We didn't move back into our old house. We didn't move back to the same town. We moved into the city of Decatur, close to the railroad tracks which I loved. I could sit and watch the trains go by. The late night traffic on the four land road in front of the house was hard to get used to.

I made friends with a girl that lived in an apartment nearby. She was a lot of fun. She introduced me to the girl that lived across the railroad tracks, in a house. She had a bicycle and we used to take turns riding it. We were not allowed to ride it out on the four lane road.

I had done something wrong. I can't remember now what it was, but, I was not allowed to ride the bike. I did ride it anyway. I fell off bike into the gravel driveway. I got a rock stuck in my knee, and Mom had to dig it out. I told her it was because I broke the rules. She just laughed. My swelled knee did not let me ride the bike for a long time.

There was a store at the end of the block that I could go to. I used to take my allowance and buy ice cream bars. They cost a dime, and I went in, picked up the ice cream and started talking to the girl that worked there. I left and when I got outside, I opened my hand to see the dime. I rushed back in saying "Im sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to steal it." The girl laughed so hard. She took my dime and promised it would be our little secret.

This was during the Vietnam War. Debbie had a guitar and loved writing songs. There was a halfway house, up the street called 'The Harmony House' and that was her first song. We were big fan of Johnny Cash. The train tracks reminded us how sad it was about our 'boys' going off to war. She wrote a song 'In Vietnam'. Vick and I sang it with Debbie, and we did really nice harmony. We sounded really good together. We played it almost every time we went to the 'Hootinannys', just the family and friends getting together to play what I always though of as 'hillbilly' music.

The hootinannys were a lot of fun. We would all eat, play music, then the kids would go off and do all kinds of fun stuff. We did that every 3rd Friday.

Vicki had gone out on a date with Shorty. A few weeks later Mom, Dad, Shorty and Vicki were all fighting. Then they took a trip so Shorty and Vicki could get married. I found out Vicki was going to have a baby. Shorty had been around my whole life, so I figured it was nice having him as a brother, for real.

We moved across town and I had to change schools. Which was a good thing. I didn't like the teacher I had much. No one ever told me I was supposed to bring my spelling work book home to finish it, so every Friday when I didn't have it done, I would get a lick with the paddle. If someone would have told me, I know I could have gotten it done.

The new school was a lot better. A couple of the boys from the old school had moved, and wouldn't you know, we were in the same class at the new school too. That was pretty neat.

There were two boys in my new class. One was Robert and he was so proud to be black. He would tell you he loved it, and no body better mess with him. I liked him. I had never been in school with black Kids before and Robert seemed confident to me. Calvin was not like that at all. He just wanted to be white. I asked him why and he just said, 'You got it so much better'! I told him "That isn't true, and he should not be sad". We became really good friends during this school year.

My new teacher taught us about 'Current Events'. Everyday we did the 'Morning News, Each week we would change people doing news, weather and sports. I liked doing the weather, and the news was okay, but I really didn't care much for sports. It taught us the importance of staying up to date on what was happening around us. This was a good confidence building exercise, being able to talk in front of other people.

I had some friends that I got pretty close to. They asked me if I wanted to come to their house after school. Mom told me it would be okay. One day I walked home with them. We were walking down a red brick street and I said that My Aunt Ginny had lived on a street like this. I looked to my left, pointed and I told them, "actually, that was her house." We continued on down to their house to play.

Later, on my way home I went and knocked on the door to Aunt Ginny's house. I was really glad when it was my Uncle Tony that answered the door, since Aunt Ginny had passed away a few years before. He knew me right away, and we visited for a little bit before I had to go home. I stopped by a few more times, when Mom knew I was going to. It was nice to see him, and talk. He let me help him with his Vegitable Garden.

This New house that we lived in was really cool. The bedrooms were upstairs. The one that we three girls shared was really huge. It had two big walk-in closets on either side. The closets were so large, that Debbie made one of them into her bedroom. She had her bed, a little dresser and night stand next to her bed. Both closets had windows in the back, and the other closet became one of my hiding places. I liked to stand at the window at night and watch the stars. The stairs were another good hiding spot. They went om two different directions, one was to the kitchen, the other to the living room.

Perrywinkle liked the big Oak Tree in the back yard. He loved to climb way up to the top, but he didn't like to climb back down. We had to call the Fire Department on several occasions to get him down.

We went to visit Mom's Sister in East Moline. We were there for a few days., Since my Dad loved to fish, we went to the Mississippi River. There was a guy there that had some puppies. He called them Cockapoos. Mom said I could have one. We named him Rocky because there were rocks on the bank of the river. He was the first puppy I had since Snoopy. We had to give him away because he bit me. It was my fault. I woke him up and scared him. I cried when they gave him away.

Janie called from Hawaii to say they were coming home. Mom couldn't wait to see them. They had another baby while they were in Hawaii. They had another girl. Her name was Dawn. Mom planned Chrismas in June.

After Christmas in June we packed up and headed back to Florida. We had two Pontiac Station wagons, a box trailer and a boat on a trailer. Everything we owned was packed into them.

We were loaded up and ready to go. Dusty went into the car with no problem. When we tried to put Perrywinkle in the car, he was having none of it. He climbed up the tree. The neighbor said she would get the Fire Department to get him down and keep him for us. Dad agreed that would probably be best. One cat on the trip was bad enough.

This started a whole new adventure for me. I had no Idea how different things were going to be. Come Join me as we head to the place I still call HOME in Okeechobee, Florida