Family cars long drives Mom's Mustang and AMC picture

First the VW bus for the school Three bears kindergarten
There was the time I ripped the windshield wiper off of this one at 5(?)
West Palm beach FL company van for the school

Here is what the AMC sort of looked like

It has a push button shift on the dash. I even got to drive it once with her.This may have been the newer model it is sort of like this and could have been different.

The car held up good we had some long road trips and did allot of travelling with the car.

Another car we had was Mom's Ford Mustang same color it was not the "boss" but a nice car.

I remember taking this one out for a late night ride when in ninth grade with my best friend in 

St Louis Missouri at around 130 am in the morning

The stripes were cool, when we brought it back we had to put gas in it too.

Dad had one of these Chevy Chevelle 's 305 motor automatic transmission

Pretty good cruiser

He used to ride the brakes allot too not good for the linings

Drove this thing all over Tallahassee back in the day (77?)

Family 67 Impala *(less rims and nice paint)

When the car died I got it to tinker on, It sat in the orange grove near our house.

 I was unable to repair it, lack of funds and more, parts were expensive 

I learned how to take the heads off and dis assembly was a lesson. Off to the scrap :(

Okay not to be left out I later ended up with one myself  some 10 years later a 26 window, it was hardly looking this nice but what the heck. No roof racks either.
We rally-ed it coming down a mountain .and survived a fence encounter too
Not very great cab heater but it had a gas heater add on, when it worked kept you nice and toasty.
Somehow this one made it to Michigan from Florida and back ...true story

I had one of these 26 window vans. It was one of the first cars (van) that I owned that ran
I was maybe 16 at the time and learned how to fix it a little, part of the joy of owning an old classic
Check the points, fix the gas heater and dress warm in case

YMCA Lifeguard and scuba classes

I guess that mom wanted me to learn how to be a certified scuba diver.
Her and my dad were both avid swimmers water skiers and divers at one time.
We watched Jacques Cousteau and Sea Hunt like it was a religion.

The order of these stories of course is off but what the heck.

I went to the YMCA and took a lifeguard class first and it was fun, we rescued each other and did allot of swimming in the pool.

The diving class was more information we learned about nitrogen and saturation tables more swimming more gear and more techniques as well.

I was happy to get to use the diving skills later on, because a pool is not very much like real didving in the elements.

Once, later on I even got to use my newly learned skills to bring a panicked kid back from a swimming pool deep zone.

Too many stories? so it is a reflection so far 11-6-14

Life is full of experiences and stories so many that after a while you start to realize that maybe you could never write every single thing down that happened all of your life.

Maybe I should stick with the best things and work to the end staying focused on them over the rest of the mundane and boring stories?

Not sure now as I have tried to remember most of the ones that stick out in such a long and lively childhood and adult life. I wonder if I will get to the present and stay there.

This is a journey one that I find myself thinking about even when I am not writing about it.
I hope that one day I can use this to remember the things that I will forget in happier times as I go on or leave for my family and friends to read if they dare.

8th grade science fair project and "Problem Propulsion"

For my science fair project that year (think that it was the eight grade(?)

Decided to go over some of the different methods of propulsion. I had some steam engines some gas engines and then a nuclear powered moon rover model.

I had steam gas ramjet turbine and nuclear engines on the project. Maybe covering more items just wanted o go over them as they were developed.

My downfall was not having more data for this project that is what the judges want I think. I was asked what the statistics were and other questions that should have had more information about but the whole process was good learning and of course allot was done at the last minute.

The state science fair is looking for innovations, one of the projects that I remember winning one year was the pointed car because it was safer and bounced to the side if it hit something. Nice idea.
A few major car companies already have side panels that come off so that the car is more pointed if it collides with an object.

I went to the University of Florida science department to do a little research for the nuclear moon rover and learned a little about how they measure radiation and had to wear a badge at the small reactor there.

I also saw a small hybrid car project that they were working on. I thought the design was a good one.
Basically an electric car but it had a small gas engine battery charger and power supply so that it could also run on the gas as well. I forget exactly but it was very good one gas and probably more suited for urban short distances.

I did not win the science fair that year but did okay and learned allot from working on and studying different propulsion engines.

Chris Craft joyride and Boathouse and the quiet river marina

So at this marina here in Palatka town we were near some super nice yachts
Crystal Cove Marina (?) looks like it on Google maps.
This is where the sunfish we had got stuck in front of *(or I think it was).

The 30K joyride
I'm really not sure what mom paid the old Chris Craft but it was probably close to what a house was.
It was always needing something but otherwise floated.
I really don't want people thinking wow he was a spoiled rich kid, because this boat was one of the "oldies" wood construction and at one time state of the art but now everything was fiberglass or aluminum or even concrete.These older wood boats may be fine in a lake or in a inland river but not to be trusted on the open sea due to the age of the boat and of course possible poor maintenance.
We had looked at a concrete boat too, strange how it would even float.
Getting back to the joyride.
I decided one afternoon out of boredom to start up the engines and get them running warm them up. Good to start them once and a while, this let to the not so bright idea to go out to the open water just to cruise then come back.After the engines were warmed up, I got some help with the last dock lines and taking about 5 tacks with the engines as steering made it out of the marina.

There were some far more expensive boats surrounding us and people were all out checking to make sure that I was not going to hit any of them. I made it backed out and heading out, now to cruise up the St. John's a little,as I got just a little bit out of sight of the marina, I started worrying about if the boat had a problem or developing a leak and got stranded how I would get in allot of trouble. This thought or thinking led me to a reality check and started turning back to the marina.

Getting back into the tight slip was much more difficult than leaving it, and took about 6 or eight turns to finally get it in there. Our "neighbors" came and threw a line and helped me get it secure after gawking that I was going to get too close coming in, making the adjustments to get back into the slip.
When mom got home I did not mention anything, wonder if she found out but never wanted to say anything...instead of a latch key I was a hatch key child, she was at work I think.


"City" Marina
The Boathouse Marina is in Palatka town and we were docked here I think then later moved to the Georgetown Marina on Lake George.

Georgetown Marina Bass pro's
They had a big Bass fishing contest here when were there. The fancy high speed pro bass boats were everywhere and after each day they would fill the swimming pool at the hotel next to the marina with bass which was cool to see all of them swimming in the cement pool.

2 hp lost
I had a small dinghy here and it was a clear bottom Plexiglas. While playing around with a fairly new 2hp motor one afternoon. It sped up in reverse "reared up" and unhooked itself from the transom, lost to the St. Johns river.
Divers came a day later and took a look but the drop off outside of the marina it was gone and the water a little murky here.

Rainbow Springs
We had been here before on the "bottomless boat" tour it was cool, you can see very deep even through the bottom of the boat. There was a certain time of the year that the park closed at the time, maybe manatee mating season not sure.

I took my dinghy up the crystal river and then to rainbow river. The cool spring water was clear and there was fresh water grass on the bottom. You can see fish everywhere. They are protected (no fishing) in the preserve.
As I got closer to the Rainbow Springs State park, the water got deeper in some sections and some manatee were at the sides. You can only go very slow in here due to the manatees, I'm sure now that you can probably only paddle a canoe and no outboards.

The manatees are slow and peaceful, eating grass and hanging out together swimming and hanging out with different species of large fresh water fish as well.Are they from here or are they our ancestors of a sort?They have been around long before us and now are endangered in numbers.
Perhaps humans have something to learn from these creatures, no war living life being happy.Will we ever?

As I write of this I want to have my daughter see them but it may be sort of sad , I mean an endangered animal now a spectacle of a circus show of sorts.

Cruise to Palatka FL and the marinas there.

Stuart is quite a distance from Palatka where we were going.

We took the inter coastal waterway to get there.
It would have been closer on the open seas but because of the age of the boat and the rougher water in the Atlantic better to go the inter coastal. And you have more scenery to see.

Most of the time we traveled at daytime so that we could see the route better.
The channel was marked pretty good with poles and buoys. There was one turn though that had a mud bar on it at low tide and we got stuck.

A boat came but we were on it pretty hard, I got out and sank in the mud passing the rope.
We spent the night and the next morning the tide was better and got off of it with a little help.

On the way again we made it to the marina, it was in the middle of Palatka FL town which is small.
So things were okay,


The joyride
Mom had her VW beetle there, it was bright yellow.Something like this.

So being the teenager I was I would have to at least drive this one time on a night run.
 I got the keys and took it out by myself, it was pretty late. I drove around the town at around 130-200 in the morning. I decided though that my ride was not that discrete, I mean how easy would it be to sneak around in a bright yellow beetle. I returned to the marina.My adrenaline rush was complete.Or maybe so.

The Sunfish

So one day at the marina I decided to take out the sunfish. Okay what is a sunfish? No it's not just the salt water fish or opo, it's a small sailboat that has one sail on it and is fiberglass with a wood rudder and a centerboard. The sail is at an angle and there is just about enough room for one or two small people to squeeze on to the deck cockpit.Like this one, wait did not have that girl with me though?
And no fish on my sail either this picture is so 70's ...ahhh still cool

The stuck sunfish....
So one day it was very gusty winds, excellent for the sunfish pilot myself to challenge. So for about the first 45 minutes I was quite a sight for entertaining the marina people if they looked out there.
I was flying very fast in the 25+ winds and then things went badly. The boat turned over and I could not get it back up. I tried to swim down the mast was stuck in the mud. Then I swam down again and as I was pulling the mast out of the mud, my feet were getting stuck in the mud up to my knees.
So giving up I was laying across the sunfish deck feeling the chilly wind and rain. After a while I saw a small boat come out. A guy in a dinghy was nice enough to help me out, he threw a rope and we pulled out the sunfish to better waters, back to the safe haven of the marina. By that time I was chilled pretty good.

Stuart Florida and the Chris Craft and Stuart inlet dive

Well when I was super young we had a small wood cabin cruiser yest this is the one that survived the gulf stream and possibly the Bermuda triangle route to Free port Bahamas.

Before the Chris Craft we had rented a place down off the inter coastal waterway in Stuart Florida.
It was actually "off of" the main waterway and more on it's own canal. I was told that Perry Como had once owned a home across from this. I may have been too young to know who he was just that he was a singer. Since my mom reminded me of this several times I would have to assume that she had a swoon or crush for him as well.

There were allot of mosquito and worse the sand gnats would eat you alive here. The humidity was pretty high as well. We were right on the water or canal.
At fourth of July I launched fireworks (stick and bottle rockets) out of a fiberglass sliding tube that was a military surplus launcher, how cool. I wish that I had the real practice flares to launch.

Possibly mom was having you know one of those mid life crisis again and decided that owning and living aboard a Chris Craft would be much better than living in a home.

So getting back to the Chris Craft Mom bought this 40 foot double cabin cruiser. First thing it needed was dry dock so we had it hauled out. The picture is not the actual boat but close to our boat, most of the teak was painted over for easier upkeep.

We were putting varnish on the rails and I had a cup of mountain dew mom had a Dr pepper and a cup of varnish. After a while Mom accidentally sipped the varnish but she did not swallow it. Varnish tastes terrible. Right away I saw that the owning of a boat especially a large one is allot of maintenance.

After the dry dock we took the boat to another marina and had some exhaust manifolds replaced.
The exhaust is usually water cooled and they were probably corroded.
The engines were gas and they were Chrysler motors 318 cubic inches two of them.The mechanic was pretty glad to get done since both of the engines were under the living room (Saloon?) and not very easy to work on.

The boat okay "Yacht" was big. In the front or the bow was one bunk bed storage and then a small bathroom. Next was a kitchen and stove refrigerator and cub bards. Then up the steps to the living room and there was furniture just like a house,

In the "living room" was also a helm to control the boat, steering wheel and two throttles with transmission control. Then in the back was the stateroom or the "master bedroom" and then a small after deck.A set of stairs led to the fly bridge.
On top of the bedroom was the bridge or the upper helm with controls and radios and everything to drive the boat.

Not sure how much gas cost back then but those two engines had to of had a big gas tank and gas bill if you wanted to go somewhere.Think that they were Chrysler 340 or 318' V-8 engines

Stuart Inlet Dive
I guess this dive stuck out as it was probably one of my first "open water dives" after taking the scuba class at the YMCA. I could not get my "c" card or certification because I was not 14 yet.
I was possibly 13? at the time.
 I went on a scuba dive trip in the Stuart inlet. The visibility was really good and dove with a dive master and a group of divers.
I saw fish and we drifted with the current at up to 80 feet. I saw a school of sharks swimming and they were cruising not aggressive just going to get some lunch somewhere.
Because the water was so clear and there was lots of marine life too it was a dive that stuck out in my mind, of course the first good dive that you get will always stick out.

Off to "greener pastures" Mom decided to move but now it was much easier... we could just drive the boat there. Palatka FL bound.

Key Largo and scuba diving Pennecamp reef

We lived down in Key Largo in the Florida keys for a while.

I got to fish with my dad out here once , I was about 8. We went way offshore to the place where the fish are biting. After a rough ride out we set anchor and started fishing.
A few guys caught crabs and the crabs were on the deck running around one got me a little when trying to handle it. Such are crabs.

One of the fisherman threw up on the way out, until then I had held everything down but after seeing that even I had to throw up overboard.
The fishing was fair and we made it back okay.

Later mom decided to come down here for the summer and we stayed near the ocean and did fishing right off of the dock. I never really caught anything good, fought a sting ray once that was about it.

I had made a home made "scuba" tank out of an old air tank and used fish tubing to breathe through. This worked ok in the pool but not suited for anything real scuba diving.

I had taken the scuba diving class at the YMCA before at about 14 and now it was time to get some actual open water diving in. I went out on another boat trip.
We went to Pennecamp reef outside on the protected reef area.

I remember the dive a little same thing boat trip out, not too rough and then lots of other divers paired off. I went with the instructor and we dove together.
I saw a huge barracuda swimming as well and the visibility was very good.
The dive master opened up a sea urchin and fed some other fish for the other divers.

Key Largo was nice but very expensive to live there and the water was expensive.
Since your water is supplied from a pipe from up ahead of the other islands or keys the water back then was about 13 cents a gallon (?) from memory which is in those days allot.

Then there was the causeway to get to the keys.
You have miles of bridges to get there. Toll booth at one time.
Originally the keys had a railroad connecting the atolls but a little history reading about the railroad said it had been destroyed by a hurricane not once but twice.

Why am I writing this and who cares? copyright

Why what where?

What is the secret of life? I once looked it up on the search engine, you didn't know. The secret of life is happiness.

Telling stories comes from ancient times, the elders would pass on the stories from another generation to the younger people.

Now days when I tell a story maybe it's not that interesting at least to some, but we all get caught doing it, I guess make the story short and interesting.

I guess on this blog I fail on the short part, I have been around now for over too many years, stopped counting a while back.

Funny? maybe at times maybe bland and boring as well.

My moving around and seeing different things opened up a world that I would have never seen if I had stayed in the same place all of the time.


Yes and Who Cares anyway about this smuck?

Yes all out of order too, the places the stories , as I write this blog I realize that I ave some events out of order, no way to re arrange them on here but will edit them later

And who cares when the keg party ended and I got thrown out? When we sneaked my friends into the bluegrass festival under the carpet in the VW bus?

I have to ask myself why I'm writing this, well maybe to pass on, to pass on knowledge or to show how it was growing up with middle income Americas in the 70's and then forging out on my own

 Hence the name "working man blues"...it was always working to make it....how it is

The blues comes with the sacrifice of free will free time creativity and leisure something only few people would get to know.

Stories:
All stories on here are true some details have been left out some names left out as I'm just like that.
Maybe I will change the names a little so I can tell more later on.

Copyright: 10-2014
All material is in this blog is copyrighted

So don't let me see something with my story or stories without asking for permission to use it

Shipped out to Tallahassee with dad

Well as you get older you are more of a pain in the neck for your parents.... especially if your a boy.
I'm sure not all boys were "a pain in the ass" but I'm sure that mom had enough of dealing with me for a while so off to dad's house.

Dad was strict and he was also a hard worker with hard ethics and rules for everything.
A much more regimented operation than mom's place.Mom was a hard worker too and had good ethics just not as much conformity as dad.

We lived in Tallahassee and he worked at a convenience store while working on his own business "Bertex International" his idea was to be a translator since he could speak all these languages but somehow it really never worked out, lots of letters correspondence and even some contacts but still working at the seven eleven.

Once he had been robbed at work there, it was a pretty scary thing I'm sure. but he gave them the money and I would have too, after all why risk your life for $4 and hour?

So it was high school time and at first I was going to Leon High School in Tallahassee. Leon is right on a hill as most of the town is on these sprawling hills.
Although nice of a place it is pretty much landlocked and far to get to a lake or even the ocean.
I was in agreement that Tallahassee is the "armpit of Florida".No offense but I liked West Palm and other places better.

Somehow I met some pretty cool slackers like myself and they were my high school friends although most of them had moved on and were now working folks for the small businesses there in town.
I even once got to drive my friend's ford to school that was cool.

I would hang out with my friends, work on cars and drive them push them or town them and we all had a pretty much of a routine.

After a while figured out that living at home was not all it was cracked up to be so moved out on my own.
This is when you live with roommates and it's guys and girl friends and more stories of course....

When I first visited dad in Tallahassee he was living with the Adair family ..adopted family friends or in Hawaiian "Hani" Family. I got to meet everyone and they were very nice, Calvin was a painter and a Frisbee talented competition specialist. He showed e his engine cleaning method using water in the carburetor interesting.His brother a professional photographer.
I helped Calvin a little to paint some house hang out and did some handy work for another handy older guy. I guess since we were always tinkering with cars working at the gas station was the next logical step.

Gas Station Capitol drive
Cars gas oil what more could you want (oh except for money) worked here briefly as a tire changer and mechanic slash slave assistant worker.

FSU and the water ski club
I got to go outside of Tallahassee with some friends once on the water ski club boat. We did some skiing on a lake west of Tallahassee and I tried to barefoot but swallowed part of the lake instead. I was still smiling.

FSU free concerts and campus police.
Yes you can have a free concert no you cannot have too much fun, we have campus police, Sheriffs and the local police to make sure that the fun is contained for you here. Don't step out of line boy!

FAMU the predominantly black college is here too, I have been on campus with friends in the dorms and hang out concerts too and everyone was way cool no bs allowed

Lake Wales and the empty subdivision

Back in time, before ....ninth grade there was Indian Lake Estates

I think that I was in eight grade and my mom was renting a place inside of here.

Our house was pretty much by itself although there were a few houses in the subdivision, most of the lots were empty.

I'm not sure why, perhaps location location location...as the Realtor's always say

The subdivision was outside of town and not that many people wanted to live in this area.

I was an adventurer here and did ride my bicycle and learned to drive a little on the back roads (okay most of the place was back roads) Armadillo were running around snakes as well.
The lake was a distance away from our house.

A few of my friends lived down near the lake and had mini bikes, Honda QA50 cc with transmissions and his older brother had a Honda QA70 cc it could do over 55 mph.they were fast and small, small wheel diameter.

Mom was not able to afford such toys but got me a mini bike. It had a Briggs and Stratton 3hp engine and was slow but did ok except in the dirt. Still better than walking. My love for motorcycles came at an early age! My friend's bikes were much faster but we at least got to ride around the subdivision.

Later the brother who had the faster 70 cc Honda broke both of his legs, remember visiting him and he had a cast on both legs with a  brace between terrible plus having to use a bedpan. Maybe better I did not have one of the fast mini bikes!

Then there was the story of the oldest brother coming back from a party Lake Wales with his El Camino truck (looks like a car in the front) a friend was also with him and was drinking too and passed out in the Elcamino bed.
On the way home a car stopped in front of him and he had to stop suddenly and his friend got paralyzed from a neck injury. I was not there but the story was terrible.

A friend of mom's had a place near the entrance and the gold course and I did some yard work for them. After working he offered me my first bloody Mary mixed drink. I never was much on alcohol but it tasted more like tomato juice so it tasted smoother, better than beer..But I was not a drinker.

Then they turned off my mom's electricity one time. We had no light and she had either forgotten to pay the bill or was broke or both. My solution was simple, since we had no meter go find an unused one and stick it in, walla we had lights. Only one problem after several days a utility guy drove by and noticed that our lights were on, I got in trouble but not too bad, guess that they felt bad about it and let it slide, Mom got her lights turned back on the right way after that.

Riding around in mom's car (AMC?) Not a pacer ...joy riding on the grassy areas and lost it playing around. I had to dig out the front of the car as I ran off of the road on to the bushes there , soft sand and palmettos lots of palmettos everywhere off of the roads, some of them un-paved and just grass or even dirt.

Armadillos are everywhere I think that Lake Wales can be known for other things but in this subdivision when we were there Armadillos are everywhere oh and a few snakes too, never really saw one standing up like in this picture, they usually are fast and in the Palmetto bushes as your walking.






Google map here:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Indian+Lake+Estates,+FL+33855/@27.7959678,-81.3607929,7843m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x88ddb029a6fa3d1f:0x7581d1e5625aaeff?hl=en-US

Website:
http://www.indianlakeestates.net/home.asp

Picture credit Ridge State Forest

Mt Dora and the Orange groves

Mt Dora...Florida

 Mom rented a place outside of town in a small orange grove, the house was near 441 and we had Oranges everywhere in the back yard, grapefruit and lemons too. There was also a bee hive.

I was out there hiking in the grove to check things out, we had orange throwing wars and drank orange juice daily as well. The more sour the better.

Got an old discarded Chevy impala that basically needed engine repairs, it smoked badly. I would drive it a little in the grove get stuck in the sand and once made the bees mad be enacting a kind of miss-directed revenge for getting stung.

Yes I backed up on the hives and tried to do a smoke out, but of course the car shut off leaving me to later try to outrun the angry bees as they swarmed the car.

School here was okay until I somehow got involved in some class beef which was always over a girl. Anytime a girl comes to you, asks for advice weather she should leave her boyfriend because he is treating her badly, beware.
Later this small conversation turned out into a stand off outside of the classroom, no fighting but the tension and adrenaline level was high.

I had some okay times and some low times, going through changes.
My older friend was also a gear head so we looked at the Chevy Impala with a 327 cubic inch American steel engine in a family car! Great.
. I had taken it apart but after taking the cylinder heads off realized that this was an expensive and harder project than I had thought it would be, RIP Impala maybe your parts lived on to see another freeway!

One thing that really stuck out in my mind is that I went to a Pink Floyd concert with my older friend that had a car. We went to see "Pink Floyd Wish you were here tour" in the stadium in  Atlanta GA.
That was a pretty long drive, we get to Peach tree street in Atlanta and there's like the real poor black neighborhood surrounding the stadium downtown.I guess the first time really noticed poverty except for seeing some of Chicago when very young.

We got inside and it was packed! Lots of people we had floor seating which is floor standing still had fun.
So as most curious fans we decide that we would like to see the band. We sneak past security and end of at sort of the back door part of the stadium where the stars get in and out, but we could not get in, were told to leave but we waited above hoping to see a glimpse of the band.

7 June 1975

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta Stadium

 We saw several limos come and go but no David Gilmore or anyone else in the band ...they probably were already at the hotel party...smile
Back on the road a long drive and back to Mt Dora.


References Wipikedia and G Maps

Teenager St Louis MO 9th grade Principia and coming of age

 Well I made it to being a teenager and now I'm 14(?)
Mom and I  are living in St. Louis and I'm going to the Principia School an exclusive Christian Science private boarding school in the area.

I had also went here briefly when I was in first grade or 6 years old. I don't know why it was so important for my parents to send me here, I guess private school has a higher education in an exclusive private school  we could not afford this either.

I don't know why I'm not that in immersed in my studies but I guess that at this age is where your trying to use up some of that extra testosterone.I was interested in science and did some science fair project about cosmic rays. I used two Geiger counters together to see if the incidence of gamma radiation is higher the further up in the atmosphere you go. The balloon was a huge rubber weather balloon and the two Geiger counters where surplus from the civil defense days of the 60's

We did not loose the balloon but we did get some erroneous data perhaps from radio interference
I was able to get the project together for the science fair which was a re occurring theme of a few my high school years.

Problem Propulsion was one of them, in this one I researched about the nuclear lunar rover which would not in reality be that great due to shielding for the riders. But they do use small nuclear plants on satellites and deep space missions unmanned.

I was in sports I tried out for the track team but got wind splints (chest pain) when running so then tried out for the Olympic sports a little, I guess that I can say that was not my thing. I tried the pole vaulting but that was a little scary up there...to say the least.

In the winter mom would follow me through campus with the car while I ran at night trying to get in enough shape for the sports there.

I also tried out for the soccer team and ended up on the swim team which I did okay with. I was not probably the fastest swimmer but we practiced for hours swimming in the heated enclosed pool there. I remember coming home eating a meal and crashing out from the workout. I would always be just as skinny and had a bony waist and lanky body.

I made a few friends it was ninth grade, a girl in another grade (eleventh) asked me out to a dance once which was nice of her we even made out before.

Then there was my best  friend or Kevin O'brien we did some stuff on and off campus together and he was a boarder or in other words he lived on campus.
I guess I was a bad influence with all of my off campus life and playing but at that age who's to blame.
I lived with mom so we on the weekend would stay up and watch those dumb B horror movies on tv or I would just do it by myself.

Something corny about them yet you still stay up late to watch them to this day I am not sure why I liked them maybe because I wanted something cool to happen but because they were so watered down due to censorship nothing really too bad ever happened or it if did they deserved it or there was sometimes a lesson to be learned (frogs, birds can be deadly)

I never really hung around with the bad guys as I always get accused of, maybe I was a want to be one. We used to snow slide down the hills there in the subdivision and met some seedy characters at the place as well

Then there was the time that we somehow decided that climbing up these huge transmission towers was a good idea. I mean after you get up about 40 feet there's a nice ladder to climb on.
So Kevin and I get up there and there's quite a view but now it's getting darker and it's cold out so time to come down. Had to help him down because he was getting a little scared of the height,I would guess it was over 100 ft up there. It was a slow decent..

I did some rappelling and rope sliding down 100' piece of gold line rope with a small nylon sling.
Went out to the country and did some rappelling down a cliff with the rope around a tree at the top.Trying to climb back up was pretty hard, loose rocks and not much hand holds, going down was more fun anyway gravity working and fast adrenaline
Also did some rappelling off of bridges or anything else that was high enough to ride the rope down.
Once when coming down an overpass did the twisting motion as I came down almost getting tangled a little,had to slow it down some, that was strange.

Mom's car
Mustang pretty cool not great on gas but super nice car. I remember one night had like this "great idea" to take it for a spin. Got the key late one night pushed out of the parking space and drove around a while super late at night. Gas getting low decided to come back home coasting in and quietly sneaking back inside. Teenagers , we never really thought of all of the what could happen, and I drove like a grandma it was not my car anyway just borrowing it. Sorry mom.

There was the kite festival in downtown St Louis police on horses and everyone with cool kites, my box kite suffered a construction collapse and did not fly right but there were concerts and people it was pretty cool urban scene in the big city downtown.

Electronics always interested me, as from a small age would take things apart right after they were deemed garbage just to see how they worked or what was inside of them. Clock radio, radios, if it's broken look inside. Later the erector sets and the train sets then some electronic kits and some 101 projects on breadboard, look made a crystal radio.

Phone shenanigans
So with this primitive electronics would tap into the phone, by adding a rheostat and  another phone on the line could slowly turn up the volume while someone else was speaking on the line.
Never really got anything good but you never know....only did it a few times remember hearing my name while trying it and got scared...not sure if the static was a give away or not.

KSHE 95 fm was the kite festival sponsor a rock station  http://www.kshe95.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KSHE
 they actually played real progressive rock which could be albums,jazzy rock, fusion or cool punk rock but more easy listening club anthem rock and some fusion .


School
The Principia School is a highly rated private school not for the pranksters or the slouches, they are probably one grade or two above the public school and have high standards.
My grades were suffering already so when I got the call to come see the principal and my mom was there I knew it was not good.
Due to something that happened off campus with me and my friend I was canned, nothing terrible but it was stupid (no law trouble) I never saw my friend after that.

Retrospect
If I had it all to do over again would I have done the same things? not sure, my attention was not with the demanding subject and study matter like it should have been which was my fault, but my parents especially mom wanted me to have a rich and better education.
I guess by that time my interest was mainly in science and other subjects. Popular Science was my magazine the future always looked so cool inside of those pages even in that time 1974(?).

The constant moving and packing unpacking continues, so many places that I lived and went to school then sometimes before the end of the year would be moving again.I guess much like the military families moving every two years or less.

On the road again Twin Lakes MI, Cedar Oaks Summer Camp and Albany GA

We rented a house on the lake here at twin lakes Michigan, perhaps a summer rental.
I remember that the house had a dock and we did some fishing right off of the dock.
One night I left a pole out, in the morning the pole was gone. I swam down and found the pole, and after reeling it in it had a catfish on it.

We had Somey the Siamese cat. Somey was translated to Gold or so I was told. We also had a new ride a mustang, good for the road and a dog a Chesapeake bay retriever. A great water dog.Champ was his name or Champy. big brown water foul retrieving dog.

One time our cat Somey started playing with a fishing lure and got hooked in the paw, we had to remove the hook from her paw. I guess the lure was too hard to resist.

From here it was of course time to move again, where and when so many it is hard to remember. I do remember the lake there a little and it must have been summer time as there was not snow.

Cedar Camps Lebonon Missouri Summer camp (Christian Science)
http://www.cedarscamps.org/
I got shipped off here for the weeks of the summer by my parents two different times.
I may have been 6 or 7 the first time I went here.
 It was okay I guess I went here twice in my childhood and had some humiliating and some fun times.
Being inconstant in a new place is not that much fun, but otherwise I guess it was okay.
We learned how to row a canoe, make fire, fire a bow and arrow and a 22 rifle later
We paddled canoes and swimming which was okay too. Being away from your parents for the first time is a challenge too.

Camp life is your cabin with your camping supplies and herding around to the cafeteria and the activities.
For fun once I accidentally hit a lizard with a coat hangar and felt bad about it, did not mean to kill him.
I even wrote a note to ask for forgiveness from the big guy.

We told ghost stories and walked in places that had a long legacy of other stories so that as your walking miles out from anything you feel like something is watching you or that perhaps the witch that chained the guy down is out here somewhere. Kids will be kids. No religious camp would be complete without Sunday school and prayer time of course as well.

Was time to move to...Albany GA? yes a quite town and schools that needed teachers so of course let's move there. I learned how to crash then ride a bike here.
First time riding I ate it road rash a little scared but carry on, the second time up and riding no problem.

My parents insisted that I meet a daughter of the family friends too.
I remember meeting Beth Eck here, of course all of the talk and how we should meet and we are both from the same church and such why were my parents so interested in matching me up at 10(?) I will never know.
My mother would always talk about her family and about Beth and how I should write Beth and how we should meet later and on and on.

So I finally get to meet her, she is nice and we play a little in the garage and do what kids run around  check out the garage piano and maybe some show and tell.

In the end (spoiler alert) Beth moved to Arizona and lives happily on the Indian reservation with an Indian I am not sure or as a worker...She went off to the wild west. Sorry Mom it didn't work out for you.

Kids in the neighborhood I don't know everyone and was introduced to tobacco...My review was tasted like crap. yuck we had to try it. Not much fun, one of the older kids was showing us other things not sure what the reason other than experimentation including a taste of gin another sick taste...

The order of the places we lived is hard as we moved once a year just about if not twice a year. Both of my parents were working, Mom Margaret Wagg as a teacher and my dad working to go through school.
At that age you really don't understand everything but pieces come together at times.

As Hans Bertschi my father had to finish his education it was probably hard for my mom to support him. He lost his diploma from his college in Holland in the war or so the story goes, which at that time is plausible since the Germans in the war were busy bombing and burning everything that they did not like.

Then there was the expense of this eternal moving and always hoping that things would be better in the next town the next job the next place. I can see that people move for better work and that is understandable but hard on the family. I have to wonder if you are moving and you owe some places do the debts get left behind?....

So where now.... Hans is graduating from Albany College with his BA...great must be time to move on.
I think that the stress of everything must have gotten to my parents.
My dad being Swiss German is a bit of a bone head and my mom is probably the same.
I think that the finances and the stress of having to deal with everything my mom decided that a divorce is in order on the grounds of..."mental cruelty" yes these was her actual words
This would take a while and they would remain living together a while and back and forth.

By now my moving skills are being fine tuned watching mostly but can do some boxing. Later I will learn how to load the UHaul up, that means that there's something better down the road ...again

Gypsy nomads

After we moved from the home in West Palm Beach
We began to move. It seemed like a string of moving that would never end.

I know that perhaps there are better paying jobs in places where you don't live, so you have to move for the work. Growing up I became used to this moving and we moved quite a bit.

From Florida WPB to other places across the east coast.

St. Louis Missouri I was 6 years old. I was enrolled in the Christian Science School there called Principia.
I remember struggling with the level of the classes as I had not been in their preschool *(I may have been 5)
.
Of course I was the new kid and well did not feel like I fit in that great. I was forced to recite multiplication tables and at that age did not have the tables memorized so it was very hard.

Looking back I wonder if it was advanced level and parents pushing me to become the next astronaut
This was and is an exclusive private school.
 We did not stay in St Louis for that long, I remember moving again, hard to say the order of the places or the locations as I was still young. I do remember it was cold there.

Chicago Illinois Winetka suburb across from lake Michigan.
I remember the old downtown buildings the hot water heaters and the traffic and of course the snow.
We stayed in an apartment downtown for little while and later got a nice house out in Winetka.
The house was a few blocks from Lake Michigan and I caught a fish there that had only one eye. I was told that we can not eat them either.

I was going to another school private... and we had a field trip where we acted as Pilgrims.
I got to churn cow milk into butter and we saw how they lived back then even with mock Indians.
I met a few of the neighborhood kids, as we were running through peoples yards taking shortcuts one of the kids knocked over a statue in someone's yard. Since it was the neighbors and they saw me, I got in trouble for it even though I did not do anything. Welcome to Winetka I guess...

Cool Trains
Trains run everywhere there from downtown to the suburbs and all over the place.
I had a bad train experience, as were were going I went to get a drink out of the soda machine.
The train hit some rough area bumps and the whole machine fell on me.
I was okay and some people were there to grab it off of me, but it was bad that they did not have it strapped down better.

Train vending machine
I had one of these large heavy machines fall on me when I was in front of it, somehow we went over some rough tracks and as I was standing there dazing at the cokes the machine fell over on me. Some guys got it and I was okay just a little shaken up.Would have been better with pepper I mean Dr Pepper...

Museum
Where else can you go to see a whole German submarine in a museum and it has a cut away and you can walk through it and see through the periscope too

Memories of home in West Palm Beach

A few more things....

My mom was a hard worker and was always doing things, cooking or chores.
I remember that she did not like spicy food and would have to make dad's food separately
We canned foods a little with mason jars and sealing wax, home made jams and stored vegetables.

The television.
TV was a big thing in the evening when everything else was done, if we were lucky we would get to watch some too. I remember when the Apollo moon mission and the lunar landing was on.
We watched the grainy shadowy images of a man actually walking on the moon, this was a big deal back then as who ever was the first one to put a manned mission to the moon would be also recognized as "more advanced" and "powerful" ?as well.

It was a large Magnavox console type and had a remote, the color was not that great or was it just because it was really black and white?

Transportation
We had a VW bus, one of the older ones.The same one that I broke the windshield wiper off of.

Swimming pool
Yes you know that you are in a nicer neighborhood when you have a swimming pool. This one had a large screened in area to keep out the bugs and the leaves as well.
After the hurricane this screened in part got blown away and had to be repaired.

The pool was big enough to swim in and as I remember over my head, of course I was still a small guy back then.

Boats
My mom and dad were always the type to like to go out on the water skiing or just cruising
I think that they liked to get out on the boat.
One time dad forgot to put the drain plug and the boat almost sank at the boat ramp.
They got the boat on the trailer before it sank and bailed with buckets and drained the water out.

Baseball
I have a picture of Hans my dad and me at a baseball game, don't really remember it much.
I was  young.

Travel
As I was a little guy, don't remember all of the trips but one stuck out in my mind.
Somehow we decided to go to the Bahamas in a cabin cruiser from Miami.
The plan was to follow the large cruise ship a way back and use them to navigate the best route to get across to the Bahama island Freeport?
From Miami to Bahama is about 50-60 miles to Freeport or west end.
The trip started out nice sunny weather calm seas and nice smooth ocean. We followed the huge cruise ship a few miles back and then during the night I heard shouting and noise.
The large 55 gallon drum of spare fuel was sliding back and forth on the rear deck. Whitewater was washing over the bow. We had hit some rough seas in the middle of the night on the way there.
I was whisked back below into the cabin and finally fell asleep.
When I did wake up the weather was sunny and calm. We had arrived. They were throwing coins off of the cruise ship at the dock and divers were diving in after them.
It was very sunny and hot.

Smaller house

We moved to a different neighborhood with smaller houses and in another outside subdivision of West Palm Beach. It was a small two bedroom home. For fun sometimes we would sneak out to the woods and try smoking corn husks (they sucked) or trying a cigar that someone had lifted from the store. (tasted terrible)

I also remember for fun climbing up on the roof and jump off and rolling into the grass. Another time while riding my bicycle here a dog ran out in front and I closed my eyes thought I was going to hit him but just kept rolling on training wheels and all.

1959-1964 West Palm Beach the early years

They say that you can't remember much before your five but I did have some memories before or about that time.

I was delivered at home by a mid wife and a doctor signed my birth certificate
I came in to the world at the last quarter of 1959 at 0200 in the morning
Maybe that's why I was always a night owl?
I don't remember anything about that part of course

I don't remember the argument that they had on the way home when my mom was pregnant and dad was driving the Volkswagon bus either..

We had a pretty nice home in the upscale outer suburbs of West Palm beach.
Most or all of the pictures from this period including the pictures of my Grandfather Wagg's estate were destroyed in a garage fire in Jacksonville at my former home.

The early years of the home in West Palm Beach had several memories.
The first was my parents both avid water people or persons to throw me into the pool.
We had a huge screened in area in the back yard with a pool inside of it.

I remember being thrown in the pool and taught to swim. Swimming was a great part of our family life.
We also did some diving. I have a picture of me in an inner tube in a baby wet suit floating.
The part I remember was being afraid left in the inner tube while my parents were snorkeling or diving.
Even though I did not know what a shark was I guess by instinct I was afraid something would get me.

Then there was the backyard at the house. Left to wander as kids well I remember seeing tracks in the mud in the backyard the several times that I ventured off by myself to play in the stream sand bed back there.
Of course I had no idea these were alligator tracks. Guess that they had enough food or were not hungry at the time. They are usually not aggressive unless you are near the young alligators, then mom will possibly get in the attack mode.

The living room,
Was good sized we actually had a tv with a remote a luxury for sure
I remember watching the Apollo lunar landing land on the moon on it. The pictures were shadowy and grainy but the family was glued to the screen as each part of the mission was shown.

The Hurricane(s)
Florida gets many tropical storms and hurricanes. One that I remember did allot of damage to the house especially the screened in pool area, after the storm passed our roof, windows and screened pool enclosure had damage. The home was still livable but needed repairs we did not get too much damage..

The Bathroom:
A huge hurricane came and we were all inside of here since it was the most inside of all of the house.
As we huddled in here the toilet actually circled in reverse as the storm shook the neighborhood.
Looking at the history this was hurricane Isabelle Oct 14 1964  or Betsy September 8, 1965(?)

A sister is born
Doris my sister came into the world on or about 1963 I was about 3 at the time.
I remember seeing her in the cradle and she was really little. Happy to have a sister and sad at the same time since most of the time I was second fiddle but at that age you don't care as much.
She was born as I was in the home with a nurse.

Tragedy in the home
Then I remember that my sister was coughing  and crying, she was sick, I did not see much of her, later she died of whooping cough I found out. I think that I really did not know much about this, somehow I put the memory away but later as I got older it all came out, memories and questions for parents now that I was grown.

Doris leaves us.
I never got to say goodbye to my sister, when she passed away.
I found out as an adult that she was whisked off to a Christian Science nursing home on her last days. She had been suffering from coughing for a while I can not judge time from that time long ago.
I later as an adult questioned my parents about the care they provided her and asked blaming why she did not get proper medical care from either a doctor or other.
It was very emotional to deal with this suppressed emotions from many years that it took to figure out always in the dark.

Aftermath
I do not think that my parents really ever got over the loss although you would never be able to tell by being around them. Sort of like something you want to forget but when times are difficult it always comes up the self blame the blame of other or others. Just something that is part of living.My parents were both very religious so they had a good way of dealing with it.

Door to door sales
One of the neighbor's daughters brought me along to sell some items (berries?) She was much older than I and of course as the afternoon thundershowers came we got drenched by the rain.
She also made me take off my diaper I guess out of curiosity, although I was young it was embarrassing.
Especially that she laughed after I did it for her.Running home in the rain, partially naked ...tribal


*In retrospect this nice home may have been beyond my parent's means and with the struggling business at three bears was the beginning of the end.They were arguing and as couples mostly do about money I suppose.

Hans Bertschi Father - Natural intelligence
Gifted to be able to play piano by ear and also good at study and spoke several foreign languages, dad was very intelligent and for the most part quiet but did have a playful side and at times misunderstood.

Dad's Belt
Doing something wrong? He was stern and had little tolerance of misconduct.
Once I remember being belted on the butt for dumping out mom's perfume in the toilet.
I'm not sure why I did this, perhaps it just looked cool as it was draining down the commode.

Then there was the time I decided to pull on the windshield wiper on the VW bus and breaking it. Maybe I did need a belt at the time, after all that was the way of dealing with curious breakers like myself.

Mom's hairbrush
You could get it on the butt also makes for attention from doing something wrong quickly.
Then there was the time that I said something like "damn" in the kitchen she immediately poured cold milk on my head , talk about cooling off fast

Business
 Three Bears School West Palm Beach Florida with Margaret Wagg (moms)
Tried to have several import export companies *(although not successful)

Reality of immigrant life in the USA
Dad was hoping that when he met mom his worries about the hard life would be over, after all she came from a relatively rich family that had resources.
I think that they met in New York when my mom was in school there.
As an immigrant my dad had very poor English skills and was not educated by western standards, his "diploma" was destroyed in a fire in the war or in Holland somehow.
He was regulated to returning back to school and that also put stress of course.

It was a time before time, things were different then or much the same as now.
The year was 1959 and I was born to Hans Bertschi my father and Margaret Wagg Bertschi my mom.

West palm beach was still growing and the urban subdivisions were sprawling outside of the small town of West Palm Beach.

My parents were running Three Bears School - day care. A business that had expanded and probably became a management headache for my parents as it grew.
They were both teachers.

My dad was an immigrant from Holland but his family was Swiss German. In the war they had escaped Germany to Indonesia and found refuge with the other Hollanders living and working there.
My grandfather was a surveyor for the plantations in Indonesia.

My mother Margaret Wagg the daughter of Alfred Wagg a formerly wealthy business man from NY that had moved to Florida to buy and sell land. He was also on the board of trustees of a bank
and was in government, but when going to the records at the Florida state capitol did not find where he was a governor but it was a long time ago so may have been in another office.

Alfred Wagg was also an active member in the church in West Palm Beach and had an estate there.
From the old pictures it was typical of the nice estates with long driveway into a large lot with nice home on it.

When the depression hit, Alfred like most investors lost most of everything that he had. Because he had some land titles though he was able to slightly make a comeback in investments.
It was at or about this time that he lost his vision and went blind I was told.

I have never met my grandfather of both sides but rely on stories that my parents had told.
Isn't life about stories anyway?