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 |   A Journal to impart knowledge and facts |
On January 26, 1960 I achieved the age of 15. I weighted approximately 87 pounds and was approximately 5 feet 2 inches tall. To enchant my size I was seriously unsocial and introverted. If it were not for one school friend and a girl cousin I would not have had any contact with other teenagers outside of the school classroom. I rarely talked to people who did not talk to me first. The road we lived on had very few homes on it at that time. One other family lived across the road from us. All the children in their family were boys. I went to school on a school bus and came home on a school bus. I lived a lot at my Aunt’s home during the summer. My Aunt and Uncle paid me to clean house and work in their garden. I learned a lot about planting, picking and eating strawberries. On the weekends they took me roller skating. We went to family reunions. I read my Uncles collection of Western novels, which he disapproved, he said they were too sexually explicit for a kid my age. (If only he could meet children in the 21st century.) During the winter a lot of my time at home was spent in the barn. I rode a horse all over the countryside. Because there were so few homes around the area, I basically could ride for miles without interfering with anyone else’s space. When I had to memorize music for chorus or do other homework I sat in the barn, in the horses feed bin, beside the hay rack, to work. The horse was happily munching. I was reading, singing, or writing homework. My dad was often there milking cows or doing other chores. I was chastised by the high school librarian for reading only stories about animals. She told me my reading selections were too narrow and I needed to delve into some nonfiction. ( I read and reread “The Black Stallion” series and popular books by Jack London). My cousin suggested a book about a boy stricken with polio (??) who learned to kayak. I remember the story but not the name of the book or the author or if polio was his real problem. Maybe my mind made up the polio part. Anyway that began a long life of reading nonfiction. In order to write this I had to look up a timeline in Wikipedia. Although, I know about a lot of the news on the timeline I’m not sure how much I remember about events that year. The items I am sure I remember are: 1. Gary Powers captured by the Russians after they shot down his U-2 spy plane. 2. Non violent protests by blacks dominated news. 3. Ben-Hur (I often went to spend time with my cousin in town so we could go to matinees.) 4. There was always news about the cold war and the space race. 5. The one I’m not sure of is McDonald’s fast food arrived in Erie. The 25 cent burger was the rage.  So basically, being alive embarrassed me because I was small and puny of stature. I remember an incident with a locker in school. I had to get the janitor to open it because I forgot the combination after I locked everything of school value inside. I could never understand the morning announcements that came over the intercom. So, I missed important valuable information about assemblies etc. |
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