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.
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