The Beatles

 My Mother loved music.  We often hear show tunes or easy listening music, while we had supper.  She especially loved "Camelot" and wrote a letter to Richard Burton thanking him for the music.  He wrote her back.  In February 1964, I was 10 years old.  My Mother told me that there was going to be some musicians on "The Ed Sullivan Show" Sunday night, and I should watch it.  It was some guys called The Beatles.  She had heard their music on the radio and thought I would like it.
 I sat down in front of the TV, and when they came on that show, I was zapped through the screen.  I fell in love with the four mop tops from Liverpool.  My Mother bought every album of theirs for me through the years, until I could afford to buy them on my own.  Around that time, I wrote a song called "People".  I put music to it.  Strangely, a group called Herman's Hermits came out with a song 3 months later called "Listen People".  The tune was very close, as were some of the words.  I wish I had known about suing back then. 
 Two guys at my church went with me to a Sunday School outing on Lake Murray at our teacher's house.  His name was Mr. Cloyd, and he had a thumb that didn't have a bone in it, and kind of laid limp.  It was kind of gross, but he was a nice guy.  Dick Edwards, Jimmy Coleman, and I formed a band called "Dickie, Dirty, and Jimmie".  We sang Beatle songs all the way back from the lake.  We never performed live, although there was so talk about doing roller rinks. 
 That night in 1964, in front of the TV, started a life-long love for popular music, especially The Beatles.  When my Mother died in 2004, I put a small Paul McCartney button in her casket as a token of thanks for her introducing me to that music.  I guess in 10,000 years from now, some guy will find the button and make millions of dollars from it.  All the best to him.

3rd Grade

 My 3rd grade teacher was Mrs. Southern.  She is still living, as of this writing, and she goes to my church.  She believed in Show and Tell.  One day, she was teaching us about buying stuff and money.  She brought small boxes of cereal to show a grocery store.  I, along with some other boys, didn't care about buying anything.  We ate the cereal.  We got in trouble.  Another time, she brought coffee beans to school to show where coffee came from.  I ate the beans and got very sick.  To this day, I don't drink coffee.  I blame all of that on Mrs. Southern.

Commercial

 When I was 5, I was finding out that I had a creative mind.  There was a cereal that I liked called "OK Cereal".  Yogi Bear was the spokesperson for it.  It was kind of like Cheerios, if I remember right.  So, I got the bright idea to write a TV commercial for the cereal.  My Mother helped me a little bit with the typing, but it was my idea.
 I don't remember all the wording, but the gist was that there were three kids with cereal bowls.  One had Brand X, and the kid got sick eating it.  The next was Brand Y, and the kid got sicker eating it.  Then came OK Cereal, and that kid said "OK is ok".  We didn't have an address to the cereal company, so we sent it to a Yogi Bear comic book address.  They wrote back to me, and said that it was very creative and wanted to talk with me in about 18 years.  Of course, the Yogi Bear comic book and OK Cereal weren't made 18 years later, but it was the start of my writing career.

The West 1962

 In 1962, we went back to New Mexico.  I loved Santa Fe.  The altitude made it hard to breathe.  At Glorieta, they actually had oxygen stations throughout the area to give folks a boost.  I suffer from asthma, so that was a help.  The first time we were there, I asked my Mother what was the name of the trees.  She said they were Aspen.  My cute response was "Bayer or St. Joseph's".  I had a lot of cute responses for a child.  The beauty of the area struck me more on our second trip to New Mexico.  Upon leaving there, a lightning bolt struck right in front of our car.  Pretty scary.
 Also on that trip, we went to Colorado.  My brother was about to graduate from high school, and he wanted to see the Air Force Academy.  We also went to Colorado Springs, where my brother and I had another snowball fight in June.  The most impressive spot on our trip was the Garden of the Gods.  If you have a chance to see it, go. 

Mays Park

When we moved from Burney Drive to Belmont Drive, there was a period of time where I still had to go to kindergarten.  Mays Park was about 4 blocks away, and all the kids in the neighborhood went there.  I had a lot of fun there.  No more strict discipline from Mrs. Pow.  No more memorization of The Bible.  Just a lot of play; some naps; and a little snack.  At the end of the session, they dressed us all up in white caps and gowns and gave us diplomas.  We also had an orchestra, where we all played instruments for the parents.  Originally, I had two sticks to knock together, but I was given a triangle to play.  I was so cool.
 A couple of other things about Burney Drive--that winter it snowed.  My Mother didn't want me out much, but I did play in the front yard.  We had a big bush near the front steps.  The branches froze, and I actually walked up the bush a few feet on the frozen bush.  It was kind of weird.  We also made snow ice cream.  It was good back then, but I wouldn't suggest it now.  The other thing was we gave our dog Brownie to our next door neighbors, when we moved.  They were glad to get him, and we were glad to see him go. 

First Grade

 A couple of things from my first grade.  I went to Crayton, although we used to call it "Crayton Elementary Public Penitentiary".  Standing in line one day to go into the classroom, I learned there was a difference between suicide and murder.  We talked about a lot of stuff with the other students.
 It was also the time for the Presidential elections between Kennedy and Nixon.  Us kids decided to do an informal poll of the students.  There were some stairs separated in the middle by a railing.  If you went down one side, you for Kennedy.  If you went down the other side, you were for Nixon.  Stanley Hammer was in charge of the Kennedy side.  Jim True and me had the Nixon side.  Nixon won by a landslide.
 Amazing how things would change.

Moving

 In the fall of 1958, after getting back from our great vacation that summer, my father announced that we were moving to Columbia, SC.  I was very upset.  I had to say goodbye to best friend Paul.  I had to leave the only place I knew.  No more going to the zoo.  No more playing in the park.  No more putting my toes in the lake.  No more riding on the rides at the park.  No more Mardi Gras.  No more N.O.
 We moved to Columbia around Thanksgiving.  We rented a house on Burney Drive.  There was a kid next door named Jim, who was my age.  So, we joked about Jim Walter Homes.  I guess it was funnier back then.  My parents got me a dog, which we named him Brownie.  He was a cocker spaniel.  Brownie liked to eat things like my teddy bear and me.  I didn't like Brownie, and it made me fear dogs more.
 We had a basement in our new house that filled up with water every time in rained.  It was like having an indoor pool.  It also collected cats, and when my Mother would open the door to the basement, a cat would scare her. 
 The house was about three blocks from my kindergarten, run by Mrs. Pow, but she pronounced it "pew".  No, I didn't understand either.  She was a very strict, religious woman.  We learned the Beatitudes and the Ten Commandments.  At Christmas, we put on a pageant at the main library.  I played a Wise Man, dressed in my father's bathrobe. 
 After nine months in the rental, we moved to Belmont Drive, where I would grow up.