Freedom

Hi grandkids!  This time I will tell you about places I've lived, and my travels after I moved to the city and left my little house and town far behind.  I had been very sheltered and had no idea just how big the world was until we started moving around.  Our first move was to a city called Huntington.  We lived in a little red house that wasn't big enough for all of us.  So we didn't live there very long.  My Mom and Dad found another house that had 2 stories.  It was much bigger and we lived there for about 6 months.  I went to school on the bus which was really different.  In my home town I had walked everywhere I wanted to go.  I was in the third grade when we moved to the city.  It seemed so big, I was afraid I'd get lost.  One time I missed the bus going home and I started walking.  I was about half way home when the school bus pulled up behind me and I was so glad to see it!  Shortly thereafter we moved to yet another house!  It was a big 2-story victorian house with a huge backyard and a large apple tree.  My Dad made a swing for me and I spent many hours sitting in my swing eating apples and reading.  We had a concord grape arbor and wild strawberries growing along our fence.  This time we stayed for about 2 years.  I attended Kellog Elementary
School and was in the 4th and 5th grades there.  Once in the 4th grade we had an assembly outside and some people brought a huge Buffalo to the school for us to see.  It was really big with hair that hung down to the ground.  Just why they brought it for us to see I don't know, but it was cool anyway. 

When I was in 5th grade, my teachers name was Mrs. Ferguson.  We had music classes and we learnd how to play the harmonica.  I was even on TV once with our group and we played several songs. I wasn't even nervous.  Too young to realize how many people were watching us!  I was also in a brownie troop and we made all sorts of things.  We earned badges and ribbons and sold cookies and all that.  It was fun and I would like to see all of you in something like that.  You would have a lot of fun and make new friends. 

Then we moved again to a house on Bradley Road where I attended 6th grade at a school called Westmoreland Elementary.  I didn't like my teacher that year.  I guess I was getting old enough to have an opinion about things.  The school was very old and dark and depressing.  I was glad when that year was over even though it meant we were moving yet again!  We moved to a house on Jackson Road, and I took the city bus to Junior High School.  At noon we got an hour for lunch and after lunch we would go to the gym and they would play music and let us dance until time to go back to class.  We had P.E. there and had to undress and take showers in front of each other, and I didn't like that at all.  But it was fun shopping for clothes with my grandma, because she would let me pick out my own clothes, within reason. My Dad had been changing jobs a lot so we moved around quite a bit.  Then one day he decided to rejoin the Navy because the pay would be better and we would be able to get health insurance and shop at the Navy Stores and save money.  This meant that he was going to be stationed in Virginia, in a town called Alexandria.  I hadn't gotten tired of moving yet, and thought it would be fun to see yet another new place.  He found us a house on Maiden Lane and the first night there we slept on Army cots in the front room of our new house.  The next day they brought our furniture and I had my own bedroom.  I was in 7th grade and we lived close to the school, so once again I walked to school.  I was starting to grow up and I liked the school and had a lot of friends.  I went to the school dances and enjoyed the field trips we went on. 
Once the school took us to Washington, D.C. to a concert in a huge concert theatre. It was a full orchestra playing classical music and it was beautiful.  Another time they took us to the Smithsonian Institute where they have many, many historical items and other things.  On the way there, we saw the White House, and the Pentagon. 

Then one day my Dad got new orders and his new station was in Norfolk, Virginia.  Yet another move, but I still didn't mind.  This time we got to see the Atlantic ocean and it was breath taking.  I'd never seen so much water!  We lived in a suburb called Oceanna and once again I rode the bus to school.  This time it was 30 miles to school.  It was called Kempsville Jr. High.  I was in the band and played the bells.  Sometimes we'd get a lot of rain and the area would flood.  On days like that we'd get to leave school a little early.  The next year I was going to a new school called Princess Anne High School.  I had many plans and was going to be in the band again, but this time I couldn't believe it when we got the news that we had to move again.  This time it was to Kodiak, Alaska.  I was so depressed.  I suddenly had had enough moving and wanted to stay where we were.  I was 12, had lots of friends, and had the ability to form my own plans and have strong opinions about what I liked, and didn't like.  I'll close for now and leave the rest till next time.  You will hear about my long bus ride across the country and more.  So until then, I hope I have entertained you and given you an idea of how I saw the United States.