Chapter 5
It was winter in Huntsville when we got there. Philip was enrolled in the Jr. High School and Daniel in 3d grade, and right away the schools closed because of icy roads! They were not prepared for such conditions!
We had a split-level house that I thought was perfect. We were the first occupants. It was on a corner lot at 103 Valley View Terrace. Nice address too! The whole area was new houses and I called it a bit of the North in the Northern part of Alabama. Used be a cotton field, I learned later. We had nice neighbors, either working for NASA at Redstone Arsenal, or other Northerners from General Electric from NY.
We joined Latham Memorial Methodist Church and became active in choir and Sunday School. Some very good friends there were the Bennetts, Alice and her husband, Lynn, whom she called Bennett all the time. They were about our ages, but their children, a boy and a girl, were older. Bennett was a writer who'd had articles published in several sports magazines. Alice was church secretary.
The Bennetts had a boat and would take us boating on the Tennessee River quite often. Alice and Bernie got along fine; she had been a Marine also. She and Bennett had met at some time when both were in uniform: he in the Army, and she in the Marines. Alice and I still keep in touch. Bennett died a few years ago. She keeps saying she wants to visit Alaska, and maybe she will some day.
The first pastor was a fiery redheaded man who preached like a Baptist. I thought we were in the wrong place, till I realized this was "the South," and that's what they do! The next pastor was Barry Anderson. He and his wife, Claire, were very nice and became good friends too. I was sorry to hear later that they had divorced and re-married other partners. I think of them now and wonder how they are. Barry was a more relaxed preacher, more like what we were used to.
Our summer in Huntsville was H O T! The house had air conditioning, and we used it! Bernie was going to make a patio in back of the house and nearly collapsed in the heat spreading the cement by himself. He might have, too, if church friends had not come along to help. We didn't get to use it much, though, because we moved again shortly after that.
We had a lot of lawn to mow, and Philip did a fine job with a riding mower. He also mowed lawns for neighbors and had a nice thing going that first summer. He also became a very good baby-sitter for some neighbors with four young boys. They loved him and didn't want me, when Philip couldn't make it. I was never a good babysitter anyway, so I wasn't hurt!
From the time we got to Huntsville, Daniel didn't do very well in school. We weren't pleased when the teacher finally told us he wasn't going to make it, just six weeks before the end of the semester. Bernie got some Dolch books and we worked with him, but it wasn't enough at that late date. So he repeated 3d grade. Fortunately, there was a new school going up in our area, so he transferred there and had new classmates and a new teacher. He did very well with a very fine teacher. My regret was that he was picking up his teacher's Southern accent.
One incident we still talk about is the time Philip was riding his bike around selling band candy or some such. He had an accident and required several stitches in his head. While he was laid up, Daniel went around selling the candy for him. He would tell people he was selling the candy for his brother who'd had an accident. He did pretty well, though we kidded him unmercifully about it.
We were in Huntsville 19 months altogether. Just long enough to conceive and deliver Naomi Elizabeth May 13, 1964. She was a bit of a surprise, and Bernie wasn't all that happy about another child to be responsible for. There was a family in the church who'd had several miscarriages, and he wanted to give our baby to them. She would have had a wonderful home with them, but there was no way I could give my child to anyone else. How could he think such a thing?
An opportunity to get back with the Army and move to Alaska came up and Bernie couldn't resist. He called me one day to say, "How would you like to move to Alaska?" I said, "Sure, uh-huh," thinking he was joking. He wasn't. Naomi was 3 months old, and we were on our way.