To the River

I 've often thought about writing my memoirs. I'm a pretty boring person, but I feel like there are stories to tell.

The person I am now is an amalgamation of my family, my history, and my relationships.

...

I always wonder what my life would have been like if my dad wasn't in the Army. I was born and raised in the South End of Louisville, KY. My grandmother was the most influential person in my life. I had a mother and a father but they worked. My grandma raised me and my older brother.

When I was a year old, I went with my parents to Fort Eustis, VA. We lived there for a year. My brother, for some reason, got to stay behind with Moma, my grandmother. So lucky!

I don't remember a thing about living in Virginia. Mom will say occasionally, "You remember, when we lived in Virginia, ... ."

No, Mom, I was 1 year old.

So we came back home, and I grew up until I was 7 in the neighborhood of Iroquois Park, in a little house right next door to my grandparents house.

We were happy, I think.

Then in 1980, we moved to Fort Campbell, KY. 

Living on base was great for a kid. There were so many kids on my street and I made best friends with 3 of them. Our parents also made friends with their parents. It was a time of playing, skating, roaming the neighborhood, staying out until twilight. My mom and her friends would sit on the floor of our living room and play guitars and sing. Proper hippies, they were. 

When we weren't in the neighborhood playing, my mom was taking me to the library, to the swimming pool, to gymnastics and cheerleading and horseback riding. I loved it all, but my favorite was the library. I inherited my love of books from Mom and we would spend hours at the library, reading through the stacks.

My brother Johnny and I would spend summer vacation with my grandparents. Moma and Popa would take us camping and visit different parks around the state. My grandma was proud of being a Kentuckian and taught us to be too.

Moma grew up in the Appalachian foothills, in a holler called Blackwater, KY. She would tell us stories about walking to school and back in the freezing winter, and how she and her sisters would stop at Aunt Nannie's on the way to school, so that she could warm their hands with hot potatoes. I'm sure it was also uphill, on the way there AND back. 

Moma's parents were poor - this was Appalachia. She and her four sisters would sleep in one room of the house, while Ma and Pa slept in the other. They didn't have indoor plumbing back then, so they always had to use the outhouse.

I've only had to use an outhouse a couple times in my life, and that was enough. There's bugs and snakes out there. Also, catalogs, and they were not just for reading.

We call my great-grandparents Ma and Pa, but Moma and her sisters always called them Mommy and Daddy. That's how it is in the South - you never stop calling your parents Mommy and Daddy.

My brother and I inadvertently broke that tradition. In 1983, my dad had orders to go to Germany, and he insisted on taking us with him. A lot of things changed then. 

...

My grandma was very, very upset about the upcoming move to Germany. My dad had already been to Germany once, and Moma got her way then - we got to stay home with her.

This second time my Dad was being ordered there, and he put his foot down. He wanted his family with him. We were going.

I know now that there was all kinds of stuff my parents had to do to prepare for our move, like language and culture classes, and getting our papers in order. My parents rented out our house to one of Mom's friends. We moved back in with Moma while they shipped all our stuff ahead, including the family car.

One day before we left, my grandmother was making a special cake. I found her decorating it and commented, "Look Moma, that should be a Michelle and Johnny cake, because I love Smurfette and Johnny loves UK."

Yeah, I was clueless. The next day our family had a combined birthday/going-away party for me and my brother, with that special cake.

Sidebar - In Kentucky, UK means University of Kentucky basketball. Here's a quote from Hunter S. Thompson:

“I am more than just a Serious basketball fan. I am a life-long Addict. I was addicted from birth, in fact, because I was born in Kentucky.” ― Hunter S. Thompson

College basketball is the only thing that matters in Kentucky. Yes, we have the Derby and bourbon, but basketball is what consumes us. The indoctrination starts early.

Since we were traveling, my grandmother bought my mother and I jumpsuits to wear. You ever try flying in a plane wearing a jumpsuit? God forbid you have to go the the bathroom...you have to take the thing completely off. 

My jumpsuit was blue jean material and I looked like a complete nerd. My mother's jumpsuit, however, was black with red trim and spaghetti straps. She looked like a fashion model. My brother got to wear real clothes - jeans and a T-shirt.

So we went to the airport. Moma cried and cried and cried. She couldn't stand to see us go, and I hated leaving her. I had no idea what was awaiting me in Germany. 

And off we went.