Run, Lola, Run!!

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!!