after that. We played with him a lot and he was around all the time. 

I have good Christmas memories from that house.  Dad would bring home a crate full of tangerines and we'd peel them easily and eat them. The smell of tangerines still reminds me of Christmas. A nice family memory that is not easily forgotten.

Mom and Dad made a good life for us.I have very good memories of them and all of us as a family. I have two brothers, one older and one younger. Of course, my world was all wrapped up in my own self, but the other people in my family were all there. Jim..my older brother, was in my peripheral vision as a pesky older brother, someone who I just had to tolerate. He was just beginning to tease me...a foreshadowing of what was to come...Chuck, my younger brother, was a baby at that time, but I loved him. He was a cutie...white blonde hair, blue eyes, and a ready smile for everyone.

I think it was at this time that Mom started to make mother and daughter dresses for us that matched.  I think I thought at the time that it was pretty nice and I enjoyed it a lot.  I have seen some pictures of us both in matching dresses.  It must have been fun for her to have a daughter that she could do that with. I did the same with my daughter a time or two. It's a very special feeling.  My mom made me feel very special by doing that which, I'm sure, was her intention at the time. She was not a hands-on kind of mom, but this was something I really appreciated and loved. She gave me lots of hugs, but was still very hand-off.

Other memories..the stampede in Calgary....learning "Itsy-bitsy spider" from dad.....eating long johns that dad brought home....the deacon's bench that dad had made in his workshop....mom sitting at her sewing machine.....big first grade class and one of the girls throwing up colorful crayons that she'd been eating. (not such a good memory, but it stuck with me.)