2. Second Grade / Moving all over the place

   I have no memory of the first grade whatsoever. I know at some point, I thought it was second grade, my mom moved us to New Orleans, LA. It seems she moved there to escape both my father and my dad. He and my mom weren't yet married. The only memories that I have of New Orleans are having a girlfriend, having my first and only birthday party that I have had in my life, and watching a back door fall from a jet liner. I also remember the death of actor Bob Crane who played Col. Hogan in Hogan's Heroes.
   I think that the girl that I called my girlfriend in second grade in NOLA went hand in hand with having a birthday party. I remember that she was my best friend in the entire world. I don't remember much else, only what I was told. The only thing that I remember about that birthday party was streamers. Pretty sure there were streamers.
   I have no idea why the death of Bob Crane affected me at all, but it did, I loved that show, I know that, but I was sad that he died.
   By the way, at that time, my mom drove a white Chevy Vega with red and blue racing stripes.
   Now the bits and pieces that I have been told were that we moved there not knowing a soul, and that she moved there because some wealthy man said that he had a place that she could stay. She worked I think at a nursing home there, where she would work nights and would leave me at home in our apartment alone while she worked. She told me that I would get myself up in the morning with an alarm clock and get myself ready, make breakfast, eat and go catch the bus for school. All this by myself in second grade, 6 years old. That is very scary for me to think about today. But, like everything else, I have no memory of this.
   I am told that after this wealthy man made unwanted advances toward my mom, she called my dad, and he drove down to get us. From there we moved around quite a bit that year. We lived in Newport RI, for a minute, and Virginia Beach, VA for a minute. This was all in second grade. Different schools, different school buses, Different people.  We also made trips to Boston, and Washington DC, and countless other places. Somewhere in there, my parents got married. Again, I don't remember it. Also in that time, we, or at least I never heard from or saw Lou, my father. I'm also sure that there was no child support or anything like that.
   When we were in Warren, I amassed a huge amount of toys. I had every thing that you could think of. During all of those moves, they were all lost.