Page 25 - letmetellyou

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When the farm was sold, we moved to a rental unit of an old, weather-beaten motel located on Central Avenue west of Toledo which had been converted to housing. The motel was surrounded by very large old trees which provided plenty of shade to the property but which also fostered the growth of moss over the rotting shingled roofs, adding to the fire hazard which was the motel, itself, which had been constructed of cheap lumber which was also rotting and falling apart. My younger brothers and I use to place marbles on the floor near the back screen door and watch them roll toward and out and over the front screen door threshold of their own accord powered only by the momentum provided by the slope in the linoleum-covered skewed floor. The motel unit had no hot water which greatly discouraged full-body bathing, except under extreme parental distress, and, for the life of me, I can’t remember where the seven of us slept.
I had attended my third grade school while living on the farm. Maplewood Elementary School in Sylvania to which we travelled by school bus except for the one snowy, wintry morning when I missed the bus and walked the five miles to school to avoid the justifiable wrath of my Serbian mother. Ironically, when I arrived at school, it was closed due to the heavy snow and I was transported back home by the one remaining teacher who unjustifiably praised me for my dedication in walking to school in such conditions. Upon arriving at our new home on Central Avenue, I was enrolled in my fourth grade school: Central Avenue Grade School. I mark our departure from the farm and our arrival at the Central Avenue motel as the beginning of the family’s plunge from America’s lower middle class to poverty.
Our stay on Central Avenue lasted a year and is somewhat of a blur. I continued to do well in school and the summer after we moved there, my older brother and I continued to caddy at the same golf course at which I had secured my first job. Despite my young age and small stature, I was permitted to caddy there for two reasons; the first of which, I believe, was that I was a good kid and a hard worker. Secondly, my father was well-known to the pro and pro shop staff, was respected by them, and had trained me. With four sons, my father was never without a caddy. We use to argue over whom was going to caddy for him and I eventually won
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