My Life's Itinerary.....So Far - Part 1

  As you may have noted, my entries have been few and far between.  I tell myself that I will write by inspiration not desperation.  I am not sure when I cross that line, but I may be coming very close with this series that I am starting.  At least it may be of interest to family members, but I will try to interject it with something that all may find interesting.  In this series, I will try and outline my geographical whereabouts from beginning until now, along with any other pertinent (or not) information.

  My first stop after my departure from the pre-existence was my birth at Portsmouth, Virginia in 1949.  The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (now called the Norfolk Naval Shipyard) was where my dad was stationed at, outside of Norfolk.  Naturally, the early years are fuzzy or are non-existent memories so I rely on my older sister for that early information.  At the time of my birth, we were living in a trailer home nearby, then later lived in a house.  I am told that I had bouts with pneumonia ever since my birth until I was a toddler (that would explain the pulmonary problems that happened since).  One of my earliest memories was being in the hospital and in a crib.  I remember I was afraid to sleep on my stomach for fear that a nurse would give my an injection in my butt while I was asleep, so I tried to sleep on my back.

While Dad served in the Korean War as a Pharmacist's Mate (now referred to as Hospital Corpsman), we were in Waterville, Maine ( my paternal grandparents were nearby) and later in Albany, NY (and there my maternal grandparents were nearby).  When he returned from Korea, he was assigned to a Marine base called Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.  I believe he was a medic in the clinic there.  I remember living in the base housing there.

  Our next stop was Kittery, Maine, where my dad was assigned to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard nearby.  Everyone knew that the shipyard was really in Kittery, but for some political or tax reason, it was 'in' Portsmouth. We lived in base housing called the  'Admiralty Village', though it wasn't actually on base.
   We were in Kittery for quite some time.  Eventually, we were back in the Albany-Rensselaer, NY area again.  Didn't see Dad anymore, it was just us kids and Mom.  More time went by and the three of us kids got farmed out to various relatives at various times.  I think I was always 'assigned' to my dad's parents, except for maybe summers when I visited dad's younger brother, Frank and his family.  That was fun because there were five cousins there.  My older sister had stayed at both sets of grandparents and Dad's older brother, Joe and his wife.  My younger sister had stayed at Dad's parents, Mom's sister, Vivian and her husband, and Dad's older brother, Joe and his wife.  Whew!  You keeping up?  Needless to say, we got shuffled around quite a bit.  Eventually, both Mom and Dad remarried.  Mom settled down in Florida and Dad was in Kittery.

  We lived in a part of what use to be base housing that was previously mentioned. A section was sold off.

  By the time my older and younger sisters were in high school and graduated, they were in Harrison, Maine with an aunt and uncle.  I was in Kennebunk, Maine with Dad's parents and graduated from high school there.  So many family members made sacrifices for us.  I hope they know how much we appreciated it.
  Now that I have us to the point where I am eighteen years old, I shouldn't have too much trouble remembering the rest!