Rodney's Blog
Or as others know it as My Life Story.
The early years!!!
I started school in 1961, at Davis elementary (a public school). It was a lot easier back then, my day was just to go to school, stay out of trouble, take naps and then go home. I even had to bring a pillow and a small blanket to school with me. After kindergarten, my parents decided to put me in a Catholic School called St. Pancratius. That school was a lot harder to do. St. Panycakes (as we use to call it) actually tried to teach me something. My ABC's and how to count. Well catholic school was pretty strict, I do remember getting paddled a few times for misbehaving, but life was so-so during the years I spent in Catholic school.
In 1965 my father died, he didn't treat us well, and I can't say I wasn't sorry to see him go. I guess they couldn't find enough people who cared, but even though I was only 10 years old, I was one of the pall-bearers. I didn't cry much, but life goes on. I guess times were getting hard for mom. Raising 3 boys and 1 girl didn't make life easy for her. She decided to marry Pete, our next door neighbor. I am still not sure if she loved him, or she did it for our sakes. Because of some false sense that said we needed a dad. Pete wasn't much of a father either. I think he tried at first, but maybe marring into an instant family was too much for him. But he did take us places my dad never did.
Ted went in the service near that time. Served in Vietnam, but things must have gone wrong because he had to serve time in Fort Leaven worth, KY. It is a military jail. I am not sure how long he spent in there, I do remember us taking a road trip to see him. What made it more memorable is when Vickie and I were playing "Tag" while Pete went into the store. My mom yells at us to "Stop before you hurt yourselves" Sure enough like a bad omen, Vickie was running at me to tag me it, when I moved out of the way at the last minute. Then BOOM!! She hit the lamp post head on. Put a few stitches in her head, and she was mentioned in the local paper. Well, that was her 15 minutes of fame.
But time heals all wounds, so life goes on. I don't remember a whole lot of my childhood. I grew up like a lot of boys in my time. Had a lots of fun, especially during the blizzard of 1967. It was so deep we actually dug tunnels in the side yard. We would climb the garage roof and slide off it to the snow bank. During the summer we would take off on the weekends and go to Riverview Amusement park. Ride the roller coasters and the parachute ride. It was lots of fun. I would almost say they were the best years of my life. I did say "would" Better times and more fun happened later.
I started school in 1961, at Davis elementary (a public school). It was a lot easier back then, my day was just to go to school, stay out of trouble, take naps and then go home. I even had to bring a pillow and a small blanket to school with me. After kindergarten, my parents decided to put me in a Catholic School called St. Pancratius. That school was a lot harder to do. St. Panycakes (as we use to call it) actually tried to teach me something. My ABC's and how to count. Well catholic school was pretty strict, I do remember getting paddled a few times for misbehaving, but life was so-so during the years I spent in Catholic school.
In 1965 my father died, he didn't treat us well, and I can't say I wasn't sorry to see him go. I guess they couldn't find enough people who cared, but even though I was only 10 years old, I was one of the pall-bearers. I didn't cry much, but life goes on. I guess times were getting hard for mom. Raising 3 boys and 1 girl didn't make life easy for her. She decided to marry Pete, our next door neighbor. I am still not sure if she loved him, or she did it for our sakes. Because of some false sense that said we needed a dad. Pete wasn't much of a father either. I think he tried at first, but maybe marring into an instant family was too much for him. But he did take us places my dad never did.
Ted went in the service near that time. Served in Vietnam, but things must have gone wrong because he had to serve time in Fort Leaven worth, KY. It is a military jail. I am not sure how long he spent in there, I do remember us taking a road trip to see him. What made it more memorable is when Vickie and I were playing "Tag" while Pete went into the store. My mom yells at us to "Stop before you hurt yourselves" Sure enough like a bad omen, Vickie was running at me to tag me it, when I moved out of the way at the last minute. Then BOOM!! She hit the lamp post head on. Put a few stitches in her head, and she was mentioned in the local paper. Well, that was her 15 minutes of fame.
But time heals all wounds, so life goes on. I don't remember a whole lot of my childhood. I grew up like a lot of boys in my time. Had a lots of fun, especially during the blizzard of 1967. It was so deep we actually dug tunnels in the side yard. We would climb the garage roof and slide off it to the snow bank. During the summer we would take off on the weekends and go to Riverview Amusement park. Ride the roller coasters and the parachute ride. It was lots of fun. I would almost say they were the best years of my life. I did say "would" Better times and more fun happened later.
Copyright © 2008 by Rodney Ulanowicz • All Rights reserved • E-Mail: Rodney@ulanowicz.net
