Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Stressful Experiences

I was very fond of baseball and had followed the Birmingham Barons by radio for a long time. I had enough money to buy a ticket so I rode the Street Car and watched a game after school. The game was so exciting that I stayed longer than I should have. When I was late getting home my Uncle Dee gave me a good "blessing out." I burst into tears and left the room. Aunt Camilla rescued me soothing my feelings. To complicate the situation I wet the bed that night. In later years I learned that this was related to the stress that I had suffered. It is needless to say that I was very relieved when school was out and Mother and I moved back to Talladega. Mother had received a job caring for a blind lady in a retirement home called Sunset Inn. The only problem was finding me a place to stay. I was first housed at the home of Uncle Fred Klein. I remember the positive experience of learning to play dominoes with them. For some reason my stay was short and was moved to live with the Howells who had two children both younger than me. This worked out Ok but it restricted my staying out at night. I renewed my relationship with my boy scout friends and began my first interest in girls. We roller skated together and double dated. My girl friend was La Neil Lamb. I was introduced to "necking" and the good night kiss. My biggest joy was playing tennis almost every afternoon. It was doubles and my partner was Norman Behr. We played two games out of three. The winner stayed on the court for a next doubles game. I was pretty good at tennis mainly because of my ability to run. At the end of the school year I had the opportunity to visit my brother Mitch who had received a position in Richmond Virginia with Minneapolis Honeywell Thermostats. He played tennis with me and took me on two sightseeing trips. One was to Washington and the other was to New York City. This was very exciting for me.
When I returned home, mother had already given up her work and was planning to take Dad out of the Mental Hospital and move to live with Mitch in Virginia. We had a house right across the street from Forest Hill park where Mitch and I played tennis and where we planned to take Dad on regular walks.I was enrolled in John Marshall High school riding the city bus back and forth. I made some friends who rode on the bus. I remember especially one of my courses that was different from the others. It was a Public Speaking