And mother reminiscences, Florida, 1930's

 
 
  I have such wonderful fond memories of the 4 of us hiking around the Phosphate Pits in Lakeland
and Daddy making pinwheels and Mommy having a picnic supper,

and then Daddy putting honey on the telephone polls at night so I could catch moths

and Mommy heading the Brownie Troop and our performing the song, "Would you like to Swing on a Star and carry moonbeams home in a jar"

  and Daddy taking us to the Exchange Club  presentation of the Constitution to Gibbs High School, the African American High School, a segregated school.  

And Mommy making our pinafores so we could help serve the men Daddy had trained in Lakeland to fly during the second world war

and Mommy had prepared a nice supper for them with the chickens we raised in our back yard and Mommy swung their necks and prepared for the meal.  

And being able to grow the caterpillars on their food to find out what they would become was so exciting for me until I had to move into the garage to carry out the experiment.

And every summer, we had the cottage at the beach and Daddy would roast the fish we had caught and we were out in a boat getting scallops and fishing and at night he and uncle Hardy would spear all kinds of fish and crabs from the gulf and I got to carry the bucket with the crawling crabs and hoped they didn't grab me but it was exciting for them to shine the light on the stingrays as they speared them.  

And cooking the frog legs that Daddy brought home and Mommy cooked them as they jumped around in the pan.  Yes, I am so thankful that I grew up in such wonderful times.  Just a radio for the family and no TV and we were outdoors and enjoyed life.