Chapter 03
Synopsis
June 1956 to December 1956 - Knoxville, TN
I remember one of our girl friends and her Mom/Dad(?) picked up Mother, George, and me at the Knoxville airport. Us kids were in the back seat and she asked me what I thought about Elvis. I said "Who's Elvis?" She shrieked and practically went into convulsions. "You've never heard of Elvis?" She was incredulous. We were pretty insulated in Hilo, although we did have a tv. I mean Hawaii was still a territory. We stayed with Mother's parents, Albert Stevenson and Virginia Ferguson Fry, at their home on Island Home Boulevard. I started the 4th grade at South Knoxville elementary. George and I rode the city bus to school. Mother gave us ten cents a day for the bus and twenty five cents for lunch. Sometimes we caught a ride in a car with other kids in the neighborhood, and I saved a little money this way. I never thought to give it back to Mother. I really didn't understand how little money we had. My Grandfather loaned my Dad some money to get started again. I don't think Dad got back until Christmas. We moved to Druid Hill, at the intersection of the Maryville and Alcoa highways during the Christmas school break. Dad's father, Pop, and his second wife, Erma, managed a three unit apartment building there, which was actually an old log cabin (really, not a kit). It was an old tea house and I don't know what before that. I took walks with Grandaddy Fry around the Island Home neighborhood.Once we even walked to the Island Home Airport, which was for small planes. He took Doan's pills for his back. He was a retired TVA hydraulic engineer. He was a good guy and was kind to us. He really didn't know how to play, though. George called him a big ape one time when scolded me for something. Grandaddy was real dignified and somewhat taken aback. I don't think he ever scolded us again, though. Grandmother Fry was also very kind and sweet too. I slept in Grandaddy's office upstairs. I know now what a sacrifice that was for him. I would hate to have restricted access to my office. Mother and George slept in the spare bedroom, Dad too, when he came. I don't think he was there for long. There was a school for the deaf at one end of the street up a hill. George and I used to go up there and collect chestnuts. We played with the other kids in the median of the boulevard. There were two twins, Sherry and Sharon. I was sweet on Sherry, although Sharon was pretty cute too. They weren't too interested in me. Mary Range lived on one side of us. Her father was a doctor. She was older and real pretty. She was too old to play with us, probably an early teenager. Jackie Sanford lived on the other side. He was my age, a nice guy, and we played together a lot then and whenever we came to visit before and later. We went to a country club to swim once with Aunt Ree Hodges and her son Jeff. I was impressed. I knew we were out of our league. We went to their house several times and George, Jeff, and I would play in their basement with a real slot machine. They kept a cup of nickels to play with. Nobody kept the money, it was just fun to play. Art Hodges was an executive with Morton Salt. Ree and Art Hodges lived in the Dusty Dale neighborhood with Mother and Dad after the war. They were all poor then, but Mother and Dad have said that that was one of the happiest time of their lives. This was not a real happy time for me, moving from Hawaii to a city, but I made the best of it, and carried on. I think I briefly joined a Cub Scout pack in Knoxville. There was an alley behind the house and near the alley in the back yard was a sunken container with a lid for garbage. It was only about five gallons, small by today's standards. Grandaddy, like most other people of that time also burned trash in the back yard. Most people raked their leaves to the curb and set them on fire. Dad used to razz Grandaddy about the fires as Grandfather Fry was on the anti-pollution committee for Knoxville. George and I used to play ship's captain with an old spinning wheel in the garage. My wife, Karen, has it now.
1/27/20010
