MY TREE

I grew up in the small town of Winter Haven Florida.  It is located in central Florida and famous for Cypress Gardens and The Land of Lakes.

Our little house was located down the street from the local Junior College and across the street from a baseball park which had four baseball diamonds.  The park was not fenced in and we went there to play everyday.

My brothers and sisters and I often walked across the street to play baseball of frisbee or sometimes ran in the sprinklers in our bathing suits in the Summer.

Mommy sent us outside to play so that she didn't have to put up with us and sometimes I stayed close by just to be able to hear her call me or one of the other children.  More often than not, she wanted us to do something.  You could call it stressed out when it came to me because she often called me the most for some kind of chore and it was usually washing the dishes.

I was the youngest girl of the six children and the most reliable.  I knew better than to be out of earshot from her yell when she yelled for me.  It was yelling more than calling. 

If she didn't yell for me herself, she would send my sister outside to yell for me.  She always yelled, "Heather!, Mommy wants you!"  I yelled back, "What does she want me to do now?"  She answered, "She wants you to wash the dishes."  Of course she does.  I knew neither of my sisters would do it even they they were much older and I had to stand on a chair to be able to reach the sink.

So, I made sure I stayed as close to the corner of the park as possible.

I found a little tree not far from the corner and I would lay under it daydreaming of leaving home and never seeing my family again.  As I lay there, I would pull the grass out of the ground and watch the ants walk up and down the tree.  I was careful to look for red ants because they bite the most.  At the time I did not know that black ants bite too, but I found out later that they really do.

I watched the clouds roll by and listened to the small planes fly overhead. I often wondered where flew and how far.  As a young girl I didn't know much yet.   So wondering these things is normal.  

I claimed that tree as mine and nobody could have it; not even my siblings.

Soon I would hear the yell.  It must have stressed me out because I couldn't concentrate on anything else but her yell.

I found a little bit of peace under my tree and wished I never had to leave it.  I wonder what happened to it and if any other little girl ever found herself lying under my tree.

Those day were fond memories but only without hearing, "Heather! Mommy wants you!"

ONE GOOD MEMORY WITH MY MOMMY

 My mother wasn't the best mother.  she was bad and very evil most of her life.

To me she was kind and loving at times.  I was her special girl or at least she tried to make it seem that way.

Despite her bad ways, she surprised me sometimes when she spent a little bit of alone time with me .  Of course, I wasn't her only child but something about me made her act kindly towards me in a way that she was reaching out to show me she loved me.

I was 14 after we had lived in San Francisco for about a year since moving from Florida.

San Francisco was very different from the small town I grew up in in Florida.  I had never seen a big city and my mother often spoke of growing up in New York and telling us about tall buildings , escalators, buildings and shops everywhere. She talked about Central Park and how it was in the middle of the city.

San Francisco brought many exciting new adventures for all of us to experience.

As we began to get acquainted with and explore all the new places and things to see and do that we never imagined,  were amazed to find out that there was a huge park in the city called Golden Gate Park.  

We found buffalo roaming around a very large , fenced in area in the park.  That was hard to believe, but there they were just walking around living in the park.

There is Stow lake where people can rent pedal boats and row boats and take a row around the lake and see the turtles and ducks.

There is also a Japanese Tea Garden to explore the cherry blossoms and other plants and enjoy a refreshing cup of tea.

The memory I have is of the children's playground in the park where there was a Merry-Go Round that you had to buy a ticket to ride on. this was something new to my eyes. I knew since we were poor that I didn't ask my mother for a ride.  

Instead she surprised me when she bought a ticket for me.  My brothers were with us that day and they played at the playground and seemed content at their play.

My mother watched as I got on one of the horses and she told me to hang on tight to the strap. She said, "Grab the ring as you go around".  I didn't know what she was talking about so I looked around for a ring.  I saw what she meant when I noticed the other children reaching out to grab a ring off of a pole.

I don't know why they have rings to grab, I guess it was to have a fun ride and have some kind of a challenge. 

The little things she did with me probably made her a little bit happy.  She did seem happy that day just to see me on the Merry-Go-round.  I smiled and laughed as I rode and she waved each time I passed by her.  I waved back each time.

Just a little bit of happiness with my Mommy. A nice memory of her when we lived in San Francisco.