Addendum to birth to five years old

Part Two

Of course I have no memories of birth to five years old only what my parents have told me the only other thing that I remember my father telling me during this time was that I had asthma and for whatever reason he took me to a chiropractor and I don't have any memories of that but apparently and I don't know how many treatments that I had but apparently the chiropractor helped my asthma at five years old while we were still in Kansas. And I know that we must have seen lots of relatives because most since both of my parents were born in Kansas and most of their relatives still lived there my father had nine siblings and my mother had two siblings so there were lots of uncles and aunts around and I although I don't have any specific memories of them during that time but I do have a picture of my cousin Joyce when I was five years old and she was playing and we were playing she was probably babysitting me and I include I will include that picture. The other thing that happened when I was five years old is that my father who was an electrical engineer got a job in Huntsville Alabama.

So in 1962 much to the consternation of all of our relatives in Kansas we moved to Huntsville Alabama. Now I recall driving into the state of Alabama a huge billboard that said welcome to Alabama and it said something about being in the heart of Dixie and it had governor George C Wallace listed as the governor, now you may recall that George C Wallace infamously declared and I of course I had to look this up in his 1963 inaugural address that he stood for “segregation now segregation tomorrow and segregation forever”. However my memories could not be correct perhaps I saw that sign at some other time but at the time that we entered Alabama George Wallace wasn't governor so obviously he had been elected in November of 1962 and the inauguration was in January of 1963 so I couldn't have had that memory well I had the memory but my memory was not accurate not that memoirs have to be but I do want some historical accuracy of this but clearly at some time I saw the sign now it it may have been many many years later. My time in Huntsville started my schooling and I entered kindergarten at Oakwood elementary school my teacher was Mrs. galley she also was my piano teacher and as I recall there was a physical school for the elementary school that was closer to Oakwood University, but kindergarten and 1st grade were held in Mrs. Galley's home. This was the same place that I also took piano lessons from her. So Mrs. Galley became my kindergarten teacher and my first grade teacher because I didn't spend long in kindergarten before I was skipped into first grade.

My father worked for IBM in Huntsville. Many people say IBM is an acronym for “I've been moved”. So, to that point at the age of seven we moved from Huntsville to Sunnyvale California still with IBM. Or at least that's what I believe. He may have been with Chrysler and then with IBM later but my father passed in February of 2024 so I can't verify that at this at this at the time of this writing. I don't recall how we got to California I am sure that we flew and the only recollection of that time period that I have is that well the recollection comes from what my father told me he said upon arrival in California that I looked around and said “I wish that I had been born here”. After much questioning from my parents, I've provided no further elucidation on or illumination on what I meant by that. My second grade was spent in California I don't remember the name of the school that I went to and I have no records of my report cards or anything like that. The only thing that I recall was that while I was in California, and I believe while I was in school we learned that president John F Kennedy had been assassinated and that is and again I I think that I remember that but it also may have been my parents telling me that as well. But that tracks because the year Kennedy was assassinated it was 1963 so perhaps, I was still 6 at that time um I maybe I hadn't turned 7 yet I'll leave the math to you and then we returned after one year in California to Huntsville. I don't know why this happened and, but I do remember that is when we bought a home in a one street cul-de-sac subdivision the subdivision's name was Brandon subdivision and the name of the street was Lydia drive. Everything was still segregated at this time housing schooling so I continued my education after my one year in public school in California back to Oakwood elementary school in not in Mrs. Galley’s house even though I continued piano lessons with her but in the brick-and-mortar school elementary school I would also do 5th grade there. 4th grade however and I don't know the reason for this I went to a Catholic school in Huntsville.