Moving to Palestine, Texas

Let's see.  The best I can remember, Larry, Jamie, Christopher and I moved to Palestine in 1984.  We moved to their father's home place on Tennessee Avenue.  His mom had passed away, no one was living in it, and his brother's approved our living there so that I could home school the children.

Things had happened in the public school system that I couldn't tolerate:  the teachers and principals said that Christopher needed to be medicated.  "Medicate him or get him out," to be precise.  Well, I couldn't find a single doctor that was willing to write the prescription!  They said he wasn't hyperactive, that his attention span rivaled their own, that he COULD read (though the school said he couldn't), in fact, he could read on a third grade level and he was only in the beginning of the second grade.  (Fools!  Of course he could read!  I taught Larry and Jamie to read before they entered kindergarten - and I taught Christopher the same way!)

Well, enough of that.

So we packed up lock, stock, and barrel and moved to Palestine.  It wasn't long before their father followed us.  He got a job delivering newspapers for the Palestine Herald-Press.  Pretty soon he was telling the boys that if they helped him, he'd pay them.  They helped and helped, but Pa never paid.  Pa also didn't pay child support.  Somehow, I'm not sure how it actually happened, somehow I ended up taking over the routes so that the kids could get their money.  (Funny.  I don't remember if they ever DID get paid anything except food, clothing, and all the things a parent is supposed to provide...)

We did have a good time with the paper routes - and so did our friends, and ultimately John Watts' parents.  I think THEY had the best time of all!  As we would drive down the street throwing papers from the car, Granny Beth and Daddy John would fill us in on the history of the folks living in the homes we passed.  Mmm-mmm!  How I wish we had written some of that stuff down back then...  Daddy John has passed away, but maybe, if we drove those routes again with Granny Beth she could still remember some of the stories.

All the while, we established the Blair House Family Learning Center, and I set about continuing the education of my kids.  I figured that if I could give them a good solid foundation in reading, writing, and arithmetic they could ultimately teach themselves anything they wanted to learn for the rest of their lives - with no drugs involved!!

And so it was.