About My past – 4
Just continuing on with my story. My family moved to Bainbridge Naval Base when I was seven, my brother Les was 5 and my other brother was 1. My Dad was an officer and we were pretty privileged at the time. He used to have sailors that worked in woodworking make things like a double decker baby crib for my dolls ad they built a large swing on the hill near my house. I had a chore of taking out the garbage in the evening after supper and sometimes it got dark, I was frightened more than usual when they found a seven year old girl cut up in the sewers of Chicago. This was the most powerful crime at the time, her name was Susan Degnan and the man who did it has been in prison for many years. Ever so often he is up for parole but they still won’t let him out, surely he has passed away by now because it has been 67 years ago. My Uncle Pat was assigned to my father as a swab-bee, meaning he was supposed to swab the decks. He was at our house to help my mother with us kids but he stood around reading books rather than working. My dad came home and caught him and told him he was going overseas. He told my Dad that he was going to tell my mom on him and my dad said “you won’t even have time to tell her because you are shipping out right now.” My Uncle told me later that he was on a train for New York by that afternoon and it was the best thng to happen to him. I went to school in Perryville , Md until 5th grade and my father retired from the Navy after 22 years.
Anxious for Arizona
Less than 24 hours til we are supposed to leave. Concerns are: United being on time, no unexpected news about United’s plans for layoffs in the next four days, no contacts with UFO’S while we are there. That we are able to pack what is necessary, that I will be able to sleep sometime tonight, not worried about getting up on time to leave.
I am excited to be going with DM and DP, also excited to see Sherri, it’s been a long time, of course to see everyone else too. Looking forward to a blessed time with my girls, excuse me, women.
About my Past -3
After leaving Chicago on the bus we were on our way to Maryland, the Naval Base at Port Deposit. My father was transferred to begin charge of the OGU “out going units”. We lived in base housing during the time I was in 3rd and 4th grade in Perryville, Md. It was just a few miles to Aberdeen Proving Grounds and ammunition base. Life on the base was pretty much fun for us. We did not have too much housework because my father sent over sailors to do that. We had a big swing built outside our building, the workshop built my dad a replica of the U.S.S. Enterprise, a battleship my Dad was on. And they built me a set of bunk beds for my dolls. One of my chores was to take the garbage out to the end of the building and sometimes it would be dark out. When I was 7, a little girl, Susan Degnan, was murdered in Chicago and her body parts were in the sewer. I identified with her when I went to take out the garbage. I was so traumatized that I remember it even to this day. I still think her killer is in prison, but when he comes up for parole, the story is told all over again.
Adventures in Arizona with Daughters
Getting up at 2am to get ready, picking Del up at 5am, meeting Bob and Donna to go to the airport. Already crowded but we had an early check-in. We walked a mile to security and than the excitement started. I didn’t have the little plastic bags to put liquids in. Then I had to put my insulin in another bag – all seemed okay until the xray saw that here were 2 bottles in my bag, 3oz shampoo - not allowed witout the bag. The guard tossed everything around and I couldn’t remember where I hid them. He wouldn’t let me help, and I don’t think he ever found them but let me pass anyway. Oh-and you have to take your shoes off. Finally we were on our way to the gate – the last one on this concourse. It doesn’t matter where I fly, it is always the case. I have not flown in 3 years.
We are on the plane, the three of us, we haven’t done anything like a trip since DM was a little girl. DM and DP had a Ellen Degeneres DVD that they watched and laughed for a couple of hours. Meanwhile in back of our seats, there were 2 small children what were screaming and kicking the back of our seats and their parents were doing nothing (0) to keep them quiet. Finally Phoenix arrived and another long walk to the rental bus and than to the rental building. They have an excellent system of getting you to your car and there are hundreds of cars there.
DP has a GPS that we were able to use to get around the city and boy did we need it. We were hysterically laughing most of the time trying to understand “Mary Lou Magellan” the voice of the GPS. Needless to say we made a lot of wrong turns. Mary Lou says “when you have time make a legal left turn”, there were a lot of those. We were lost trying to find my other daughter’s apt. because I gave it the wrong address and we lost an hour to 45 minutes because we were trying to surprise them. Little did we know that they already knew we were at the hotel and thought we were trying to hide from them.
We had a great hotel suite, all the comforts of home - frig, coffee maker, microwave, two queen beds and a sleeper couch, and two TVs. A great breakfast free in the hotel. Have to run Little A needs attention. More later 
About my past -2
Reliving my past is a emotional minefield. My father retired from the Navy in 1945, my younger brother John was born that year, he was a 3 lb preemie and had serious illnesses the first three years of his life. Because of his illnesses, my father cared for him much of the time. At the time of his birth, the doctors discovered that my mom had a heart condition. Her valve was closing up or had been closing and they gave her six months to live. It was very traumatic for all of us, my father sat us down and told us she might not live. A few months later she was one of the first people to have an open heart operation at John Hopkins in Baltimore. She survived that operation but was in the hospital for several weeks so it fell to me and my grandmother to take care of the boys and it became a way of life for me. She was ill and only 27 years old so I believe that she thought that she was going to enjoy her life or what was left of it. I was and am a large person but at that time I was pretty cute for being a teenager. But my mom was very attractive. When we were together people would help her to be more so by saying that she couldn’t be my mother because she was so young that I had to be her sister. The years I was in High School, the boys in our neighborhood would come around to see her – not me. Our roles were very reversed and I became the mom and she the young girl. She at this time became involved with the next door neighbor and on the day of my 18th birthday she left our family and ran away with him. She wrote a letter to my father to tell him, in the meantime I was terrified of what he might do. When the letter came I steamed it open and read it before he came home from work. He cried and made some attempt to bring her back. In the meantime he was working nights on a ambulance; he took a course on how to help the people (no paramedics in that day). He ended up having an affair with one of the women there. During that time I was the person who took over the household, caring for my brothers and the trailer we lived in.
In December of that year 1953, he went to Virginia and talked her into coming back. She said it was for me so I would be able to find a job and have a life of my own. She stayed until I got a job and my older brother left home, so that left me my father and two brothers. He moved back to the trailer and I said I couldn’t go with him and found a room to live in.
About my past!
Seems to me I was born in the beginning of war, World War 2 of course, one of those wars to end all wars. I remember more of my life as my Dad was called on Dec. 7th after church to return to base. My mother and I were caring not only for ourselves but for two little brothers. My dad came home on short leaves during all this time. There were often disagreements and at one period my Mother tried to kill herself or maybe not, she shot herself in the leg. I don’t know for sure but I think she might have had a boyfriend. One night when I woke from a nightmare I remember telling my Mom that my Dad was under the bed, she searched the whole house and found nothing and told me it was a bad dream but early in the morning my dad came home unexpectedly. Surprise, or early intuition? Soon my father had to report to the base at Bainbridge, Maryland.
I became more knowledgeable of life around me. We left California and took a Greyhound bus across country with a stop in Chicago. I had to go to the bathroom and my mom couldn’t take me because of the other two children. In leaving the bathroom I couldn’t find my bus and was wandering around. Our first bus driver found me and took me to a new bus where my mother was. This was my destiny, all my life I was in tune with Chicago and am so today.
