MOVING

When I was in the ninth grade my daddy got laid off at the steel plant. He waited and waited to be called back. My aunt Bertie, who had moved to Ft. Myers, Fla. wrote and said why didn't Daddy come down there. She believed he could get a job driving a bulldozer because that is what he did at the steel plant.  She said Mama could get a job working where she did, packing gladiolus for shipping to florists. So Mama and Daddy decided to go look around.

 I was very disappointed when they said my brother Fred and I couldn't go, that we didn't need to miss school.  My sister Loretta was going.  She had quit school after getting a job at the Magic Grill. Mama got my sister Betty and her husband to come stay at the house with Fred and me.

" Y'all behave and mind what Betty says," Mama told us that morning before they left. "And keep your fingers crossed that your daddy finds a job."

"Bring us back some oranges." I said. That was the main reason I wanted to go. I wanted to see the orange trees and smell the blossoms.