"Who's Moving?" Submission #3

Lakewood, California - Madrid, Iowa - Spring/Summer 1969

Almost immediately after my dad passed away, my mom made the decision to move us back to Iowa. Home. Well... her home. My home was California, the only place I knew.

Grandma Harris, mom and me. Circa 1966

This decision was heavily influenced by my grandma Harris... mom's mom. She was getting up in age
and maybe saw this as an opportunity to have us take care of her. And... she did, in fact, live with us after we moved.

So let's take an inventory. Who exactly would be uprooted and moved halfway across the country? Not Barb. She had decided to reconcile with her husband and stay in California. Butch had been granted an honorable discharge from the Army and would shortly thereafter get engaged and then married. Bob was 19 and completely capable of making his own decisions. He stayed. Bill was about to start his senior year in high school and despite his protestations, Mom laid down the law that he would be moving back to Iowa with us... which he did. A couple months later, he was back in California.

Well... that left Mom, my cousin Bruce and me on the Iowa roster. We were to finish out the school year and then be in Iowa by July. 2-1/2 months left in California. 2-1/2 months left to spend with my brothers and sister. 2-1/2 months left to spend with my friends and girlfriend.

Girlfriend? Yes! I had recently discovered the opposite gender and I liked what I had found. Well... as much as a 10-year-old boy could like a relationship such as this. Carolyn Hulse lived two doors down from me. Not only did she write a sad poem about me leaving but she organized a little song and dance routine with our friends, Keri McCready and Wendy Barker, and performed it for me. A "send-off" of sorts. Awkward. VERY awkward! But I was flattered nonetheless.

So long California! I hope we meet up again someday!

Madrid, Iowa - July 1969

Madrid Train Station

An old brick house on the corner of Union and 21st Street. 21st Street? I don't think this town has 21 streets! Anyway... this house, built within the first few years of the twentieth century, became our place of abode. It had one bathroom that was situated between two bedrooms. In other words, guests would have to navigate their way through a bedroom in order to use the restroom. We had a musty basement only partially paved with cement and a still functional coal shoot.

Madrid water tower... across from Grandma Munson's house

Madrid, Iowa... population just over two-thousand souls. A far cry from the concrete jungles of Los Angeles. This was definitely a new and unfamiliar world for me.

We had vacationed in Madrid once when I was six or seven years old. A few things had made an impression on me during that visit. 1) I didn't know what it was at the time, but I felt the overbearing humidity. 2) All of my cousins and most other kids seemed to have nicknames... Dunce, Mapo, Peta, etc. 3) They seemed to speak a slightly different language... like calling my bottle of soda, a bottle of pop. And when we were playing catch with a baseball, they didn't say, "Throw it here," they said "Chuck it here." Odd. 4) I was frightened by the late summer screeching of locusts. 5) My dad and his buddies were in heaven when they were at the Des Moines River with a beer in one hand and a fishing pole in the other.

When you stop and think about it, life had change dramatically and abruptly for this little 10-year-old boy. But kids are typically pretty resilient and enjoy a good adventure and this move was certainly an adventure.