I was born on December 22, 1936 in Spartanburg SC. My parents were Fred Lee and Joanna I had one sister and one brother , Peggy( 1932-2001) and Harry 1934-1990) they will be mention through out this blog. I guess I am like most people my first 4-5 years I remember bits and pieces of the time , nothing continuous until my first year in school from then till now I remember. I came from a broken home , my parents were separated and divorced before I can remember at different times lived with each parent.
The time is 1943 the place is Columbia,SC I and my brother Harry are living with our Dad and his wife ( later I discovered was just a girlfriend). Don't know how or why but in the next short period of time Harry and I were living with foster parents in Horrell Hill , SC on highway 378 just southeast of Columbia. As well as I remember we were happy there . They had an old mule that they let us ride . Years later around the early 60's my wife and two children and I were traveling to the beach when we passed the school that I attended while staying in the foster home. To my surprise and don't know why I looked off the road and saw the school house. I told the family "I went to that school when I was young" . I turned the car around and went down the road a short distant to the school , It has since been demolished and a new school built, but at the time it was still as it was in 1943. It had an auditorium in the center and two classrooms , one on each side . Oh how it brought back memories . I drove down the road knowing the house that I lived in was just a short distance . There it was just as I remembered , a little more age ,not as big as it seemed years before, the trees and bushes were bigger , that old mule barn was still there but falling in. Well I was not going to let this go by without knowing if the people that shared their home for me were still there or not , so I knocked on the door and a lady answered and said they rented the house from a lady whose family had owned the house since it was built and that she now lived in Baltimore Md. I guess I should have got her address and wrote to her and thanked her for the kindness that she gave me during that time of my youth. Well that is hind sight and now it is too late. That is one reason for this website is to keep the record for members of my family . A short time later there was a hearing in Spartanburg where it was decided that my brother , sister and I should be place in care of the state. Now my sister had for the most part been care for by an aunt and our grandmother , but she said she was going where her brothers went . That was the way my big sister was , tho we didn't live with each other in the early years she always was there when she could. The courts place us in a state run school. (John dela Howe School) in McCormick , SC. which as it turned out was one of the best blessing of my life.
I attended school there for 5 or 6 years , while there though love and care and understanding and sometimes discipline the lessons of life, faith , courage , love of other, and loving others was instilled in my core and fiber that was to serve me through out my life time. (See the John dela Howe Days in another part of the blog)
The time is 1943 the place is Columbia,SC I and my brother Harry are living with our Dad and his wife ( later I discovered was just a girlfriend). Don't know how or why but in the next short period of time Harry and I were living with foster parents in Horrell Hill , SC on highway 378 just southeast of Columbia. As well as I remember we were happy there . They had an old mule that they let us ride . Years later around the early 60's my wife and two children and I were traveling to the beach when we passed the school that I attended while staying in the foster home. To my surprise and don't know why I looked off the road and saw the school house. I told the family "I went to that school when I was young" . I turned the car around and went down the road a short distant to the school , It has since been demolished and a new school built, but at the time it was still as it was in 1943. It had an auditorium in the center and two classrooms , one on each side . Oh how it brought back memories . I drove down the road knowing the house that I lived in was just a short distance . There it was just as I remembered , a little more age ,not as big as it seemed years before, the trees and bushes were bigger , that old mule barn was still there but falling in. Well I was not going to let this go by without knowing if the people that shared their home for me were still there or not , so I knocked on the door and a lady answered and said they rented the house from a lady whose family had owned the house since it was built and that she now lived in Baltimore Md. I guess I should have got her address and wrote to her and thanked her for the kindness that she gave me during that time of my youth. Well that is hind sight and now it is too late. That is one reason for this website is to keep the record for members of my family . A short time later there was a hearing in Spartanburg where it was decided that my brother , sister and I should be place in care of the state. Now my sister had for the most part been care for by an aunt and our grandmother , but she said she was going where her brothers went . That was the way my big sister was , tho we didn't live with each other in the early years she always was there when she could. The courts place us in a state run school. (John dela Howe School) in McCormick , SC. which as it turned out was one of the best blessing of my life.
I attended school there for 5 or 6 years , while there though love and care and understanding and sometimes discipline the lessons of life, faith , courage , love of other, and loving others was instilled in my core and fiber that was to serve me through out my life time. (See the John dela Howe Days in another part of the blog)
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