Mom and Dad were both from Louisiana and my Grandmother Tannehill lived there, so we tended to gravitate back on a fairly regular basis. Dad was drafted during World War II and served in the Corps of Engineers in the Pacific. We stayed with my grandmother in Forest Hill while he was gone. One of the things I remember about that time was that we had commissary privileges, and we lived close to Camp Claiborne (Just north of Forest Hill on the west side of the highway. There is almost nothing left of the camp these days, but I believe it is still federal land.
I have since learned that Dad trained for his job in Ft. Lewis, Washington. And he spent most of his time in the Pacific on Ie Shima (now Iejima). On my last tour in Southeast Asia I flew into Kadena AB on Okinawa. Ie Shima lies just off the northwest coast of Okinawa, and had I known where it was then, I would have arranged to fly over it.
My grandmother was a first grade teacher. I had her for my first year of school, and I think that because of her I have always been enthusiastic about learning. Well, learning about most things anyway. In the second grade we had a course about health. It was so boring that I had a hard time reading it. One night I skipped my assignment entirely. The next day we had a multiple guess quiz. I’ll probably never forget the one question I missed, especially since my answer has since been vindicated. It asked how you should brush your teeth – back and forth, up and down, a combination,… .
That year for Halloween one of the other first graders talked his parents into hosting a party. I was invited. I’m not sure who came up with the idea, but mom and grandmother dressed me up as a girl. I wore a dress with my slacks rolled up underneath. They put a head scarf with a hair piece sticking out the back to give the illusion of long hair. And of course I had on lipstick and rouge. It was effective, No one recognized me. I heard all kinds of comments wondering who that little girl was. Then came the unveiling. Being an introvert I was mortified by the boys’ reactions. I suspect my shame over that incident stayed with me a lot longer than it should have, but strangely enough, no one bothered me about it at school.
Forest Hill was on the Missouri Pacific line back then, and in those days the locomotives were steam engines. I was fascinated by the big, black engines as they chugged through town. I often went outside just to watch them. We had two whole grade crossings, and I can still remember the whistles blowing, spraying out clouds of steam, when the locomotives approached them.
Alexandria was the “big city” for us. We had regular passenger service on the railroad between Forest Hill and Alexandria. For Christmas (1944 I suspect) we caught the train into Alexandria to do some shopping. Almost everywhere I looked, there was Santa. We caught up with Santa at a Christmas tree lot. When I got through making sure he knew what I wanted for Christmas, no one was standing in line. Santa took a break. We hung around so mom and grandmother could talk to him for a while. I still remember being shocked that Santa had a son and he was serving overseas.
When dad got back from the Pacific after the war, he found a job north of Alexandria so we moved to a town nearer his work. Once again our house was next to the railroad. This one ran past my school which was in Tioga. One day, instead of catching the bus I walked home along the railroad tracks. The only problem was that I didn’t tell anyone. I guess the bus driver must have gotten upset about me being missing, because I got home early to an uproar, I didn’t do that again.