The Story of my Life, Chapter 2

My mom tried to stay on good terms with my dad's family.  I had an aunt Robin, aunt Rosie, aunt Jane, aunt Johanna, aunt Betty, and aunt Mary.  I also had an uncle Bob, uncle George, uncle Bill and uncle Donnie. Rosie, Jane and Johanna lived together at 618 Anderson Street in Franklin and Robin lived up the street, on Union Rd.  Robin had a special place in the family, often consulted on major and minor matters by Rosie, Johanna and Jane.  Robin was the next to oldest.  She had graduated from high school and held a job at the telephone company, from which she retired.

My three aunts (Rosie, Jane and Johanna) cared for me while my mother taught school and they lived right around the corner from the school.  Jane would come out to my house and talk to my mom in the mornings and pick up things around the house, minor house cleaning, after my mom would go to school, then I would get up and she'd take me "down to the house."   They were so good.  So good.  I had a charmed life.  I would sometimes walk to Robin's under the careful watch of my other aunts or sometimes walk to the grocery with Johanna or Donnie, who would visit, always being asked, "now, what do you want?"  My mother would pick me up, promptly after school and we would go home.

When I began kindergarten, my mother had me go to Anthony Wayne Elementary School, closest to my aunt's house.  I got on the bus at noon and she would pick me up after school.  I hated kindergarten.  Cried almost every day and begged by Rosie to stop crying.  "It hurt her ears and got on her nerves."

In first grade, I went to George H. Gerke Elementary, closer to my house and where my neighborhood friends went.  I went there in second grade, also.

But in third grade, my mother sent me to Middletown Christian, because something horrible happened at her school.  She was unjustifiably fired in the middle of the year, 1982-83 school year.  She was said to be "incompetent," but that was far from the truth.  I know I could be biased in my opinion, because I'm her daughter, but it was far, far from the truth.  I heard about her teaching, witnessed her persona which was reality, saw former students talk to her---I knew she wasn't incompetent.