Spain didn’t start off so well for me. This is a photo with Rough (well maybe Reddy, never could tell them apart) our Irish Setter on the front porch of Nurilliar, our villa in El Grao, the port city of Castellon. It was when we were living in that house that we got news my BFF growing up, Skipper Hoover, had been killed in a farming accident back home in Baton Rouge. His own father drove over him with a tractor. (Why they told me that part is beyond me.)
Our first trip to Europe was actually to Germany. We lived in Ingolstadt (a small color booklet I found in Pop’s belongings – 21 meg file). It was a very beautiful little village, classic Old Germany.
One of the highlights in Spain when were traveling around was the Paradors, old castles converted into hotels, complete with coats of armor . . . as Leigh Erin and I threw our clueless brother John into a pot of boiling oil. Wait – the fire went out!!
We went to Egypt, or maybe this is Morocco. Same difference. Sand! Hot!
Here’s a photo with the Alps in the background. Kelle was a real ham and just had to be at the center of attention. I didn’t mind because I was wearing those goofy glasses. That’s our Taunus in the background.
Here the locals were about to run off with me and demand ransom from my parents. Then they saw Pop’s almost see-through pants and figured this poor engineer needs – pants.
I don’t say a lot about my little brother John in The Z, but it seems like I was a halfway decent big brother after all – even when he was CHOKING me to death.
As John got older and older; well, Pop devoted more and more of his attention to him and away from me. Clearly, this did not sit so well with me, even at the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
It was hard to get a word in edgewise with three older sisters. About the best I could ever do was wedge a place for myself in the middle ground – even if it’s lying prone on a stone sarcophagus.
This is me in one of my Sears & Roebuck Charlie Brown shirts, watching the old man doting on my little brother. I mean, really, Pop – you can leave the glasses holder in your shirt pocket at the office? We’re on vacation here.
We had a German Shepherd again when we moved to Madrid. This is our backyard in Aravaca (the pink castle house I talked about in The Z).
I finally got the hair thing going and was the hell-raising teenager you all expected.
My sisters would come home for Christmas every year, and we’d have very nice holidays. Just long enough until everybody started getting on each other’s nerves – then off the sisters go to school and college again.
I finished out my senior year in high school and one year at LSU back at 2424 Cottonwood. Muffins came back with us – and my hair. This is our carport off Dogwood Avenue – notice the Opel and the Nova. The third vehicle is a Toyota Corolla they gave Regan for graduation. (Never gave me anything.) The shadow taking the photo is the old man.
But before going back to the States, I went to school in Rome for one last semester in Europe. I spent every weekend rambling around Rome on my own. Great times!
