Just More Of My Bio
A few days ago I was sitting quietly enjoying the solitude of relaxing in my recliner without the sounds of TV or radio when I suddenly thought of a former classmate. Though this may not seem strange in itself, for me it was just that since it has been thirty-seven years since I was last in school. Furthermore it has been twenty-seven years since I moved away from the up-state New York region in which I had lived in my school days.
Just to recap my bio some from the one listed here on my blog I was indeed born here in Ohio back in 1951. I lived in the very small village of Leetonia with my Mom and older brother in my grandparents home,(my Mom’s parents). One of my Moms brothers and one of her sisters and her son also lived in the home with us. We were of what most of society would refer to as the poorer end of middle class. Then again back in the early fifties in this area that was most of what the local families were, poor.
Growing up in a tiny village like Leetonia was almost like living in the country. I mean we only lived two blocks from the downtown area and one block from our Little League Baseball field and yet we had two dogs, several ducks, and an entire fenced in chicken coop. We always had a very large garden, and fruit trees. All of which was used along with the collection of fresh eggs every morning and the harvesting of the chickens to reduce the food costs of the household. My granny made fresh pies, bread, rolls, butter, ice cream, and other baked goods all the time. Every Sunday it would be Sunday school, then Church and then home for the big family dinner where every week one or more of my aunts or uncles and their families would come by for a visit with my grandparents and dinner. My grandparents had thirteen children, the youngest a daughter passed away at around three years old. Back in those days if a child or even some adults got pneumonia it was usually fatal as it was for my aunt Lorraine.
At the end of my fifth year of school in 1962 my Dad returned home from the US Army where he had been since 1951. He was trying to make a thirty year career out of it but from the injuries he had received in Korea his health had reached a point that the military was tired of giving him operations year after year and they finally told him he would need to retire from the Army and return to civilian life. Almost immediately after getting home he and Mom bought a house downtown and for the first time in our life my older brother and I would leave my grandparents home and move into a home that was just made up of a Mom, a Dad and two sons. Every chance I got I would take the three block trip across town to my grandparents house to talk with my granny. As a small boy I spent more time with granny than Mom since Mom had to work to help with the expenses around the house as did my aunt and uncle and cousin that lived there. My grandparents were retired.
I used to tell my granny that I was afraid to live with my Dad who I really did not know since we had only seen him less than a half dozen times the whole time he was in the Army. During that time we only knew him from all the letters that we exchanged and there really was not that many of those for most of them went to my Mom, and she would relay his thoughts and love to us. My granny would just say that I needed to give him time to adjust and we too needed to make adjustments. I told her it was like we were now in the Army boot camp with all these rules to follow and chores and inspections. She told me to be the young man that she knew I had grown to be without my father around and I would do just fine with him here now. In just a few months, times got really bad and it was hard for my Dad to find steady full-time work. Since his family was from New York City and his older brother lived in up-state N.Y. he called my uncle Roy,(who I was named after since I was born on his birthday), and in no time my parents sold the home they just bought and we moved to up-state N.Y.. We first settled in Fishkill, then six months later we moved to Hopewell Jct., about six months after that there was a new housing development being built just down the road, (still in Hopewell Jct.), so my parents had a new home built and we moved again. This would become our final move as a family.
Our little family began to grow with another brother in 1963, a sister in 1964, and our last sister in 1965. With three more mouths to feed and a new home to pay for my Dad took on a second job and my Mom went to work also, which meant that my older brother and I became the care givers of our new siblings while my parents went off to work. We also did much of the cooking, most of the house work, yard work, and even laundry. Mom would work full time hours as a waitress and then come home to help and or relieve my brother and I so that we could find time to hang out with our friends and finish our home-work if we had not done so already. Once again we did not see much of Dad with him working two jobs and only having Sundays off, which was his only day to rest and inspect our work. When you are young and really do not understand how life really works you form a completely wrong idea of why Dad works from early morning to late night six days a week. We just thought he was just plain mean and angry because he was more or less forced to retire from the Army that he loved so much, and working kept him away from us and our home. It probably took me until my mid to late thirties before I really got to know my Dad, since as soon as I was out of school and turned eighteen I left home and basically shut him out of my life, until I lived with him here in Ohio for just over a year. Now that Dad has passed and gone home to be with our Lord I truly miss him and his wisdom.
During our school days in New York I had a very hard time at first since I tended to be shy and counted on my big brother to be my protector as he had my entire life. If anyone picked on me or fought with me and I was hurt in anyway then my brother would find them and put an old country type of whopping on them then he would come home and whop on me and tell me that I better start getting stronger and stand up for myself because he could not always be there to pick me up. It took longer than I would have liked and my brother whopped my butt more than I liked but I did finally learn how to fight for myself. That meant less butt whopping from my piers and from my brother too, which I really liked. Though I did try to avoid fighting as much as possible, I did not allow anyone to just push me around anymore. My brother just kept telling me that we no longer lived in an environment where everyone got along with each other as they did back home in Ohio, and I needed to find newer ways to survive or I would be crushed and left behind.
The schools in N.Y. where filled with far more kids than back home, one grade level had more students than our entire school in Ohio and our housing development even had more kids than schools back home. As you can see I never stopped calling Leetonia home. I always said some day I will return to my roots and the elements in which I feel more comfortable. I guess when you are born a poor kid from a very small village for some it’s hard to let go of that safe and secure feeling you get here. I for one love being back home, and out of the bigger cities and that fast paced lifestyle. Though in all honesty this little trip down memory lane has made me remember all the great friends I made in New York and in Florida where I lived for nine years before coming back home to Leetonia.
I joined Classmates.com just a few days ago and I really am not very pleased with their service. They more or less do not let you do much of anything on their site unless you pay. Free members can basically just look around and you can not post anything in the message boards or even send or read any e-mail you may get. With all the advertising on their site I think they have no reason other than greed to charge to connect with former classmates. I am hoping that the short bio that I put there will get some of my old friends to visit here. Even in your bio there you must be very careful what you say or they will delete it. I think it would be nice to hear from some old friends. If they do come here all they need to do is post a comment with their contact info which I totally control and I would simply get their info then delete it and NOT post it.
Well that’s enough of my bio for now. The next time I will talk more about my life in New York, school days, married life, my two sons, why I moved to Florida, new marriages in Florida, why I left Florida to come home to Ohio and the wonderful wife that I found here and the last fifteen years with her. Until then may all your days be Blessed. Please visit here often and tell all your friends and family to stop by too.
Just to recap my bio some from the one listed here on my blog I was indeed born here in Ohio back in 1951. I lived in the very small village of Leetonia with my Mom and older brother in my grandparents home,(my Mom’s parents). One of my Moms brothers and one of her sisters and her son also lived in the home with us. We were of what most of society would refer to as the poorer end of middle class. Then again back in the early fifties in this area that was most of what the local families were, poor.
Growing up in a tiny village like Leetonia was almost like living in the country. I mean we only lived two blocks from the downtown area and one block from our Little League Baseball field and yet we had two dogs, several ducks, and an entire fenced in chicken coop. We always had a very large garden, and fruit trees. All of which was used along with the collection of fresh eggs every morning and the harvesting of the chickens to reduce the food costs of the household. My granny made fresh pies, bread, rolls, butter, ice cream, and other baked goods all the time. Every Sunday it would be Sunday school, then Church and then home for the big family dinner where every week one or more of my aunts or uncles and their families would come by for a visit with my grandparents and dinner. My grandparents had thirteen children, the youngest a daughter passed away at around three years old. Back in those days if a child or even some adults got pneumonia it was usually fatal as it was for my aunt Lorraine.
At the end of my fifth year of school in 1962 my Dad returned home from the US Army where he had been since 1951. He was trying to make a thirty year career out of it but from the injuries he had received in Korea his health had reached a point that the military was tired of giving him operations year after year and they finally told him he would need to retire from the Army and return to civilian life. Almost immediately after getting home he and Mom bought a house downtown and for the first time in our life my older brother and I would leave my grandparents home and move into a home that was just made up of a Mom, a Dad and two sons. Every chance I got I would take the three block trip across town to my grandparents house to talk with my granny. As a small boy I spent more time with granny than Mom since Mom had to work to help with the expenses around the house as did my aunt and uncle and cousin that lived there. My grandparents were retired.
I used to tell my granny that I was afraid to live with my Dad who I really did not know since we had only seen him less than a half dozen times the whole time he was in the Army. During that time we only knew him from all the letters that we exchanged and there really was not that many of those for most of them went to my Mom, and she would relay his thoughts and love to us. My granny would just say that I needed to give him time to adjust and we too needed to make adjustments. I told her it was like we were now in the Army boot camp with all these rules to follow and chores and inspections. She told me to be the young man that she knew I had grown to be without my father around and I would do just fine with him here now. In just a few months, times got really bad and it was hard for my Dad to find steady full-time work. Since his family was from New York City and his older brother lived in up-state N.Y. he called my uncle Roy,(who I was named after since I was born on his birthday), and in no time my parents sold the home they just bought and we moved to up-state N.Y.. We first settled in Fishkill, then six months later we moved to Hopewell Jct., about six months after that there was a new housing development being built just down the road, (still in Hopewell Jct.), so my parents had a new home built and we moved again. This would become our final move as a family.
Our little family began to grow with another brother in 1963, a sister in 1964, and our last sister in 1965. With three more mouths to feed and a new home to pay for my Dad took on a second job and my Mom went to work also, which meant that my older brother and I became the care givers of our new siblings while my parents went off to work. We also did much of the cooking, most of the house work, yard work, and even laundry. Mom would work full time hours as a waitress and then come home to help and or relieve my brother and I so that we could find time to hang out with our friends and finish our home-work if we had not done so already. Once again we did not see much of Dad with him working two jobs and only having Sundays off, which was his only day to rest and inspect our work. When you are young and really do not understand how life really works you form a completely wrong idea of why Dad works from early morning to late night six days a week. We just thought he was just plain mean and angry because he was more or less forced to retire from the Army that he loved so much, and working kept him away from us and our home. It probably took me until my mid to late thirties before I really got to know my Dad, since as soon as I was out of school and turned eighteen I left home and basically shut him out of my life, until I lived with him here in Ohio for just over a year. Now that Dad has passed and gone home to be with our Lord I truly miss him and his wisdom.
During our school days in New York I had a very hard time at first since I tended to be shy and counted on my big brother to be my protector as he had my entire life. If anyone picked on me or fought with me and I was hurt in anyway then my brother would find them and put an old country type of whopping on them then he would come home and whop on me and tell me that I better start getting stronger and stand up for myself because he could not always be there to pick me up. It took longer than I would have liked and my brother whopped my butt more than I liked but I did finally learn how to fight for myself. That meant less butt whopping from my piers and from my brother too, which I really liked. Though I did try to avoid fighting as much as possible, I did not allow anyone to just push me around anymore. My brother just kept telling me that we no longer lived in an environment where everyone got along with each other as they did back home in Ohio, and I needed to find newer ways to survive or I would be crushed and left behind.
The schools in N.Y. where filled with far more kids than back home, one grade level had more students than our entire school in Ohio and our housing development even had more kids than schools back home. As you can see I never stopped calling Leetonia home. I always said some day I will return to my roots and the elements in which I feel more comfortable. I guess when you are born a poor kid from a very small village for some it’s hard to let go of that safe and secure feeling you get here. I for one love being back home, and out of the bigger cities and that fast paced lifestyle. Though in all honesty this little trip down memory lane has made me remember all the great friends I made in New York and in Florida where I lived for nine years before coming back home to Leetonia.
I joined Classmates.com just a few days ago and I really am not very pleased with their service. They more or less do not let you do much of anything on their site unless you pay. Free members can basically just look around and you can not post anything in the message boards or even send or read any e-mail you may get. With all the advertising on their site I think they have no reason other than greed to charge to connect with former classmates. I am hoping that the short bio that I put there will get some of my old friends to visit here. Even in your bio there you must be very careful what you say or they will delete it. I think it would be nice to hear from some old friends. If they do come here all they need to do is post a comment with their contact info which I totally control and I would simply get their info then delete it and NOT post it.
Well that’s enough of my bio for now. The next time I will talk more about my life in New York, school days, married life, my two sons, why I moved to Florida, new marriages in Florida, why I left Florida to come home to Ohio and the wonderful wife that I found here and the last fifteen years with her. Until then may all your days be Blessed. Please visit here often and tell all your friends and family to stop by too.
posted by R.J.Keller | 10:11 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home