A New Phase

In 1965, I was seven years old when our Dad remarried and so began a new phase in my life. I was the ring bearer in the marriage ceremony for my Dad and his new wife and our new mother, Elaine. Being a participant in your parents wedding was not a common thing back then, but 44 years later I lead my grandson down the aisle as ring bearer in his parents wedding - a chapter to deal with much further in the history of life in my world.

The next five years in my life would see our little family beginning to make adjustments to the new addition to the family. It was a challenge for us all as Elaine was suddenly a mother to three small children and the three of us had a mother again and sometimes didn't know how to react. Dad was dealing with working and then coming home to our newly formed family which was not always an easy task for him. During this time in our lives, Dad was transferred, by the company he worked for, to North Carolina in late 1966. We all hated living there at the time and in mid-summer of 1967 we moved back to Alabama.

This five year chapter of my life was finished out with elementary school, baseball, a lot of time riding bicycles, fishing in the nearby creek and a year of junior high school at the neighborhood school. Little did I know there were changes coming in life that were not what my young mind had anticipated.