My Life

My Life part 2

My sister loved her baby sister right away. We lived in a run down apt. in St.Bernard, Ohio. We moved to an apt. on Meis Ave. in N.C.H, but this apt. was on the second floor and it was hard for mom to take us in and out. Finally we moved to 1066 North Troy in Glendale this house belonged to My Mom’s Grandma. Our house was very small but it was home. Daddy fixed it up a lot. It had a large living room, a kitchen and upstairs was one big room with a toilet in the corner. Dad divided the upstairs to one bedroom, a Bathroom and a hall and an attic.
My Mom and Dad sleep on a fold out couch all my growing up years.
I was Daddy’s little tomboy but not a very good one. I didn’t like getting dirty too much. But I loved Fishing and hanging out with Daddy no matter what he was doing.
I can remember very young getting into everything and thinking it was funny to make Mom mad.
I can remember so many fun things we did as a child. My Dad was a Heating and Air Conditioning Repair man and he worked very hard to buy us nice things and we always went on great vacations. Mom was a stay at home Mom she loved us and cooked great dinners and kept are clothes clean, she was just a poor housekeeper. I think this was because she grew up with 5 brothers and had to do everything just right or Grandma yelled at her so as an adult she said forget it.
I loved Grandma Hadlee & Grandpa Hadlee but they had a lot of grandkids so we were not anything special. They did take us to Canada to see the Niagara Falls. (1961)It was a fun trip. Cindy kept a good eye on her baby sister we stayed at a friend of Grandma’s house and the people had two boys and I remember one of the boys trying to undress me and Cindy hit him hard and locked us in a room and we didn’t go by them the rest of the trip. I was 4 and Cindy was 7. We were 31/2 yrs apart.
We went to Florida at least five times I can remember. The first trip I remember we drove in a green falcon and it broke down. Some nice people helped daddy get it fixed and we stayed at a 5 star hotel for free and I remember they had a garden that they had colored crabs or oysters’ I don’t know but there was like twenty of them. I think I was around 5. (1962)
We went to Key West that trip and daddy didn’t like Key West that much and that was in the 60’s. The second trip to (1965) Florida we went to Daytona and had a great time but we all got burnt bad. I meet a little girl named Roberta too. They called her Bobby. I think I was burnt the least, Daddy was burnt behind his knees, and Cindy was burnt all over. Mom wasn’t burnt she never went near the water. Dad and Mom both said we swam with a lot of sparks but I guess I didn’t mind.
We went to Myrtle & Virginia Beach and we went to Washington D.C., and Smokey Mountains. For some reason Daddy never told us West. After I graduated High School before Cindy got married Mom and Dad went to New Orleans and on a cruise to the Bahamas’.

I remember our trip to Washington D.C. I was little. I remember seeing the eternal flam for JFK I think I was too small to know that was for a dead president. I do remember looking up at the Lincoln monument and thinking boy he was a big man. Or maybe I remember that trip because we had pictures and I’d look at them all the time. Daddy took a picture of me and Cindy standing by that monument.
I was only a few years older than John Kennedy Jr. I do remember every adult I knew cried watching the funeral.
I loved my Grandma Hess and Grandpa Hess a lot. Cindy was the First Grandchild and I think that made both us special. Both Dads’ Sister’s had boys until Aunt Ann had Nancy and that was after grandpa died.
I have a favorite memory of Grandpa & Grandma Hess we were going Fishing with Them and we had to stop at a grocery store to get Grandpa bait he liked to use cereal balls and Grandma ran into the store and Cindy and I sat in the car with Grandpa. A little girl was going into the store with her mom and she wanted to ride the horse for a nickel and She got on the horse and was yelling at her mom to put a nickel in the ride Grandpa mocked her and got me and Cindy laughing and all the time we were fishing Grandpa kept joking with us about the little girl. He would say, “Put a nickel in it Mommy” it was funny to two little girls who adored there Grandpa.
We had a lot of friends in our neighborhood. Cindy was friends with older kids on our street. I had tons of Glendale friends. We played kick ball, hide and seek and just hung out together. We lived next to a railroad tracks and I got a lot of spankings for going on the tracks.

I have two sad memories with sickness thrown into it. I was very young when both my Grandfather’s died of Cancer. (12-10-1966) Grandpa Hess. I can remember seeing him in a hall at a hospital then he was gone. Grandpa Hadlee died a slow painful death. I was in first grade and he was sick at home and Mom and two of my Aunts helped Grandma Hadlee take care of him. He died at his home in 1967.
I was very sick myself I got hepatitis and all my first grade class and my whole family had to get a shot to keep from getting sick. To this day I do not know how I got hepatitis. I was sick almost all of first grade but they moved me on to second grade. I was never taught how to sound words out so I couldn’t read at all. I went to summer school and had a great tutor in 2nd grade in Glendale but I was stubborn
I told her I didn’t need to read so I wasn’t going
to try. Mrs. Dilick was very patient but I don’t feel I learned to read good until High school and a teacher gave me books I enjoyed and started reading. I had a sweet old teacher in second grade who told me I was doing great then failed me at the end of the year I hated that old lady and my mom for not telling me I was failing.