The Road Home to Tennessee

When I was in elementary and junior high school back in the late 1970’s my family and I lived in Altus Oklahoma. My father was in the Air Force. Altus was an interesting place. I loved it there. The reasons for my fond memories are probably a little bizarre. first of all, when it rained/ every time it rained milions of little one inch size frogs would mysteriously pop out of the ground. We used to run around and catch as many frogs as we could and put them in a bucket. Simply to see how full we could get the bucket. This did not make my mom very happy especially after the time I put the bucket in the garage and forgot it was there.

The second reason I liked it there was because of the locust. Locust are really large fly looking bugs. We used to catch them and attach a 3 to 4 foot string to one of their hind legs. The other end of the string would attach to one of my wrist. This allowed me to wear my locust all day long. He would periodically attempt to fly away and then land back on my person. Locust came in various shades of green depending on when they molted out of their skin.

The third reason is my best friend lived next door. Her name was Patty and she was a year younger than I was. Patty was the youngest of six siblings. All one year apart. Billy, Bobby, Tony, Cindy, Steve and Patty. Her brother Steve was my age and my boyfriend. Steve was also the first boy I ever kissed. For four years Patty, Steve and I hung together. My heart broke when their father retired from the Air Force and moved the family to Tyler Texas. Steve and I promised when we got old enough we would marry. Steve grew up to be a Catholic Priest. Patty grew up to be the mother of twin daughters and is already a grandmother.