Family history and school memories.

Well to continue where I left off.

While I was in the hospital I have very few memories. I know I didn't have a lot of visitors. When someone in the family finally did come to visit, the Hospital Administrator bawled her out for not being there sooner. I was told this. My family was a mess at the time. Apparently my brother and I were in a foster home waiting to be adopted by the family, when I got sick. 

I am debating going into the family dynamic now, if I don't you will have many questions.
So get your popcorn ready it's like a soap opera. 
My mom Rosie left home at 16 she was the daughter of an Itinerant Preacher. I am sad to say I don't know much about her family life.  I don't know when it was but at some point she met a woman who became like a sister to her. Her name is Jeanne.  My mom was accepted into Jeanne's loving family.  My mom's jobs usually were working at bars and night clubs in San Diego. Needless to say she hooked up with a lot of Sailors. She gave up several children for adoption. I will talk about that later on. Because I did find some of my brothers.

 Well then I was born and 18 months later my brother Larry was born. My mom had settled down with Larry's dad and we were a happy family from what I remember and can tell from pictures and what I've been told. 
I was raised to believe that Larry and I had the same father. I didn't find out the truth until years later. He had already died. My mom and Larry's dad got divorced. So Jeanne and my mom, Larry and I moved in together.
I'm going to be careful here, I'm not sure who knows and don't want any surprises. 

Jeanne had gone away, my mom thought it would be best to put Larry and I up for adoption. So we were in the home of family friends as foster kids they planned to adopt us. I'm not sure how legal all of this was.  Just know if Jeanne had been around this never would have happened. She loved us. I know my mom loved us too. She just didn't know how to be a mom. I forgave my mom a long time ago. More about this later. So as I told you before we were at the foster families house when I contracted Polio.
Up above I mentioned someone coming to the hospital finally to visit me. And she got bawled out because it had taken so long. I don't know how long it was but Jeanne came to see me as soon as she could.

OK flash forward. 

I remember 
There was a girl in the room with me. Her parents came and had a little birthday party for her. I do remember crying because I had no visitors. 

That's all the memories I have until I'm 6 and starting first grade. I missed Kindergarten because of the hospitalization and recovery.
I was so excited to go to school. I was going to attend a school for handicapped children. It was called Sunshine School. It was a regular elementary school. But, all the kids had some sort of physical disability. The disabilities ranged from children with no limbs. see note from Salem Press.

The widespread use of thalidomide, a drug that was prescribed to pregnant women in the 1950's as a sleep aid and as relief from morning sickness, led to birth disorders among thousands of children around the globe.

There were kids with Cerebral Palsy, deaf, blind, and many with Polio. Now the ones with Polio were in different stages. From wheel chair bound with full leg braces hooked up at the waist. To kids on crutches with full leg braces to me a brace on my right leg because that leg is shorter. I also had braces on each hand. The early ones went to my elbows eventually they were just on my wrists. I also had one like a corset. To hold my stomach muscles in and train them. It never worked. I remember wearing this next brace because I absolutely hated it. I became a brat when I had to put it on. But, I don't think I ever wore to school, just after school and weekends and summer I think. A body brace that went around my waist with metal bars up my chest and back to help me stand up straight, then it was attached to a neck brace to hold my head straight so it didn't drop forward. The whole thing was to help me have good posture and to retrain those muscles to work properly. The thing with the neck brace was I couldn't turn my head . So needless to say when I fell it was like a tree. My arms are not strong enough to catch my fall. So when I fall it's straight and hard. It's a miracle I have never had a broken nose or any broken bones.
So anyway this school was really awesome. There were a lot of aids in the school to help some of the kids that needed it. But, most of these kids were very independent. I was very blessed to have the mobility I had. I was never in a wheel chair. My leg brace was the first to go. I only needed it for a few years.
We played kick ball the kids who couldn't kick the ball would throw it or had a friend kick for them then they would wheel themselves to the base, if they weren't able to, an aide would push them.
My best friend was Linda she had Polio too. She was in a wheel chair she had thigh high braces that she could lock at the knees so she could stand or walk on crutches which she did every day as part of her therapy. But, when she was in her wheelchair there was no one who could go as fast as her. When we were in the 4Th grade they were letting students go to the elementary school next to us to integrate with the "normal" kids. Linda and I got to go over for afternoons 2 days a week. We went for lunch, recess, and band. I played the Xylophone she played the flute. She had no problems with her hands. I had no problems with my legs. We were a great team.

I got picked up from school 3 days a week by the Red Cross to go to Children's Hospital for PT and OT. When therapy was over they drove me home. By the way these people always smoked, I have always hated cigarette smoke. Pretty much my whole family smoked. You just put up with it in those days. Anyway coming home from therapy one day I saw the neighbor kids outside playing I was embarrassed for them to see me in this car with a great big red cross painted on the car. So when I got out, they said," hey what are you doing in that car?" I said, "oh I volunteer at the hospital." They believed me, never asked again. ha ha God has forgiven me for my lies.
I remember a day in Nov. we were at our school on the playground. We heard the teachers calling everyone inside. As we went inside I noticed the adults were all upset, some of them were even crying. When we were all inside. The Principal came over the loud speaker and told us President Kennedy had been killed. I remember being nervous, because we had always practiced duck and cover in those days. Our neighbor had a bomb shelter. We had an emergency plan, all of this was due to the Cubans and the fear of being bombed. So I didn't know if that's why he was killed, it was a big worry to a child.

My school years were very happy ones. I loved my school, my friends and my teachers. I had my first crush on a boy. I was a happy child. I had the childhood illnesses with my brother. Mumps, measles, chicken pox. My brother and I got our tonsils taken out at the same time in the same hospital room.
I attended Sunshine School through half of my 6Th grade year. It was decided that I needed to go to a regular school so I could get use to kids without disabilities. Basically the real world. Getting ready for Jr. High and High School.
That's a lot for one day.