Run, Lola, Run!!

Monterey California has always been one of my favorite spots on earth!! My time there on my own was a little too short.........but nevertheless, I managed to store some great memories in the two and a half years I lived there. 

First of all, for the first time in my life I got skinny!! I walked most places unless I used the city bus to get from one town to another.  And mostly my walking was done on hills.Years later I found out that I lived there through the mid 60's when the whole "flower child" era was happening but I never knew.......

On days when I wasn't working I would love to lie in bed in the morning and look out the windows at the fog........I think thats when I fell in love with "fog"! It was like a mask of sorts.......I guess I thought noone would notice me through the fog......lol  It made me feel safe.  On foggy Sundays I would love to walk for hours.....find something yummy for lunch and head home.  It made the my free time more enjoyable to hide in the fog.....lol

Early in the mornings when I would get ready to leave for work it would be dark and foggy.  But it was very peaceful, no sounds of traffic yet and my walk to work through the early morning mist, (never had to buy hair spray, the mist kept your hair frizzed!!) would just be a quiet walk smelling coffee coming out of the houses on the way down the hill.  The gas station at the bottom of the hill is where I would actually wake up! I would get a donut and a cup of coffee to eat the rest of the way to work which was about another two blocks. 

My lunch was usually a baloney sandwich ( still one of my favorites!!) and a soda. I would go along side the cannery and sit on the rocks at the waters edge to eat.  I can still remember how peaceful it was there in the middle of the afternoon.......seagulls waiting for me to drop my sandwich.......lol  Last summer Dan attended a conference in Monterey at the Monterey Plaza Hotel on Cannery Row.  I took a couple of days off and drove up to join him there and OMG.....that hotel is built in the same exact spot where that Frito Lay plant sat all those years ago!!  The picture of me on this blogs main page is taken in the hotel resturant where we had breakfast the next morning.......I will post photos I took of the rocks outside which they apparently built over and around.  It was amazing!! I got to show Dan where I would sit with the seagulls at lunchtime everyday!

Most days after work I would catch a bus to Seaside......one town before Monterey to work at the pizza parlor......but I did not work at the pizza parlor on Thursdays or Sundays  and on those two days of the week I didn't have to hurry to catch a bus......(Sunday I didn't work at any job!) I could leisurely stop at the store and pick up some munchies and then I would stand on the corner of David and Lighthouse and look up the hill and tell myself......."just go its not gonna get any easier"! lol I guess after getting off of the bus most nights at 10:30 I never really paid attention to how straight uphill that climb was....one, because it was dark and not so easy to tell and two, I was wayyyy too tired to think!! But on my Thursday nights especially.....my walk up that hill was a learning experience.  You could tell a lot about the people who lived in these houses........some houses were very ornate with gingerbread trimms and some very plain in need of some paint!!  Some of the yards were manicured and some of them looked like noone lived there except I could see people inside the house.  It was already trying to get dark and folks had their lights on indoors........the smells were incredible!! You could smell spaghetti coming from this house and chicken coming from two doors down, maybe a cake baking here or there and always just yummy smells to carry me up the hill !! I would watch what was going on as I passed each house (that made the walk much shorter I think!!) Kids at the dining room table doing homework, someone setting the table in the next window......mothers hollering at their kids to get inside, time for dinner! I daydreamed about one day having my own children and cooking!! Especially cooking!! You know, with your very own pots and pans and bowls and appliances........hahaha Yeah I daydreamed about pots and pans!!

I couldn't afford to get a phone installed so it was a given that every Sunday afternoon I would call my girlfriend Linda and sometimes if her Dad was home she would take the bus to my apartment!  We would walk somewhere and get munchies and then go to the park along the ocean and lay on the grass and watch clouds and share our dreams.  Wow........I had almost forgot about those times.......and they were amazing!! It made the afternoon go by so fast but at least we knew when her Dad was not in training we would get to visit and laugh!

Then after two and a half years I met my first husband there.  He was in the Navy and to say the least his uniform did indeed turn my head!! I was raised on Army bases and those uniforms did nothing.......compared to!  It was a whirlwind relationship.....hope that doesn't sound romantic because it was anything but........lol  We sat outside the pizza parlor one Saturday night after it closed for the entire night talking! Then I didn't see him for two weeks and the next time I saw him again on a Saturday night........well we decided to get married before he had to leave for Viet Nam.........six days later I was in Selma California meeting my new mother-in-law and wondering what the hell I had done!!! I still wonder sometimes what the hell I was thinking!! We talked and soon we realized we had a common goal.......to have a family, him to be the perfect father since his had ventured off when he was one years old and mine to have all my children belong to ONE father!! I could not imagine doing to my own children what my mother had done to me!

Well twenty-one years and four children and one grandchild later.........that happy story came to an end........but in a way we had both met our most important goal in life....he was nearly a perfect father and all my children belonged to ONE man!!  It was sad but I had to realize in actuality, we had beat the odds!! Alright so now move on Lola!! I'm not trying to say it was easy by any stretch!! The twins were 15 and the two older kids were on their own already. I learned to dig deep and bring my survival skills outta storage!  lol

 After running away several times and being caught I finally got smart! I could not get caught again cause the only one suffering for it was my stepfather........the Army figures if you can't control your home then how are they gonna let you run the army??  I so wasn't running away from him.  I just had had enough finally and had to break away from her......I don't even today know why I was a real thorn in her side but she just never let up!  After moving in with her four more kids came along, with all of them I was the one up in the middle of the night feeding them and holding them when they had bad dreams.......It was time for me to set goals for my own life and even though I was only 14 years old I knew deep inside somewhere that I could survive! Hell if I could survive seven years with her then living on the streets would be a breeze!

The first month on my own, (lol) I lived in my girlfriends closet at night! During the day while she was in school I looked for a job.........amazing how NOONE ever questioned my age!! Her mother had died and she had a younger brother and sister and her father was also in the army like my stepdad so he worked crazy hours and only home long enough to sleep and leave again (it was the during the Viet Nam war so getting guys in and out of bootcamp was all they had time for)  her younger brother and sister were not allowed in her room so I was safe in there.  After the kids were in bed she would bring me food! I thought I would never find a job but on the third day out looking I found a job at an old cannery on Cannery Row that Frito Lay had taken over. They were gonna let me work that day but I didn't have a Social Security card, they told me to come back when I got one!! Hell I had NO CLUE what they were talking about.

That night at Lindas we talked about it and she didn't know either. She called another one of our friends who knew all about it.....lmao  Back in the day you just had to go to the local post office fill out a pink card and drop it in the box.......about a week and a half later it comes to you in the mail.  Well Linda got the mail everyday cause her dad came home late so we used it as my address and being paranoid about being found we decided to create ME!  Voila........Lola Ann Freeman was created! I switched everything on the form......my birthplace, fathers name, mothers maiden name..........and it worked!! In about a week or so my first social security card came int he mail! In fact its been my ONLY social security number EVER!! And currently I am drawing Social Security off of that very card!!

I was at the Frito Lay cannery at 5 am!! There was noone there they didn't start till 6........but I waited patiently outside the door marked Personnel and pretty soon this lady showed up and let me in and gave me some papers to fill out. It was a little scary........not at all the Cannery Row you all know today! The streets were cracked from heavy trucks, homeless and winos sleeping in the doorways of closed up canneries.......It was the real Steinbeck Cannery Row!! I started work that day!!  I still had some of the money I had left with from babysitting so it never occurred to me how was I gonna get paid and if with a check what then?? I didn't care though I was on my own!!! I tried not to call attention to myself so I stayed very quiet at work just doing what they showed me on the lines and minding my own business.......about the fourth day the girl across from me asked me if I wanted a part time job.  I told her sure, doing what? Well at night she worked at a pizza parlor in Seaside and she told me that her sister did too but she was VERY pregnant and would be quitting and if I wanted to she would talk to the boss! I guess my workaholic genes rose to the top that day........the next day she told me that the boss said to come and talk to him after work.  So I rode the city bus to Seaside and met with him and his wife and got hired even though that girls sister had not quit yet!! Neither of them questioning my age......see there are benefits to being fat!! And I proudly handed them my social security card when they asked for it!!

Meanwhile I still stayed at Lindas at night but I didn't want her to get into trouble if her Dad found out so I told her I was going to start looking for an apartment! She just looked at me in disbelief.........duh?? I could do this!!  Everyday when I would get out of work I would stop in at the liquor store up on Lighthouse Ave while I waited for the bus, to either get cigarrettes of a soda. That day in the store I noticed a sign over the register that said "We Cash Checks" and by now I was carrying around three or four from Frito Lay and a couple from the Pizza Parlor!! Did not have a clue what I was gonna do with them just kept collecting them. Afterall I only made $.85 an hour for Frito Lay and $.75 an hour at the pizza place. I asked the man behind the counter what kind of checks does he cash........he asked me if I had a check and I told him I had several cause I been saving them.......he wanted to see them so I pulled out the Frito Lay checks and he laughed and told me "Oh yeah.........they all come up here to cash checks, you want them cashed??" I cannot even tell you what that feeling was like......there are no words!! So I showed him the other checks I had from the Pizza Parlor and he told me sure!!  OMG I SO WAS SURVIVING!!!

I did not work at the pizza parlor on Thursday nights so the next day after work I decided I would start looking for an apartment.  I walked up David Ave for what seems like miles straight uphill but actually it was only six blocks!! Along the way I passed several apartments for rent but they had phone numbers so I took them down but on this one corner was a huge white two story house all covered in gingerbread trims!! On the white fence in front of the house was a "For Rent" sign! So I opened the gate, it was just a very short sidewalk to the front door and I ran the doorbell.  A man probably in his 40's answered the door and I asked him if the apartment was still for rent.  He invited me in to see his mom, she owned the house.  They were so nice to me and asked things like where did I work and why did I work two jobs and she wrote a lot of what I said down........then I asked when I would find out and she looked at her son and he shook his head yes and she said to me.........the apartment is yours! OMG.......I paid two months rent right then.........(I don't think they knew about 1st, last and cleaning deposits back then!!) They took me upstairs to see the apartment, it had a seperate entrance when you entered the front door.......there was a second front door to the right which was hers and then the stairs went up to the apartment and I had a door up there!

The rent was $60.00 a month, the apartment was small and furnished right down to silverware!! And the rent included the utilities!! They handed me the key and my ADVENTURE of a LIFETIME was about to begin!!! I told them I would move in the next day and they smiled and said anytime was fine just remember to lock the downstairs door behind you! I pretty much ran all the way down the hill to Lighthouse Ave to get the bus to Lindas..........but when I got there her brother and sister were still awake so I had to sit in the park till their bedtime!!  I was so dying to tell her my news!!  It seemed forever till it was time I could climb into Lindas bedroom window and I was trying to lift my fat self into the window at the same time telling her I got my apartment!! 

Finally I was on my own!! Watch out world cause here comes honey Lola!!!  By the way, Honey BooBoo is one of my favorite "no brainer" tv shows!!

After rereading the last post I decided my childhood appeared not to be much fun...........it's so not like that!! I have many fun memories mostly of the pre-seven years but I also had some in the next seven also.  When I was 8 years old I made my First Communion.......I don't think my mother wanted to give me all that time and energy but she had little choice in the matter........I'm sure she didn't want to open the door and Monsignor Vierra be standing there!! lol My town gramma had prepaid all of my tuition so I continued Catholic school even though my siblings went to public schools.

So actually my mother was a very good seamstress and she made me the most beautiful communion dress and veil.  Its a Catholic thing!  I felt very pretty, even though she had cut my long curls off and had her sister give me a perm, I looked precious!! hahaha

My brother and sisters had big birthday parties and those were lots of fun......I actually got to be around other kids and learned to play.  I had so many cousins on my stepfathers side of the family. (The same cousins I still go to Hawaii to visit)  It opened up my world to a brighter side. It taught me to daydream, something that never occurred to me before that.  My daydreams made my chores go by faster and its how I put myself to sleep at night. 

I am the oldest of nine siblings.........there was always a birthday luau or two going on between us and our cousins......my cousins would hear my mother remind me about my eating so they would sneak me food behind the garage.......it was hilarious!! 

My stepfather got orders to go to West Point, New York. In order for me to travel with the family he had to adopt me.  Next thing I knew I was sitting in a lawyers office with my mother and stepfather.  Laying on the lawyers desk was a piece of paper that caught my eye........OMG it was my birth certificate!!  I knew she wouldn't whip me in front of this lawyer so I reached over and turned it around where I could read it!! OMG .........the first thing I saw was FATHERS NAME: Charles A. Dudoit.............and the paper was snatched away from me!! The paper work got done and we left the office but I kept spelling that name to myself.  When I got home I found a pen and paper and wrote it down and put it in the book I was reading and I wrote it on a bunch of pages in the book!  I wrote it so much in the next month in hopes that I would never forget how to spell it!!  I did have a FATHER!!

I got to travel.......my stepfather was stationed at West Point, NY for two years, the US Military Academy. I joined Girl Scouts and that was a weekly escape that I lived for.  I had to learn to sorta behave because if I was not good I did not get to go to scouts........at least she gave me incentives.  She taught me how to sew and cook and by the mother daughter awards banquet at the end of the school year, I had earned my sewing badge and other mothers were ooooing and ahhing cause I was only 9! I didn't realize she did it to make herself look good but I was slowing gaining back my confidence and didn't care.

West Point sits right on the Hudson River and learning the history that surrounds the Indians and that part of the country made living there very cool.  When my stepfather was stationed back home he chose to drive across country to San Francisco and that was a lot of fun as well as educational.......and no whippins for 10 days!!! My dad was there 24/7......lol  I remember the first day we drove to Niagra Falls and that was so amazing as a child but has made me want to go back as an adult and see it once again......the second night we stayed at a motel right on Lake Erie........OMG its like an ocean!! You cannot see the other shore, Then we drove south from there and went through several states across to the Texas panhandle.  It looks very small on the map but it took forever to get across!! I remember we spent the night in a motel in Flagstaff and my stepfather was going over the maps and said that we had to be in San Francisco on a certain date for the car to go home ahead of us.  We could either go to the Grand Canyon (my mothers choice) or to Disneyland but we couldn't do both.  He told us we were going to vote.......who wants to go to the Grand Canyon and my mother raised her hand............hahahaha The next morning we were bound for California!!! And Disneyland was amazing!!

Getting back to Hawaii was exciting.........I would get to see my grammas!!  And all of my cousins! But it doesn't seem like we were there very long when my stepfather got orders to go to Ft Ord Ca.  By then my town gramma was very old and really couldn't stay by herself in that big house any longer, she had fallen several times and it was just too dangerous.  My mother told her that she would be going to California with us and I was so excited........but my gramma refused!! She said she was not leaving her house! So I don't know what all took place but I remember my mom and her sister, my aunt, went looking for convalecent homes trying to find a good one.  They finally did and then somehow they either talked her into going there or forced her I don't know which.  We all went to see her the day before we left for California and she cried.  I think it was the first memory of being depressed.  I know I grew up a little bit that day!

Shortly after we were in California my mother flew home but we didn't know why.  When she returned I overheard a phone conversation she was having and found out she went home because my gramma had died!!  I could not believe she did not take me home with her (not sure I would have wanted to go and be alone with her, nevertheless.........) I think that day I learned to have really hateful feelings! I do believe that on that day I truly grew tired of her and her ways......and it was on!! I became a helion on wheels!!

I guess most folks think they have a lucky number.......like mine is 7!  I don't know that there is such a thing but there have been lots of coincidences of that number playing a role in my life.  For instance my birthday is on the 7th......I spent 7 great years with my grammas, I would spend the next 7 years with a mother from hell......and in the next 7 years I ran away from home, got 2 jobs and an apartment for two years, met my first husband and had two children and was pregnant with twins!!! Lots of 7's in there huh??? lmao 

To be fair I should not leave anyone with the thoughts that my mother was unfit........but very close to it......but only to me! She returned to Hawaii from New York and abruptly removed me from my town gramma physically and threatened me daily of never seeing her again if I didn't learn to mind! She beat me daily......OMG if one day should pass that I didn't say or do something wrong it would be a miracle! She starved me to death!! (Like I could not have lived on my fat I had stored for about another 7 yrs!) She introduced me to a stepfather, three sisters and a brother and was pregnant!  They were the kids out of a horror movie..........touching stuff that didn't belong to them!! I had one doll that I could play with........it was made of metal and had blonde painted on hair and a painted on green dress and a key in the middle of her back and when you wound it up she roller skated.......it was the only toy I took with me and she threw it away because I wouldn't share it! She called me names and the other kids quickly learned them and would tease me too.

Now to be totally honest........she showed up at my grammas out of the blue and I had no clue who she was.......to me she was just someone off the street! I fought going with her so hard and so loud that one of the neighbors called the police.  When the officer arrived he explained to me that she was my mother and I had to go with her........hell he didn't know that I had never seen this woman before today!!! So yes I finally got into the car........but holy cow did I have attitude!!!  So yes I got beat daily, but to be fair she was trying to break a wild horse!!  I was beligerent, hateful to say the least.......told you already that I had the vocabulary of a 40 yr old so I was constantly with the Tobasco bottle to my mouth!! And I had to learn that when you are part of a FAMILY that you cannot just get into the refrigerator and help yourself........are you kidding me??? So yes, on top of all the rest........I was freakin hungry!!! And all the time her pregnant hormones were runnin amuck and I was driving her crazy!! I knew it pissed her off cause I wouldn't cry when she whipped me so I would grit my teeth and I'd have cut off my own hand before I cried.......Did I mention that I was born stubborn??? Now my stepfather was great........but rarely around! He played golf in his spare time but he was in the Army so he worked very long hours.  I knew I was safe when he was at home though so I would push a little.........lol  Then there were the siblings from hell !  I could have easily choked every one of them!!

I do have to give my mother credit for everything she taught me.  If not for her I wouldn't know how to sew, cook, clean, deal with crying babies in the middle of the night, potty train a child, iron clothes and do laundry!! By the time I was 14 I could have been married and raising a family!! I felt like the maid a lot of the time but you know you just focus on the future and take it one day at a time......sometimes it was fun messin with her......it was worth the whippin just to not cry and frustrate the hell out of her!

I truly wanted to bypass these 7 years but Dan said if you are gonna tell the story then tell all of it........yeah, I know he's right so I tried to make it as civil as I could and just let your imaginations figure out the rest.......lol I do promise from now my stories will be much happier! And we'll unfold more 7's in my world!!

Everyone has their FIRST dissappointment in life.......right?  Well I was one hella spoiled little girl! I'll be the first to admit that!! "Only child" syndrome had not been invented yet but trust me had it been my picture would be right beside that one!! lol  I'm thinkin that to have waited 6 years to experience something that would make me snap outta my perfect world was extrodinary.....or to recollect it now kind of makes a tear come to my eye!  It was the first time in my little life that I realized, really realized that I was FAT!

I had kids in school that made fun of me but my grammas had instilled so much confidence in my little world that I just blew them off.......I laughed at them and pissed them off!! After all, all I had to do was run to the Monsignor and tattle!! And to think I thought he was protective of me......ha, he was protecting the church's bank account!! It's okay though cause it made me feel very protected!! A false sense of security indeed!

Every afternoon I would have a snack after school waiting for me!! My town gramma was a great baker.....and she made Portuguese breads all the time!! I would take my snack and sit in front of the TV to watch The Sherriff Ken Show........it was a kiddie show that had an actual cowboy master of ceremonies......(OMG! I just googled him......lol and he died in 1999! I found his actual obit....wow now if that dont' stir up some stuff!! lol)  Anyways, Sheriff Ken ran a contest and I got so excited and told my gramma she had to help me enter!! Well my country gramma helped me cause remember, town gramma does not read or write! Anyways, I watched it religiously after school everyday before I did homework!  He would show the prize everyday.......a saddle TV seat! I wanted it so bad and I talked about it everyday

Finally the day came for the drawing..........and he called my name!!!  I remember how excited I was and my gramma told me she would take me to the tv channel the next day right after school! The next day filled with anticipation was almost more than I could stand........but a lot of the kids at school already knew I had won the chair.......so that made it even better!!  After school I usually took the city bus home but that day my gramma picked me up in that big ole car and I was actually glad to climb into the back seat for a change!! No arguments!! .......let get this show on the road!!  At the station I met Sherriff Ken and had my picture taken with him and then he brought the tv chair out........on tv it looked much bigger!!!

My heart sank as I stood beside it.......hell I knew I couldn't even lift my little fat leg that high!!  I said thank you and my gramma and I left the studio.  We put it in the back seat with me and for the first time ever.........I had nothing to say the entire ride home!! I sat there silently with tears streaming down my cheeks and even though I didn't think my gramma was that smart, today I realize she did know what I was going through!!

I had a Raggedy Ann doll that her neice had made for me.  It sat on my bed and I was not allowed to carry it around or God forbid, take it outside!!! lol As we pulled into the driveway she said to me...."Know what we can do with your prize?".......I answered "No".........she said,"c'mon and I'll show you"!  We climbed the stairs to the bedrooms and the TV room......My gramma was old but she was tough.....she carried that saddle chair upstairs by herself.  We got up stairs and still I had nothing to say or to get excited about.  She put the saddle chair in front of the tv where I sat everyday and she left the room.......I just stood there pissed off!! When she returned she had Raggedy Ann!!! She told me, "well now Raggedy Ann can watch TV with you.......do you like that? Look she fits on it perfect!!"  OMG......my world was fixed!!

My gramma went to get my snack........I sat and watched tv with Raggedy Ann and the world was good again!!  I'm not trying to say I never think about that episode in my life......I have plenty of times!! But the trauma was never that bad again.......Why did Humpty Dumpty sit on a wall??? Because thats where he fit!!!

I realize that most of the people that will read this know me as Lola Ann Lyle or Romero or Herron!! Damn girl can't make up your mind???.......Actually I was born Caryla Owennetta Mailelani Hussman.  I know what a mouthful huh? Trust me I will get to the Lola story later!

Well town gramma was quite the devout Catholic! We attended mass everyday while she could still drive! Remember she was in her 80's.......she drove this big car with running boards and what seemed like a mile between the front seat and the back seat where I always had to ride.......I remember crying to sit in the front but she would never give in. Her reason being that I was safer in the back seat! I couldn't see out the windows but I could hear horns honking all the time and gramma would be yelling in Portuguese.......oh I know she wasn't saying nice things because after awhile I could say those things pretty plain and had to eat chile peppers a few times!! Later after she couldn't drive any longer and I don't know why.......we would take the public transit to church but no matter........we went everyday!!!

So when I turned 5 it was time for kindergarten!!! And it only stands to reason that I would attend St. Theresa's Catholic School. The first day of school wasn't scary at all for me, afterall I had been to the big Church in front of the school everyday of my life that I could remember!! I think I gave the nuns there a run for their money because they so weren't used to such a precocious 5 year old I'm sure!! I know I had the vocabulary of a 40 year old at least!!! lol And some of my language skills made them frown!! But I never got into trouble.........as an adult I realized that I was the monsignors pet cause my gramma donated tons of money to the church!!  But as a child, you don't know all these things are going on.

Before I could start school though I needed my uniforms!!! A white blouse with puffed sleeves that made my little fat arms appear to be bigger than they were already!!! A navy blue jumper with patch on the left upper shoulder <STS> well the T was larger than the two S's......navy blue socks and black and white oxfords! Well town gramma had a hard time saying NO to me and when I wanted sandals from the time I could talk she always gave in and therefore at 5 I had feet that were triple wide!! So my shoes were a problem but not as big of one as was trying to find a uniform to fit me!! As a last resort we went to a little Chinese tailor who made them for me........yes I was probably about three feet tall and measured at a womens size 14! Yes you read that right!! You see I was being raised by two grandmothers each thinking that the other one was starving me to death........and its a wonder to me  that I did not have serious health problems way before I turned 50!

In the Catholic Church when you are babtized you are given a baptismal name.......mine was Caryla.......derivative of Charles, making St. Charles my patron saint!! You then take your baptismal name as your first name in Catholic school (or you did back then I found out) and since all of my education was in a Catholic school, Caryla just became my legal name from then on. Now I'm wondering who decided that......my grandmothers or my mother?? After all my biological fathers name is CHARLES! I guess I will never know the answer to that question. I do know that my mother had no use for the man and never had anything good to say about him while I was growing up but I have come to make my own mind up about him, and I do believe she must have been a "woman scorned"!!.......oh and trust me, more later on that subject!!

My country gramma was mostly Hawaiian and mixed with who knows what........my town gramma was pure Portuguese and her first husband was pure German so my maternal grandfather was part of each! Hence the phrase "melting pot"!   I have come to find out my biological father was French/Hawaiian.......OMG what a little mess I came out to be.......in modern times my nationality is just "mutt"!  It's short and sweet!

My country gramma when I was born worked at  the Libby, McNeil & Libby pineapple cannery......since has become Dole.  My town gramma was already pushing 80 if not there already.  So, I remember back around 3 years old, I would stay all week with my town gramma and on Fridays my country gramma would pick me up after work to spend weekends with her and my step grandfather.  On Monday morning she would return me to town gramma for the week. I don't remember my mother in those years but I have as an adult seen pictures of her with me at that age but during that time no one ever mentioned her or showed me pictures of her.  I just figured everyone lived with their grammas......didn't they?? Actually she had married my stepfather after graduation and he was stationed in New York for a time. My great-grandparents begged her not to take me cause my Pa was dying. And so she left me with the stipulation that my biological father and his family were never to have access to me!!! I still wonder why.......hmmm

Now my town gramma was quite the character!! At her age she loved her vino!! I cannot remember a time when there was not a gallon jug of Mogan David wine on our dining room table! At dinner she would have one glass and if I had been good all day I got a little shot glass too! My poor gramma couldn't read or write,. At the bank she would make an X on the back of her check and they would give her money!!! Wow, my little brain thought if I could find a check I could get money too!!  And trust me at 3, I was quite the little shopper already!! No wonder I'm a freakin shopaholic! 

On the other hand my country gramma was educated and by 4 years old I knew my alphabet and how to write them!  At town grammas there was no talking allowed at the dinner table (sometimes we had folks living with us for a little while). The dinner table was to eat at not play!  So to fill my boredom I would memorize letters to the words on the back of the gallon jug of wine.  I would look at them every meal and on Friday I would be so excited for country gramma to get there........I could spell things to her all the way to her house which back then was about an hours drive.  she would stop me when a word was spelled and tell me what the word was......for example, I would spell........grapes were grown in bright sun.........but I would be spelling.........g-r-a-p-e-s-w-e-r-e-g..........she would stop and tell me that grapes was one word..........and that my friends, is how I learned to read!!! Before I was 5 years old I could read the whole wine bottle!  I would spell billboards and she would tell me the each word and the next week I could read the billboard aloud to her.......bright child??? Hmm......not so sure, but God did give me quite a brain as I hope to reveal in future tales!!! lmao  And as an adult I have figured out thats why I have this gift that to type a word once I rarely ever forget it!!

Doesn't every good story start this way???

I have many good memories of my very early years with "country gramma" (mothers mother) and my great-grandparents, my "Pa" and "town gramma" (my mothers grandparents).Hopefully I can put some of the best times I remember into a context that will allow you all to share the laughter and the tears I feel when I go back there.......

I have been told that I shouldn't go back......its the past.  Maybe so, but I think that going back not only reminds us where we started from, but teaches us what things not to do along that journey called "Life".... At the same time our memories serve as free entertainment!! (I am always in search of a bargain.....lol)

It was a warm day in paradise, September 7, 1949........oops........I was born!! I can't really tell you all what happened in the months that followed but apparently since I was born the first week of September......I'm guessing school was starting and since my mother was still in high school, I take it my great-grandmother began taking care of me from the git!

At two years of age is really where my memories begin.....its a timetable that I put together myself. My "Pa" still worked in the shipyards at Pearl Harbor and he died when I was three. Some things remember like it was yesterday! We lived down a lane high on a mountain top overlooking in one direction Diamond Head and the other direction you could see Pearl Harbor.....from the second floor veranda. Even at two I was able to realize that I was their whole world! I don't think I was ever a baby....I couldn't tell time but I was able to look at the big school wall clock in the kitchen and know when the little hand was on the 4 and the big hand was on the 3 then it was time to walk up the lane to meet my Pa. 

An older Asian man parked his vegetable truck in front of the Morages house everyday and I could get an ice cream and my Pa would pay him when his ride dropped him off from work.

He would ask me everyday......"what you like girl?" I would reply...."one vanilla ice cream please".  And smart enough at this early age to realize in time that I could ask for another!! And he would tell me......."where your stick"? So with that......sometimes I would have time to eat three ice creams......hold on to my sticks and Pa would pay for them when he got there!! At two, life was all about ice cream and dinner!! Sure enough when Pa and I would walk down the lane dinner would be ready! Its no wonder I was as big around as I was tall!!!

Pa had a stroke when I was three, I don't know the time frame that he lived after that. He would lie in the bed and he couldn't talk anymore.  I had a little two step stool that he built me so I could reach the bathroom sink to brush my teeth and I would carry it to the side of his bed and put his glass of water with a glass straw in it....to his mouth so he could drink. I would part his lips and put the glass straw in between his teeth so he could sip. Then he would smile at me when I removed it........now really at two??? Weird I don't remember him eating anything, but I remember his funeral and waving goodbye to the first man in my life that I would love.