St. Petersburg Pier in 1950

Visited The Million Dollar Pier at St. Petersburg, Florida's waterfront. 

It was a Mediterranean Revival building that included an observation deck, open-air dance hall and auditorium, and an atrium for card games and community events.

Reading, music, and TV: me in 1950

Always the new kid in school in 1950, I became a hermit.

I didn’t fight, climb trees, or play sports. 

Left to my own devices, I read books, listened to music, and watched TV. 

I grew up totally around adults, so I was not a regular child.

 

Roanoke VA lived in adjacent apartments

 

My grandmother took me to Roanoke, VA in 1958. 

We stayed at the Patrick Henry Hotel. 

Nonnie let me go to the mezzanine where I sat on a black leather couch to watch I Love Lucy on a 21-inch black and white television there. 

Mom found us again. 

So we lived in two separate but adjacent apartments in Roanoke until Dee and Dale left for Puerto Rico and my grandmother and I moved back to Wooster, Ohio so I could go to school.

Traveling by Greyhound Bus

When I smell the fumes of a Greyhound Bus I am instantly jerked back into my haphazard early childhood. 

My grandmother kidnapped me five times before I was 11 years old. 

Nonnie and I always travelled by bus, and I always tried to get in the front on the second level of a Scenic Cruiser.

Kidnapped 5 times by "Nonnie."

In a weird attempt to keep me away from my mother when I was young Nonnie (my grandmother) kidnapped me five times and took me by bus to a new city. A few times, mom had to hire detectives to find us.

In Tyrone, PA we stayed with relatives, in Florida we lived in St. Petersburg for a while and then moved to Deland when mom found us.

We lived with my mom and stepdad for a while and then took off for Roanoke, VA. 

They followed us to Virginia and then accepted a job for ballroom dancers in Puerto Rico.

That's when we ended up back in Wooster, Ohio for my high school years while mom and my stepdad lived in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.

Grandma kidnaps me 5 times.

Between 1950 and 1958 my grandmother kidnapped me five times to keep me away from my mother.

From age 4 to 12 I lived in six different cities.

I lived away from my mom for 20 years until I joined her in 1967.

Childhood spent on buses.

When I smell the fumes of a Greyhound Bus I am instantly jerked back into my haphazard early childhood.

For reasons I do not really know, my grandmother (Nonnie) tried to keep me away from my mother for what ended up being 20 years.

She kidnapped me five times before I was 11 years old. Mom had to hire detectives to find us one more than one occasion.

Anyhow, Nonnie and I always travelled by bus, and I always tried to get in the front on the second level of the Scenic Cruiser.