Life Lessons

There should always be something in life that teaches you lessons.

I have appreciated this fact since I was a teenager.  Let me give a bit of a background so you can understand where I am coming from.

From as long as I can remember, I have only lived in one house.  We lived in some before, but I was too young to remember these.  Nope, the only one I remember from childhood was on Ingleside on the Bay, and outskirt of Ingleside, Tx.  We lived on Woodhaven street.  Nothing fancy or anything, just a 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath, situated one block from a marina that connected to the bay near Corpus Christi, TX.

We were kind of a suburb of Ingleside, Tx, a small town about 30 miles from Corpus Christi, TX.   Ingleside population, about 5,000.  Ingleside on the Bay population, about 400.  The bus would come out there, 5 miles from town, and pick us kids and take us home from school every day.  Yet, we felt far removed from 'town'. 

I grew up there, in that bay area.  Where a kid could take off on their bikes, and the signal to come home was the street light coming on.  We swam down near the marina.  We picked wild berries at a neighbors yard.  We skated everywhere we could.  We stole lots of little gum from the corner store.  We went to the small corner church's vacation bible school.  We made forts from weeds.  Climbed and played in trees.  Got in to too much mischief.

For four girls all close in age, we had a pretty great childhood.  We didn't want for anything.  We didn't live in a mansion, but mom and dad always did everything for us.  Big family vacations every year.  So many, many weekend trips I can't even start to list.  We always had clothes to wear, most of the time the latest stuff, cause 'that mattered in school'.  Childhood was awesome!  

Mom and dad both worked.  Hard.  I remember in my teens, my dad had worked his way up working for the city, and was chief in charge of handling lots of things.  My favorite memory, though, was getting in his truck on a hot afternoon and that smell when he started the A/C and it mixed with the dust from his work..  if I could bottle that smell, I would.  Cool part was he got to come home from lunch every single day, and in summers we would see dad at home every day at lunch. :)   Also, he was in charge of the water part of the big city pool.. ie. we got to sneak in there for free occasionally, hehe.

My mom had, at that time, worked for a big shrimping business the next town over, Aransas Pass, Tx.  High stress job.  They say they had to hire 3 people to replace her after she left.  I still remember, to this day, their 1-800 number that us kids called oh so many times to fill her in on life or death situations..  say..  "Mary ate the last DingDong!!" or such other catastrophe.   1-800-242-3022.   Have call way too many times..   all from the big yellow rotary phone with the 20' cord attached to the kitchen wall, btw.

Both of their jobs were stressful.  We, as kids, did not appreciate this, I do now.  As it sometimes happens in life, sometimes a lesson comes along.  I have had the very fortunate experience in life, a few times, to let life teach you a lesson.

So, there we were, teenages.. approaching, in, or almost in, our high school years.   And what do my parents decide to do??   Up and leave the freaking rat race, that's what!!

Yep, they sure did.  Sometimes a person can only take so much.  I guess they were both at that level.  So they both quit their jobs, loaded us kids up, moved 5 hours to place in western Texas where a few aunts lived.   No jobs.. no place to live..   huge ass risk.  

We managed to find a place to live, and right before school.  Us girls started school, feeling the whole world knocked out from under us.  Going from a bigger school to a tiny town.  For example.. in my 8th grade..  about 30 students per class.. we had about 8 classes of them, so 240 in my 8th grade, or there abouts.   Down to..  about 20 in my whole class.  If that.  We were the new kids, fresh out of water.  Never been that before.   Lessons.

Another lesson..  when you move with no jobs, and are used to money coming in, and there's none coming in..  things get scary fast.  We made due.  No new school clothes, the world didn't end!!  Guess what?  They did not shun us.  We didn't have any money to buy groceries..  guess what?  You got creative.  I learned for the first time in my life how to make biscuits from scratch, and we did not starve!  (and so started my penchant for cooking from there...)   We did not have much, but people welcomed us anyways, taught us the lesson of how good people can be, as well.

I really, truly, thank my mom and dad for doing this.  What a scary thing for them to do, with teenagers in the house.  We learned that not all things will stay the same.  Things can, and always will, change.  And you know what?  You will not die!   It was definitely a learning experience, one I am forever grateful for.

Who knows..  I could have grown up an entitled know it all brat that expects everything handed to them.  Thank GOD I wasn't.  Thank you mom and dad!!!!   :)