Jerry, my sister Jerry

Jerry is my sister. She was so much more too. Jerry taught me compassion, love, family and so much more. She taught me the good things I learned in life.
Mom and Dad taught me strength, morality, ambition, curiosity and shaped my life in many ways. Each of these things are very important in life to succeed and I appreciate that they made sure I understood and became a good person.
Jerry is the only person that taught me what I needed to learn to be happy, not just successful. I learned what it felt like for some one to be kind to me. She taught me to feel the feelings of others. The first time I felt love was from the kind words and concerned actions of my sister. I learned a more powerful way to cope with the world from her.
Jerry was my idol. I wanted to be as good a person as she was. It seemed so natural to her but I had to work very hard to learn her ways.
I miss her terribly every day. It is as if I have lost my anchor in life. Now I am just floating with no place to go and no reason to be.
My children are grown and have lives and families of their own. They no longer NEED me. Their lives are full with "life".
Jerry and I didn't need each other but we enjoyed each other's company and wanted to spend time together. Now that is stolen from me.
I will never fill the hole left in my heart. I hope someday it won't hurt so badly though.
Each day is a struggle, I think of what we would talk about if she were here beside me. I think of all the trips we had planned and never got to take and of the few trips we did take. It makes me feel that each day is useless and unnecessary.
I have no one to bond with now. I have to pay to have errands and chores done. I never have enough time to get things done out side the house so when I am able to leave my "prison" I always feel rushed and guilty so I can't enjoy even that time. I feel frustrated and trapped.
My life is slipping away.

Today

I have wanted to invest in my community for quite some time now. I couldn't decided what was the right way for me to do this because I don't have a lot of money.
I finally decided the way that interests me is to buy a cheap, CHEAP house and renovate it. Then I want to rent it to someone that may not be able to afford decent housing but that is truly trying improve their life and lifestyle.

Ichabod Lane and Sleepy Hollow

No, its not a typo, I mean Ichabod Lane not Ichabod Crane. House number 11!
One weekend Mom and Dad told us they had bought a new home but it wasn't built yet. We were going to spend the weekend at the new building site doing some of the work ourselves. For us kid it was usually grand fun. We raked and shovelled, we moved rocks and moved lumber.
One weekend I remember in particular wasn't so much fun. The basement was poured and the forms were removed. Now the basement needed to be sealed on the outside to prevent it from leaking. When we arrived Dad built a bonfire in the back yard and hung the buckets of tar over the fire. Dad passed out the rag mops. We were each to dunk the mop into a bucket of tar and smear it on the walls of the basement. It was one of the most miserable days I could remember from my childhood years.
Tar really stinks. It burns the skin if you aren't careful and when you get it on your skin it really hurts to pull it off. By the end of the day my clothes were ruined, my freckles were brown and black and my hair was stiff. It was many days with much turpentine to get clean.
When the house was finally complete we were all excited to be able to move in. It was a great day and all the wonders of the new home we ours to explore. The hardwood floors were made of random lengths of 2x4's on edge. The fireplace was of man made stone of pastel colors, very modern at the time. I had a large bedroom with a window facing east.
The house was on Ichabod Lane in the housing development known as Sleepy Hollow. We were here for a short time. One night my Dad got up in the middle of the night. He crossed the living room in the dark and his bare foot landed in the open snarling mouth of the bear skin rug centered on the living room floor. The blood curdling scream of Ichabod Crane could be heard throughout sleepy hollow that night!!!!!!!

Slide Rule

While we lived at a motel I attended yet another school. It was a nice school, with a great math teacher. East Valley Middle School was my next stop on my education trip. Unfortunately I was only there for a few weeks. This was my third school.
At the time I didn't realize it but we were at the motel while we were waiting for our house to become available.

At the first of September 1959 we moved into a small house on south 7th in Coeur d'Alene. It was a nice house but very small and home number 9.
We started attending the Catholic School in Coeur d'Alene. We wore uniforms and attended church before school every morning. The nuns taught the classes. For the first time my teacher was interested in me and how I learned. Before, I was forced to learn anyway they could teach me.
So in the fourth grade I finally learned how to learn and from then on learning was fun!
I remember one night the lighting struck very close to our home and broke several windows.

I also remember I was getting nose bleeds all the time so I had nose surgery. I was recuperating for the surgery , lying on the sofa in the living room for days, my nose packed with cotton.
My sister was dating an older guy, Gary Boothe. He was in college and very intellegent, he was studying to be an engineer. He came to the house to pick up Jerry for a date. Jerry was late so to fill the time he showed me how to use a slide rule to do my math homework. It was so much fun.
One day many weeks after I was back to school I came home and the brand new car Dad had bought was in the drive way with all the tires flat! I knew something was going on and I couldn't wait to find out what the story was.
I didn't say anything when I went in the house. I put my books away and sat down in the kithchen. I waited.........nothing all through dinner. Then as the table was cleared Dad asked my brother "Why?". My brother tried to explain. He saw on tv kid lined up nails behin the car and when the car backed out of the drive the tires went flat. My brother wanted to know if it would really work.
I couldn't beleive it. My Dad just broke out laughing. It was so unfair.
I learned the next day that my little brother would lose his allowance and have to work at the shop every weekend for the rest of the month.
Mom was working at JC Penney's and Dad has opened a shoe repair shop. Things were going good. In October, we moved across town to a much larger home. It was an older two story home with a wonderful front porch and Chestnut trees at the curb on Montana Steet. My half sister Deannie was married and but for some reason she came to live with us. I think her husband was in the military but I am not sure. House #10

Then there was 3rd Grade

It was late October of 1958. We drove only a short while in the semi with our new home tagging along behind. We pulled into a small trailer park and slept the night in the cold, unlit and unlevel trailer. Come Monday morning we went to Winton School in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Winton School was a wonderful place. I learned cursive writing, my times tables and wore my first pair of glasses. I had a friend that was dear to my heart, we shared many times and I especially loved the ride home from school on the school bus. She got off the bus before my stop and I was lonely the rest of the ride home. One day I begged her to stay on the bus with me promising it really wasn't very far. She stayed on till my stop and then went home with me. She called her parents from my home and her parents came and got her. The next day at school we snuck off to the restroom. I asked if she got it much trouble, I was feeling very guilty for begging her to do wrong. She raised her skirt and I could see the black and blue marks of the belt. I have never forgotten the terrible guilt I felt. This is the first time I truly saw that my actions hurt someone else. It is also the first time I realized that I actually had very good parents. Our neighbor was a couple from Sweden. They spoke very little english but some how we communicated. I remember a lot of pictures and a translator dictionary. This is when I realized my Dad was deaf. I never noticed before that we had to be sure to face Dad when we spoke or that sometimes we had to write what we were saying. It seemed normal to us. Dad could read lips well enough to not need much help in the world in general. I never thought of Dad as being any different than anyone else's dad. On the other hand I always knew Mom's vision wasn't the same as everyone else. At this time she wore very thick glasses but she could still see and drive. We stayed at this location until August of 1959. Mom and Dad sold the trailer and we moved to a motel in Spokane Valley. Home number 8.

little trailer BIG TRAILER

It was only the last week of school, May of 1958. I came home from school that same as always. I got off the bus and walked about 2 blocks to our house. There in the driveway was a silver trailer, the kind used to camp in. Mom and Dad were chatting and packing things into the trailer. My brother and I assumed we were going camping. We each went to our bedrooms to find that even our bed had been disassembled and were sitting in the garage. Finally we are told that we are moving again. It sounds so exciting. We are moving and it is like an extended camping trip! Come to find out we are only moving to a suburb of Spokane, Opportunity and a new school. We moved to a little trailer park by the railroad tracks. It was grand for us, as children. We loved to watch the trains as they came by but my parents didn't see it the same way. Each time our little trailer rattled because of the passing train Mom and Dad would grumble. I knew they were unhappy. We had a tiny yard, just big enough to play hula hoop in....Dad showed us how to tie a slip knot, how to watch the stars and we even sat outside very late one light and watched sputnik streak across our sky. It was wonderful, I even read about it the next day in the newspapers. We lived in the little trailer for about 4 months and as always Mom and Dad made it seem like a great adventure and wonderful. This small trailer was our 6th home. This chapter ended one day in late September of 1958 when Mom and Dad pulled up in front of the school in a Semi with a large mobile home towed behind. Dad was driving and Mom called me to hop up into the cab and I knew we were off to another adventure.

This is the seventh home.

Another Move

We're moving, we're moving! We sang it throughout the house, throughout the day, throughout the entire drive. We didn't know where we were going but we didn't care. It was the excitement of the change! Better or worse, at least it would be different!! Mom and Dad had worked most of the evening before and now we all worked all day sorting, packing and loading everything. Two trucks, Mom driving one with my brother and me as her passengers. Dad driving the other truck with my older sister along. Down the unknown road we all go, to a new town, a new home, new people and a new start. It was all delicious and breathtaking. It was July of 1957. We all pulled into the driveway of a big new modern home. Very different than the barn-turned-home we had been living in. The new home had sheet rock walls and a Basement! I had my own bedroom, there were two bathrooms and both of them were inside the house. The surprises went on and on. We had a lawn rather than a wheat field around the house. I was in a wonderland.
I have many memories of this home, playing canasta with Mom and Dad, eating grapes form the plant in the backyard, coming home from school with the measles, the doctor coming to the house to pronounce the sentence of bed rest, the mumps a week later. So many things.
My half sister on my Dad's side came to stay with us for the school year. That was awful. I didn't care for her much and my older sister really didn't like her.
We even had an automatic dishwasher in the tiny kitchen. Dad worked at Goodwill learning to upholster furniture and cobble shoes. Mom worked at Safeway as a cashier. We went to McFarland School the entire year. I joined girl scouts and brownies. It was a good year. Dad even bought a Cadillac car.
It was so large that my friends and I would play house in the back seat. It was our living room and the front seat was the kitchen. It was so plush and made a wonderful play house.
I never knew why but it was all to end in May of 1958.

This was our fifth home.