Teen Years in Victoria
Moving to Victoria
I think I was about 13 when we moved to Victoria. It was just my mom, dad, and me. All of my siblings had gotten married and moved away to start their families and follow work. I think at the time we moved, I was just happy to have my own room. Ted and I bunked together while in Norman, so Victoria was a nice change.
Victoria was a midsized town, about midway between San Antonio and Houston. It was at the time, mostly agricultural and oilfield jobs available. When we first moved there, I knew 3 places. My junior high school, my church, and my house.
Patti Welder Jr. High
Patti Welder was your typical junior high that was built in the 50’s.
Nothing really memorable about it. I do remember that the cold war was heating up. In October of 1962 the Cuban Missile Crisis was happening. I remember the school basement had supplies delivered for it to be converted to a bomb shelter. We also had drills that simulated an atomic bomb attack. We were told to climb under our desks and hold our hands over our ears. The school administration had no idea what a real attack would mean. I think it was just political propaganda to show the Soviets we were ready. Thinking back on it, I think it traumatized a lot of the kids. It didn’t really bother me, I thought it was cool to get under the desks.
Calvary Baptist Church
We (by we I mean my mom dropped me off at church) she claimed she was a Baptist but I can’t ever remember her going to church with me.
I would go to Sunday School and then the service after. The pastor was a fire and brimstone type preacher, and after every service he had me convinced that the Devil and God were having a tug-of-war over my soul.
I finally relented and accepted Christ as my savior. At least I didn’t have to worry about the tug-of-war anymore.
My House
Our house was your typical one story house. I guess you would call it a ranch. It had a carport, not a garage.
I remember mom, dad and I came home from vacation to a horrible smell in the house. Dad thought a raccoon might have crawled up under the house and died. Mom went to the carport to get something from our freezer and found the source of the smell. While we were on vacation I guess the freezer either blew the fuse, or the compressor failed. For what ever reason all the meat in the freezer spoiled and sat there bubbling for the two weeks we were gone. You can’t imagine the smell, and I can’t explain what it smelled like. It’s an odor that makes your eyes water, and permeated your very skin, not just your clothes. Mom, dad, and I all worked for 2 days filling up garbage bags of rotted meat. When we were not filling garbage bags, we had to keep the door of the freezer closed to keep the flies from getting to the rotten meat.
After we got rid of the spoiled food, my mom tried for almost a week to clean the smell out. She used Clorox, baking soda, and anything else she could think of, but nothing worked. Finally my dad had someone with a pickup come to cart it off to the junk yard.
One other thing I remember about the house. We did not have central heat, or air. What we did have was an attic fan. An attic fan sucks the air from the house up into the attic where it is vented outside the house. During the day, this didn’t make a lot of difference, but at night it would bring a nice cool breeze through the house, which made sleeping more tolerable.
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