The Mixed Up Years

We moved from there to First Ave in Lawrenceburg.  I dont remember much about this time except it is when I had the mumps and DR W. O. Crowder made an in home visit to check on me.  Dr.'s don't do that type of thing any more. 

From there we moved to the Deerfield Communitty but the truth is that we moved out on the Waynesboro Hwy somewhere between Lawrenceburg and Deerfield but not sure exactly where. What I am sure of is that I have no memory of going to school in the 3rd grade.  Without Anne and Connie who remember me going to West Highland Elementary School in the 3rd grade I would have no idea when I started there.  We had so many moves in such a short period of time that there is not much I can remember until the 4th grade. It was out here near Deerfield that Brownie reached his demise. It seems that he got to running with some other dogs and they started killing hogs. The man that owned the hogs said that we could pay for the hogs or put Brownie down. I remember crying for days. But I do know we had no other choice as we were poor and could not afford the cost of the hogs. Also once a dog gets the taste of blood in their system you can't get it out of them.
 

From here we moved back to into Lawrenceburg to Deller St and our first brick home.  We always rented after we lost the store.  We rented the rest of my Mom's life.  It was here that we took in renter's to help pay the rent.  One was a nurse that was fairly short and was a grest friend to my mom the rest of her life.   Her name was Jean.  The other one I remember was a very pretty one, at least for my young age of about 10.  She was from Mt Pleasant and took me with her on one trip back home.


This place was my first encounter with intruders or peeping toms.  I remember my mother yelling at me to grab the gun.  I had no idea what she was talking about as the only we had was a bb gun.  Well I grabbed the gun and went running into the kitchen where she was.  It seems that there had been a man looking in the window of the kitchen door.  Have no idea what I was doing but I went running out the door and up an alley looking for the man that had been looking in the window.  This whole time my mother was yelling for me to come back.  What was I gonna do,  beat him with the gun?  That is the mind of a 10 yr old though.


Let me make a point here fom for single women of boys.  Let them be boys.  My mother always called me her big man.  I tried to live up to that and tried to be a man before it was time and somehow lost my childhood.  Don't misunderstand me I was mostly carefree and played like most kids.  But I do feel like I missed a childhood.


This is the first time in my life that my sister and brother in law had not lived with us.  I missed them very much, especially my brother in law.