May 2004 Mary won first place for poetry for the 10th grade by the Hillsborough County Teachers of English and is to be awarded today, May 1, at a banquet at the Temple Terrace Golf and Country Club. .Her parent(s) had to pay $20 two weeks ago to attend with her and did not have it although we had it by today but they could not issue a ticket for us this late so no one could go with her to see her honored. The poem is about a little boy trying to be proud of all the hoopla surrounding his soldier dad's death while the poet wonders if he'd rather be the son of a soldier than the son of a father. The poet is the daughter of a Vietnam Vet (pictured here and elsewhere on this website). I am proud she won first place in the 7th largest school district in the U.S. but ticked off that there were no allowances for purchasing tickets to attend the ceremony for parents paid minimal money the first of each month so they are broke mid-month and on . such as disabled Vietnam Veterans. The association publishes a fat book of the winning poems and fiction and non-fiction by first and second place winners of each grade that we will get, at least. But to make this sweet shy girl eat alone, attend alone where all else has family is---well, she's used to being ostracized, thank God.She's resilient still. Philisophical. Marina is being tested for gifted IQ and honored today with a picnic with all the county school safety Patrols at Medard Park . They toured a Sheriff's boat and onr of those vehicles that handle contamination, etcc. She got a 5.0 on FCAT, the second higheat score in 4th grade. Mary got a 4.0 and is in the 89th percentile for reading comprehension and the 98th for math.There is only 99 so one per cent of 10th graders nationwide are smarter in math. What makes these accomplishments amazing is that the girls accomplished them while living under extremely stressful circumstances--no electricity the past 7 weeks, moving from Daddy's nursing home to the van to the tent in the yard to the house with candles to the tent again when the house had a flea infestation after not being vacuumed for 6 weeks and Daddy nearly got kicked out of his cheap penthouse efficiency at an old folks facility for having us there most of two weeks.He can't afford to live anywhere he has to pay for water and electric at and has a 13th floor panoramic view of downtown, the river, bay, channel, university rowing teams and the flat north of downtown area all the way to the Sulphur Springs water tower near our home.So mmany huge buildings, man, and empty downtown streets at night, and you could hear the homeless under the bridge from his windows nightly. It had to be hard on the schoolkids in our family to keep moving around with backpacks at the ready with mostly nowhere to go. And the fleas killed our 20-year-old cat Livonia and our 14 year old Maine Coon cat Pooh (see pet section of this website) , one the day before my 50th birthday and one the day after.We couldn't fix it--we were srounging napkins from restraunts for 2 weeks for toilet paper and cleaning needs. Eating nothing. The kids knew these pets their entire lives. It was a severe blow. Then three kittens we loved died too. It left us 9-cat folks with just 4 cats. That turned to 3 tonight when one insisted on breaking antiques till we let him out to meet his destiny with a car. He had a serious death wish, boy, yowling nonstop to go out and darting out whenever the door opened.I concluded he was not good pet material. The pressure lowered for me with the loss of all these responsibilities. When the electric finally came back on today though I found I had irrevocably changed as a person . I didn't recall how we lived--that the vacuum belt had snapped just before the power went out and hd to be replaced, that the TV ran on a remote, where the remote was after 7 weeks of no one using it, --it took me 7 hours to realize I could go online again!The house has a layer f crud over it due to being humid and open ( no window screens) 7 weeks. It seemed abandoned and an old lifestlye we'd moved on from long ago. I even forgot we had a porch light. The death about here just slayed me.The wetness and dirtiness of all archival papers and photos and art and knick knacks was sickening. It's hard to pull a home back from ghost town status.I went to ER with confusion, disorientation and unable to sit up or walk after bad diarrhea the night before in the grocery store 3 times just buying cat food--I think my defibrillator went off.The kids spent half the night there and went to school very tired, then had to live 2 counties away at their grandparents a few days. Yet they pulled off all this achievement at school. We're not "back home" because half of us died. But we go on.Appreciating that we lost no human life. Big photos of Marina looking at you from a sleeping bag on an overnight field trip to the Florida Aquarium hang in her school lobby... We'll have to fall back into rhythym here....I got lots of responses to this website , the parts on Hank Carr and Bernice Bowen, and my grandfather's fishing gear, all positiv. And as always, three emails asking where Debra Baxter is today, which is my big question... ( the ten year old British actress star of the 1964 movie "A High Wind in Jamaica"). Wonder if she ever looks herself up on google and sees my site---I love that person so. Like so many---about 3 a month write me. all looking for her. But she's not anywhere. I still can't read a whole newspaper (me? Who reads 4 a day incl. The Wall Streeet Journal and Sunday NY Times?) I am too agitated. But I'll be back. I've FAITH AND HOPE. I can tell you a few things only I've seen. I know the American Indians must have had dirty fingernails because I found that you can't keep the dirt out without hot water and they didn't have hot showers or baths either.Their feet would have been black a lot.Squatting on the ground to eliminate is hard on siatic nerves.Moths and other insects must have been busy on their feather headddresses. I'm ready to live more normally now should God want me to...I've seen enough of this shit. Excuse that I'm French... I wish I could addd photos but to ensure my hard drive wasn't stolen I took it to Dan's. Good choice as our house was broken into 2 nights in a row.Dan thinks by a homeless person seeking shelter as nothing was taken. However there did happen to be nothing to TAKE...........I;ve had enough living like bombed out refugees. Now I want normal American middle class .... may get that coutesy a weird fluke I can't tell about.Let's just say God is wild about keeping me putting out my writing. Thank God. |
Our Very Hardest Time Ever |
Even tho he had an apartment with tv, ac, and hot shower and bed, this war veteran spent every night with us in our tent or his van while we lived compromised in a home without electricity for 7 weeks, after we were banned from his (65 and older or 55 and disabled greatly only) place, protecting us with his piece while we lived in the open air one lot from a main hooker corner. He's on oxygen now from severe COPD with 17% lung capacity. And our brick. |
