My Family - Parents and Immediate Family

My parents were JoAnn and David. My Mom was born on July 10, 1946 and my Dad was born on August 10, 1934. There is a twelve year age difference between the two of them. They celebrated their 55th Wedding Anniversary on May 29, 2023. That is 55 Years with the same person! The only person each of them was ever with. My parents were from an era when once a man and woman devoted themselves to each other they stayed together a lifetime. That is what a marriage union is supposed to be like between two people. My parents met  through a friend and were married in 1968. It was not long after that I was born. I grew up an only child.

My dad served in the Navy for four years in the 1950s. He had various jobs as a park ranger and even filmed a documentary in Carlsbad Caverns. My Dad has lots of interesting stories to tell from his early days as a park ranger and things he has experienced. While I was going to school, my Dad worked at Pan Am Airlines in the warehouse as a cargo clerk. He worked there for 35 years until Pan Am went out of business after the terrorist attack in 1988 on the Airlines. From time to time when I was little he would take me up to the airport warehouse with him and let me ride on the freight platform. He also let me ride on the forklift arms. Sometimes my Daddy would bring home things from the damaged cargo such as toy balls! I enjoyed that so much! He worked the 4 PM to Midnight Shift. His days off were Thursday and Friday. I was usually in bed when he would get home from work on school nights and weekends. On his days off, he would take me to the Everglades National Park to ride bikes and walk on the trails and boardwalks. We really loved nature seeing alligators, deer and other wildlife in the National Park.

My Mom did not have to work because my Dad supported her. She worked at a nursery school in Hialeah when I was under four years old. When I was in fifth grade, she worked in the cafeteria of Leisure City Elementary School. I attended there for sixth grade instead of going to Middle School. I had the best elementary teacher named Mrs. Rodriguez. My Best Friend Jana also went there for elementary while I was in sixth grade. We used to play Barbies at PE time. Then, one day Mr. Peterson the coach over heard me playing dolls with Jana and made me a hall monitor. I think he saw leadership and assertiveness in me and it boosted my self esteem to be a hall monitor. That was the only time I had a take charge type of roll. I was always quiet and timid throughout high school. I did not have many friends. 

My Mom had a brother and a sister. She was the first born from her Mom, Edythe. Her Brother Fred was one year younger born in 1947 and her sister who was the baby was born seven years later in 1953. Her name was Renee. My Grandma was widowed when my Mom was just ten years old leaving her to take care of three children on her own. My Grandma's brother, Herbert helped her with the kids in Atlanta, Georgia. My Mom was in charge of taking care of her three year old sister as it took the burden off of her Mom. Later on, my Grandma moved my Mom and her siblings to Florida. 

My dad was also the oldest of four from his parents. My Grandparents adopted two children and had another son named Sid. Sally and Susan were adopted because my Grandma could not have anymore children. My Dad spoke to his parents and we would visit them a couple times a year. They lived in the Florida Keys for a while until they moved to Lakeland, Florida. They were snow birds and lived in Ohio half the year and during the winter months stayed in Florida. My Grandpa John had a Doctorate in Physics and worked for General Electric. He was from my point of view, a very quiet man and I enjoyed his laugh. My Grandma would play shuffle board with me when I went to visit her. She also played boggle with me. I liked going to their house because they had many board games for me to play, such as Trouble.

My Grandma, Edna, became a school teacher in her fifty's. She taught elementary school, fifth grade for ten to fifteen years until she retired. One of my earliest memories of visiting my Grandma, Edna, on my Dad's side was when they lived in the Keys. My parents let me spend the night at my Grandparents. There was this exotic mask on the wall with a red face, black mustache, and a long nose. His mouth was open like he was screaming except it was a creepy smile. It was one of the scariest things I saw as a child. While my Grandparents were in the other room I decided I was going to take the mask off the wall. I began to stand on the top of the couch back to reach the mask when my Grandma walked in and caught me. Quickly I slid down from the back of the couch to try and play it off, but they knew I was up to something. I told them the mask scared me. My Grandma helped me take it off the wall and placed it in the closet. She explained that she got the mask in another country. The exact details are lost in my memory banks now since this was more than forty years ago. 

One time when my parents were sitting out on the porch of their trailer I decided I was going to run onto the porch. First, I had to determine if the sliding glass door was open and from twenty feet away it appeared to be open as I did not see the screen door. I proceeded to dash through the sliding glass door and make my entrance onto the porch. To my utter surprise, that sliding glass door screen was not open!!! What happened next was I fell through it and completely took down the sliding glass door off its track as I fell through it! The horror on my face said it all! For sure I thought I was getting in trouble so I started to cry because I thought that would ease the punishment I would get. They knew what was up and that I was not hurt. I did not get in trouble. They asked me why I did it. I told them because it looked open from where I was. I must have been about twelve years old.

All of my cousins on my Dad's side were older than me. Uncle Sid had two sons. Aunt Sally had a son and a daughter. My cousins from Uncle Sid lived in Ohio and my cousins from Aunt Sally lived in North Carolina. Aunt Susan was the black sheep of the family and no one talked about why she was shunned from the family but she was. For a small moment in 1993 or 1994 I had contact with Aunt Susan through letter writing. She liked Michael Jackson she told me. I do not recall if she told me why my Grandma and Grandpa cut her off. She had come down with an autoimmune disorder and eventually she never wrote me back. It is not clear if I said something to upset her but eventually I never heard back from Aunt Susan again. I was happy that I had a brief moment of interaction with her.

My cousin Mark became a dentist. I went to his office for him to look at my teeth. I had a lot of spaces from missing adult teeth not growing in. This was in the front of my mouth. He gave me a molding of my teeth and said he could give me porcelain veneers and a Marilyn bridge to "bridge the gap next to the tooth that was by my front tooth. The only thing I had to do was pay for the lab costs of $600. He said if I asked Grandma, she would pay for it. My entire life, I never asked my Grandma for money and I was feeling shy and awkward towards asking her. A few days went by when my cousin asked me if I asked Grandma for the money. I told him no. He prompted for me to ask her because he said she would give it to me if I asked. I got up the courage to ask and she said yes! This was in 1992 after the infamous Hurricane Andrew pummeled South Florida. Now, in 2023 my porcelain veneers are holding up the test of time! The Marilyn Bridge not so much, it lasted a few years through the 1990's. It was my fault for eating that hard candy which prompted it to snap out of my mouth leaving me with a space I had to correct on my own.

It was not until after my Grandpa's death in 1992, that I learned about how he worked for General Electric and had such high clearance that he was protected from the draft when WWI was happening. They needed my Grandpa to continue his research. A lot of which he was not able to speak of and to this day my Dad does not know the extent of his research because it was classified. My Grandpa took his knowledge to the grave. It is probably for the best that we do not know what he knew for our own safety. My Dad said he was taken to his Dad's place of work as a young boy and he had to go through extensive security measures and get security clearance just to enter with my Grandpa.

My Grandma on my Mom's side lived in Florida. My Mom and I would visit my Grandma, Aunt Renee, and later in 1975 when my cousin Mike was born, my cousin. My Aunt and Grandma first lived in Hialeah. Everyone was Spanish in Hialeah. Uncle Fred lived on one side of the Duplex and Renee and Grandma on the other side. On the weekends my Mom and I would spend the night over there. 

I used to make pot holders and then go door to door and sell them for thirty cents in the neighborhood. I used to walk down the street to a corner store to buy candy and it was only twenty five cents. You could also get candy for ten cents. It was candy like line leaders. There was also a mango tree in her front yard. We never had to worry about buying mangos because they grew all over the tree which was huge!

My Aunt Renee was sixteen years old when my Mom had me in 1969. She reminds me that she was there at the hospital when I was born. My Dad was not at the hospital. He dropped my Mom off at the hospital and then had to go to work. She tells me about how she used to change my diapers. She had a boyfriend when I was a small girl in 1974. His name was John. In 1975, my cousin Mike was born. I remember getting to hold him on the steps of the old Hialeah house. Michael's Dad, John, had a nice voice when he would sing around the house. I remember always liking it. 

John liked to drink beer. When I was there the adults were drinking beer. I remember always wanting to try some beer. Then one Sunday when I was about nine years old, John gave me a full red cup of beer which I drank. Then I got a headache and began crying because it hurt so bad. I never wanted to touch beer again after that. It's true what they say about curing a child's curiosity by giving them a sip of beer to make them lose interest. This was in the 1970's before things were monitored so strictly by social services and authorities that jail parents for allowing their children to drink under their own private roof. I do not condone or encourage underage drinking of any sort. This was my experience and after that I never touched alcohol again as a child.

I was thrilled to have a baby cousin! Michael was born on August 4, 1975. I might say that after Michael was born he got a lot of the attention because he was the baby. Michael was my favorite cousin because I got to see him every week. When he was a baby my Mom got to watch him for an entire week! I was so excited and when I got home from school, I woke him up from the crib to play with him. I also accidentally dropped him on his head when he was a baby and I was a little girl. Whoops! Sorry Michael. He didn't get too hurt, just a little bump on the forehead.

Michael had an Atari in the 1980's, I always liked going over to his house on Sundays because it meant I could play the Atari. Something my Dad said I was not allowed to have because he did not want to hook a game system up to the TV. Michael's favorite number was 8 and my favorite number was 6. We would play a game we made up called sixes and eights. I think it had to do with the number being in the score. Hey Michael do you remember the 6's and 8's when we were kids?

When my cousin Mike was seven in 1982, my Grandma moved Him and my Aunt Renee to Miami from Hialeah into a house. They are currently there and it has been forty years! 1982 to 2023. It is mind blowing to live in the same space for so long and watch the people change and the property remain ageless. This is where all of Michael's main childhood and my teen childhood took place at this house. I would mow Aunt Renee's lawn and she would pay me $5 to do the front and back. She even gave me raises. Eventually I was paid $7 for the lawn over a two year span of time.

One time when I was mowing the lawn there was a stump in the back yard that I mowed over. It was an entire nest of giant cockroaches. I took the mower and was mowing over the bugs yelling cuyabunga! By the back window where the grass would grow thick as I mowed over it roaches would pour out of the grass. One time my Grandma came outside and she was defending the yard against these large bugs swatting at them as they were flying when one bumped into her shoulder and she jumped back. I was happy that my Grandma was outside helping me defeat the bugs, this war of bugs. Sort of like in the movie Joe's Apartment.

Yes, so many fond memories of my Grandma, cousin and Aunt. We had many laughs and we always went out to eat at a buffet on Sundays. We would go shopping at the Dadeland Mall and even to the Miami Beach to go swimming! My Aunt Renee somewhere along the line grew so fond of me that she gave me a nickname. She refers to me as Carolee Poo so I nicknamed her Auntis Reneeis. It was because she put "is" on the end of my name referring to me as Carolis. Then we would talk to each other adding "is" to the end of our words. Then we would laugh together! My Aunt is still alive and I love her very much! 

My take away from all of these memories is to hold dear to you the memories you create with your family. They are a series of moments. Each individual person has their own version of the same memory you shared together. It is because you as an individual experience it from your perspective. You are the main character in your story.  Everyone else is a secondary character in your movie. It is a matter of what you take away from the series of moments. The good and the bad.  What we have is the memory. If your family members are still around, enjoy them as much as you can. We are never promised tomorrow only the present moment. I am extremely grateful that I was given the family I have even though we walked different paths later on in life.

You begin to realize that you truly never know everything about a person. Only what they choose to share with you. Unless you take the time you never truly know yourself either. That is the thrill to waking up and finding yourself as you go through time as a human.