Family on the Move – Part Two

Once in Leavenworth, I settled into my third school of the year.  Our first house at 937 Spruce Street was a short walk to school.  Our second house was a few blocks away at 1014 Randolph Street – close enough that we kept the same neighborhood friends.

Though we lived in Leavenworth less than two years, there were several significant events that took place then - the birth of my youngest brother Robert…

 

…and the stress surrounding my brother Ed’s open heart surgery at the Mayo Clinic. Looking back through Dad’s papers I see that he experienced some unemployment during this period. I remember my mom going back to work for a while.  I broke an arm – no wonder schools got rid of teeter-totters!  They were probably ready for a fresh start and in July 1961 we moved again…  

Having lived in eight places in my first eight years of life, I thought nothing of one more move.  By July, 1961, we were back to Ohio.  We lived at 1138 Arkwood in Columbus for a year.  I remember fourth grade, the Great Dane next door, getting speech therapy, learning to ride a bike and playing on the nearby railroad tracks…something my Mom says she had no idea we were doing.

We moved out of the city before the fall of 1962 to what was then considered country – though now it is part of suburbia.

Our house at 4469 Johnstown Road in Gahanna was a typical older home that sat on three acres with a Christmas tree farm next door.  We all loved the room to roam, my dad was involved with the kids, there were lots of great neighbors and we could have pets – cats and a dog.  If we had stayed anywhere, I would have picked this house.

But it was not to be.  After two years, during the summer of 1964, we headed to Tulsa, Oklahoma. 

On the road again...

Mammoth Cave

I cannot ascertain our address…the street name we remember does not exist anymore.

Neighbors in front of the Tulsa house

It was near the current Oral Roberts University campus and I attended the brand new Admiral Nimitz Junior High.  We joined the Cup Club and my mom again went back to work.  I enjoyed the weather and the large reading tree in the front yard.  My brothers liked catching snakes and tortoises and other desert creatures. A year later we moved again…

…and we ended up in Missouri.  Although we stayed for a few weeks in O’Fallon we soon settled into a brand new, unfinished house in St. Charles in 1965.  Somehow we managed to fit five kids into two bedrooms while my dad finished the basement.  I started 7^th grade and my youngest brother started kindergarten, the only one of my sibs who stayed in the same school district from K-12.  Our family moves had finally come to an end. 

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