Day 361

My horoscope said wander and ramble so I wrote about the childhood moving. I’m feeling the need to record history. I have written other family letters. Must be because my birthday is coming up fast. Today is cold again and I will bundle up to walk to Karen’s for a massage. I will take greens and lemons to her. Hope the freeze didn’t harm my garden too badly. There is new growth and buds all over that could burn in the cold.

My Father worked for Fire Companies Adjustment Bureau and opened new offices for them. When connections were established he would get a new assignment. I was born in Vallejo California in 1935 and my birth certificate identified me as Shirley Jean Simon. We lived in Alameda before I had memory. I went to kindergarten at Mount Rose school in Reno, Nevada at age 4. We lived in a cute log cabin house.  First grade was at St. Thomas Aquinas when we lived on St. Lawrence street. The nuns questioned my age as I was 5 years old. I remember three houses in Reno. Each one a bit nicer than the previous one. We moved to Missoula, Montana, lived in the Semlo Hotel and ate most meals in a Chinese restaurant. Then came a sleazy apartment and I remember sitting on my knees in at a kitchen table learning to write Sharon. I don’t know why they changed my name. Then we lived in a little house where I had Rocky Mountain spotted fever from a  tick bite. Later we lived on Hilda street in a very nice house. There was a park across the street and we went to Paxton school for second grade and a bit of third. I remember getting dressed for the snowy walk and then undressing the snow clothes at school. The coat room smelled like wet rubber boots. Seemed to me that we spent a lot of time getting in and out of snow suits, boots, and gloves. Off to Salt Lake City where we lived in a variety of weird places and went to at least three difference schools. One house was a two room apartment in an old Victorian in the Sugar House district where we shared a bathroom with neighbors. It always smelled bad.  It had an ice box and it smelled too. Mother went to work at Remington small arms and we were left alone a lot. We moved to Girard street that had a hill great for sleds and went to Washington school. We had air raid drills there. I was in fourth grade for a short time. We moved to San Francisco and lived in a hotel for three months. We didn’t go to school. Finally ended up in Eureka where we lived at the Inn and I went to the last two weeks of the fourth grade at Jefferson school. We found a house at Harris and F Sts. and we walked to Lincoln school and that was the twelfth school . Then we moved to 6^th and P sts. and my brother went to Jr. High. I wanted to stay at Lincoln which required quite a complicated bus ride but I did it. My father was told to go to Phoenix  and my mother said no more moving. They fired him and he opened his own adjusting office. I rode my bike to Jr. High. We moved three more times before I graduated from High School. At 19 I was married and lived for 7 years in Scotia before living in Campton Heights in Fortuna. My brother Bruce and I were always close as most of the time we only had each other for company. We were neglected children. Our dental problems were discovered in a school screening at Lincoln school and my myopia was discovered there in the sixth grade. When he married, he was gone. He didn’t participate in the family any longer. In 1967 I remarried and moved my kids to Klamath, then to Crescent City in 1970. In 1976 I bought this house and have lived here for more than half my life.

How did all this affect my growing up? I learned not to prize material things because Father was going to throw them away before the next move. I had no social skills and didn’t have a clue how to fit in to all the new school situations. I was a wallpaper child leaning up against the wall and watching how people did things. I was more comfortable in class but recess and lunch time were miserable.  It made me a very aware teacher later and I made a point of making new kids comfortable. I never participated in games, sports or physical activities. I didn’t even jump rope. Most of what I know I learned from observing others. Marjorie was my first friend and I learned a lot from her about what that means. She shared her family with me and I learned about Grandmas from her dear Granny. Father used to say that all the moving made us resilient. Looking back I think it was child abuse.