I wasn't born this old!

And here's proof.

My mother and father met in Washington,DC after the start of WW II. She had just graduated from Elon College in NC and had her first job in Washington. He was of course military, army.  No one in the family has anything written about the courtship (brief) or the wedding. I was the first (not only) product of their marriage. The final total is 11. That means that in order for me to list them all in order requires a spread sheet. Not doing that. Just sayin' there are a lot of us!
No real explanation for this but my father was never "Dad", "Pop", etc but simply Max. both sides of the family were from the old school about the demonstration of love and affection...you don't.

Max didn't get to stay stateside for long. In 1942 troopships were anything that humans could be crammed into, not magical mystery tours. They were mass produced buckets called "Liberty ships", of which there are still a few existing as museums. There is one in San Francisco and another here in Tampa that I'm aware of. Visiting one is one way to show your child the difference between then and now. As a medic Max saw the worst of what war does. He saw it in Africa, Sicily and Italy. Somewhere in  a box there's a picture of him in the Piazza Popolo in Rome. Black and white and 2"by 2".

He survived all of that, returned home to North Carolina. We lived in a small town (Kannapolis) north of Charlotte named after Charlie Cannon the owner of Cannon Mills.At first we all stayed with my grandmother. To me it was a big house, but then I was small. My mother, father, grandmother, uncle and myself all in that house most likely means my memory isn't perfect on that one. With the edition of my first sister it was time to move. So they found a place two or three blocks down the street.  My singular recollection from that house was being awakened one night by noise in the back yard, pandemonium and flashing lights...the neighbors horse was loose in our yard and I guess eating his way through the grass.

A newer, bigger place in "Royal Oaks" was our next move, just in time for sister #2. I remember the house mostly for the fact that it was rural...then. The only kids to play with were the sharecroppers (black) down the  road. We were kids so we did what all kids do...play. On my birthday (6), Max told me that they had something special for me, a new sister. My immediate response was to burst into tears, I had a sister already. I really wanted a puppy!

We eventually got a black Cocker Spaniel. Memory says that he followed someone home. Shaky on that part. Bozo was mine. He even followed me to school, which was a bit of a task as we were on a school bus. He did get to ride home. And then he followed someone else somewhere else...shiftless, no 'count dog!

Max needed to return to his roots. After taking a college offered trucking course he got a job offer  from a large New England trucking company and it was off. Back to the future, Everett,Ma. where everyone talked funny. They still do, what's an R?


...to be continued