The Awakening

Due to the nature of my Dad's business, we went on vacation in the wintertime. In Spring and Summer, Wisconsin is getting ready for and bombarded with tourists, one of our main sources of income. So every winter our family would go on vacation.

One year we took off and headed to Texas. There was Grandpa Charlie, Grandma Nellie, Mom and Dad along with the three of us, girls. Dad had purchased a one bedroom trailer that was about 20 feet long to haul behind our car. This trailer had a living room/dining room, small kitchen and a separate bedroom on the end with a double bed in it.

Grandpa and Grandma were given the bedroom. Mom and Dad had the living room with its davenport that made into a bed. The three of us had sleeping bags that went on the floor in the rest of the living room when the table had been collapsed and moved into the kitchen. It all worked out.

When we got to Texas; Donna Texas to be exact, we found a trailer court and parked under the trees. This trailer court was in a grove of grapefruit trees so we were surrounded by them. There was a large bathroom/shower building nearby made of cement blocks. The sun was shining and life was great.

Mom and Dad had decided that they wanted to go to Mexico City so after a couple of days, they took off. By this time Grandpa and Grandma had gotten acquainted with some of the other people in the park and could get around without having a car of their own. Someone would take Grandpa to the store if we needed something.

As for us, girls…well, we were pretty much on our own. There were a lot of kids in the park that we got to know right away.

The manager of the park told us that we could eat all the grapefruit that we could pick. His only rule was that nothing was to be left on the ground. Grandpa gave me a pocket knife and showed me how to use it so we could cut the fruit up. Grandma gave each of us a spoon of our own to carry in our pocket. We would climb the trees and sit in them eating half a grapefruit while someone else was eating the other half.

We did have one other rule, after lunch we had to spend an hour or sometimes even a little more on our studies. Before we left home, Mom had gone to each of our teachers and told them what we were going to be doing. (Do you think any school would be this lenient today?) The teacher would use the spiral notebook that Mom brought and within a few days would send it home with us, showing Mom what was going to be covered in the time we would be gone. So we had school work. Grandma was very strict about that in spite of the fact that she was really a softy, but then this Grandma was a reader. She read to us and with us, she just loved to read.

A quick note here, when we got home we had to wait for our classes to catch up with what we had done in the couple of hours a day that we spent on our school work. What does that really say about public education? I admire people who home school their children.

While we were in Texas, Grandma got shingles. She thought it was from the soap that she was using. Sure wish that I knew then what I know now about Shingles and how easily they are to cure. I said cure and how quickly one can get rid of the itching that they bring on. Looking back, I figure that we probably caused it because it is a chicken pox residue that recedes into the nervous system and my guess is that having the complete responsibility of the three of us was a lot for her to deal with.

What was so special about this trip was an awakening in my brain that I wasn't just one of the kids. I already mentioned that there were other "kids" in this park. One boy who was 16 and had his driver's license asked if I would like to go to the drive-in theater a few miles away. He said that we could take his brother and sister along with my sisters and all go. I asked Grandpa and Grandma and they decided that it would be fine. So we went. He asked me to sit in the front seat with him. It was the first time that I realized that I might be of interest to someone. This was a very new feeling for me.

Regressing a bit, I get to tell you about rumors that I have heard. When my Grandpa was interested in my Grandma, He lived on a farm near her in the area east of Clintonville. Grandma's stepfather always allowed her and her sisters to take their horses and wagon to town so Grandpa and his brothers would hitch rides.

Maybe that is why they knew it would be OK for us to all pile into a car to go to the movies? Isn't it interesting how cyclical life is?

We had a great time in Donna, Texas. Sharing Grapefruit, movies and having fun. I have to mention that I never did get kissed and that was a good thing because as I said, this feeling was really new to me. To think that here was a boy that didn't want to pull my hair, push me down or throw something at me. He just wanted to share my grapefruit and climb trees with me. Life was good.