1946 We visited back to Michigan summer before 9th grade and Grandma and Grandpa Schwander, Bob and Helen came back to Georgia with us to live and to help daddy in his chenille business. There was too many of us to ride back in the car (grandpa didn't drive) so grandma, Sue, Helen and I rode the train back all the way from Michigan to Atlanta. What an experience'. I remember all the soldiers and how the black people rode in the same cars with us until we got to the Mason Dixon Line and they then all had to get off and go to anther car for"Negros" only. First time I was made aware of segregation. Back then in the south the Negroes did not go to school with the whites. They had their own public restrooms and their own drinking fountains in all public places. They were not allowed in any white restaurants and they had to go to the back of the buses and street cars.

Daddy made our three stall car garage into an apartment for Grandma and Grandpa, Bob and Helen. Helen was in the same grade as I was and went to school with me, and I'm sorry to say she wasn't very well accepted into my group of friends. The summer before school started was great. Bob, Helen, Sue and I played Monopoly day after day. Sometimes the same game went on for days at a time. We would fix the same thing day after day for lunch, tomato soup and tuna fish sandwiches. We loved it. It was a fun summer.

Grandma and Grandpa couldn't get used to the south and moved back to Michigan 
before the 9th grade was over. Helen didn't like it there either.

During this time Daddy made an apartment down stairs in the basement of our house. The Smith family moved in. He was a patrolman with the city schools and showed films at the schools so he had his movie projector with him on weekends. He would rent movies and show then to us on Saturday nights. Our favorite was Hopalong Cassidy. These were the first movies we ever saw as Dad and Mom didn't believe in going to movies. I never went to a real movie until I was 18. Except once. One summer when I was 9 or l0 I spent a couple of weeks with Grandma and Grandpa and Bob and Helen. One Saturday afternoon I went to the movie with Bob and Helen. I was so scared'. I just knew the Lord was coming during the show and I'd go to Hell. So I never went again until I started dating Morris.

During this time Sue and I got very good allowances so every Saturday afternoon when we finished our house work we would ride the street car down town Atlanta to shop. We would stop at the Woolworth's lunch counter and eat lunch (if I remember right a turkey dinner cost 35 cents). Then we'd go to Rich's Department Store and look and look. For a year or so we bought a new Nancy Drew book every week. We loved Nancy Drew and Judy Bolton books. We really had a lot of books. We both liked to read. After awhile we found a used book store and we could buy them half price. One winter I saved my allowance and bought myself this beautiful red winter coat. It was the first time I ever bought something without my mother being there. I loved that coat.

I took piano lessons this year, but gave them up after the spring recital and found out that all of the little kids younger than me could play a whole lot better than I could. During this time Gary had his own pony and we had a beautiful collie dog.