My stories have been more or less chronological thus far, with a few throw backs and throw forwards, a few sideline thoughts on various subjects. Thank you, dear readers, for your patience and support, and for sticking with me when you never knew what was coming next. I started with the wedding of my mother and stepfather when I was ten years old, and brought our blended family all the way from Arkansas to California in 1955. I told about most all that happened to us: all the places we lived, vehicles we drove, schools and churches we attended (or not), work we did, vacations we took, and babies we had (Diane)...
Obviously a lot of my memories have been left out. Some things are just too personal to put out there for the world to see. I try to keep in mind that what I say in this blog about my siblings, particularly, might be read by them, and while it must be true, it should not cast them in a bad light unnecessarily. There have been times I wasn't sure about some detail or name, and my siblings have been very gracious to help me remember. I want to acknowledge that, and thank them. My brothers Jim and Ray have been especially gracious and helpful; they are the ones closest to me in age. I love them all very much.
I have skimmed over some years, left out a few stories that I couldn't quite bring myself to tell, yet. Maybe I'll come back to those in the future. There are also a few untold stories about the two years I spent in Cleveland, Tennessee attending our church's high school, Tomlinson Memorial School. There I lived with a precious family, and occasionally spent nights or weekends with other families in the area, and had many classmates who became lifelong friends of mine.
TMS was a tiny school by comparison to Delano or Bakersfield High School(s). It had only 45 students in the first through twelfth grades when I was there. A number of the students in the school were living in an orphanage sponsored by the Church. The orphanage had several homes that housed large groups of children (and teens). There was a home for the older boys, one for the younger boys, one for the girls (all ages), and maybe another one, too; I can't remember for sure.
The school also had students from private homes, and students who "boarded" with church families in the area. I boarded with the Thornton family. Boyd Thornton was the Superintendent of the Orphanage. The Thornton family allowed me to "pay" my room/board by helping out around their home and being at home after school with their young daughter, Anita, who was about ten, until they arrived home from the Orphanage Office at five or so. Sometimes I helped with preparatory cooking (scrubbing potatoes, etc.) for dinner, but "Uncle Boyd" (my adopted uncle) was the main cook, and he was very good at it. Also, I ironed whatever laundry needed it, but I have to admit I wasn't the greatest ironer.
Whenever the Thornton family went out of town for the weekend, which happened occasionally, Anita and I would stay in one or another of the orphanage homes. I usually stayed in the younger boys' home with my friend Kathy (Covey). Her parents, Warren and Theresa Covey, were House Parents in that home. I enjoyed that family very much and loved the little boys. I think there were... maybe twenty (?) younger boys there.
A few years later the Covey family moved to Alaska and were active in our church up there. When I moved to Alaska in 1969 (see My First Airplane Ride...), I stayed with the Covey family for a couple weeks or so before we completed the hauling of our trailer to Anchorage. The Coveys were among our closest friends throughout the years we lived in Alaska.
I graduated from TMS in 1963 and returned to California. I may in the future include stories in Grannie's Memories about times and people I knew and loved during those years. For now, though, I plan to forge ahead to memories of when Grannie was a young adult in the early '60's. (I'm smiling... because there are a lot of those stories coming up...)
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