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Wanderlust

John W. Pinkerton

oldjwpinkerton@gmail.com

I've lived in Someville, Texas, for nearly 50 years---in the same house for most of those years.  I want nothing to do with wanderlust.  I've been there---done that.


It all started with the first move my parents made.  We were living in Grandpa's old house on a gravel road beyond Pineville  towards Libuse.  It was a house my Grandpa Barron had built…literally.


Then we moved across the River to Alexandria to a house on a dirt road.  Then we moved back across the River to Grandpa's place.


Then we moved again.  This time we moved into a house owned by Mr. Brasher who owned the adjacent plumbing business.  I fired the maid one day which was immediately overridden by my mother, became a member of the elementary band as a clarinetist (horrible memories), made a paper-mache prince charming hand puppet for school, discovered that school projects such as a daily journal were not optional, got stabbed by a friend with an ink pen, broke a display toilet at the plumbing business, and got hit by a rock thrown by a friend which obviously weakened my left eye…no big deal. 


Then we moved again a few blocks away and I met the neighbor, a little girl who was interested in my private parts, and got beat up by a guest with my gift of boxing gloves on my birthday.  Oh, yeah, I had a rabbit which kept escaping, and I had to travel the neighborhood asking folks if they had seen a  white rabbit with pink eyes.  He came home on his own.  Oh, yeah, I and the neighbor girl discovered that one should not throw rocks at cars.


We then moved back to Grandpa's place. 

Then we packed everything in a Model A with a chicken coop floor in it and moved to an upstairs apartment in Pinebluff, Arkansas.
 

Then we moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where I learned to swim, kinda, at the YMCA, and then we moved again to another house in Little Rock.  There I almost died from a tonsillectomy…don't ask.   Then we moved to a nice old two-story brick house in Little Rock.  My younger brother and I played Batman and Robin.  Of course, I was Batman.

 

Then we moved to Los Angeles, California.  The garage was full of National Geographics with naked Africans featured, and after a couple of weeks, the smog cleared enough to realize that we lived at the base of huge mountains. 

Then we moved back to Grandpa's house.  I hunted in the woods with a 410 shotgun and discovered I didn't like killing animals.


Then we moved to New Orleans and lived in an old house in a nice old neighborhood and I was able to walk to the Junior High which was a small version of Hell.  It did have a great marble statue of Madusa in the foyer of the school.  It seemed strange that it was in a school…even today.


Then we moved back to  Grandpa's house in Louisiana and started my high school experiences.  Dad remodeled, added an office to the house, and opened a plumbing business.  Dad closed the plumbing business and we moved across the River to Alexandria and opened another plumbing business.     Then we moved back across the River to Grandpa's house.


Then we moved again---this time to Houston, Texas.  At last we had a color TV.

 

Then we moved to a house which had been a funeral home at one time in Alexandria.  I liked all the open space upstairs.  Dad bought me a vehicle, a Jeepster Stationwagon.  After a couple of gallons of Bondo  and a paint job using brushes, I was ready to roll.


Then we moved to a another house not far from Grandad's that Dad brick veneered.  I was off to High School with my Jeespster Stationwagon.  Then Dad bought me an old '53 Cadillac DeVille---good times.   Then the house burned down…totally.  I've long suspected it was an arson job, but my parents vehemently denied it.


Then we moved into an apartment in Pineville, a little larger than a postage stamp.


Then we moved into a great ranch style home about a mile away from Grandad's house.  Still in high school and still happy.  I graduated.  Yahoo! 

 

I started attending LSUA, and we then moved into a great very modern home with a cracked slab, a rarity in that part of Louisiana.  After a few months we moved again.  Then we moved again to a different house in Pineville.  Then we moved again a few blocks away. 


After a few months, we moved again.  This time to a house in Baton Rouge.  I was in my third year of college.  Then we moved a few blocks away to an apartment in Baton Rouge.  My last semester in college, I moved into an old apartment in Baton Rouge with a friend…good times.


I graduated from LSU and went home to my parents' home in Alexandria at a different house in Alexandria.  They asked me if I wanted to go to Houston with them.  I did and we moved there.


After a couple of months, the US Army and I made an agreement, and I moved to Fort Polk, Fort Sill, Schwabisch Gmund, Germany, and Furth, Germany.  After my time with Uncle Sam, I
went to Bryan, Texas, where my parents were after suffering through a winter in Minnesota.  I got married, lived in an apartment in College Station for a summer, moved to Somerville to rent a house owned
by my wife's uncle.  He decided that the property was better suited as commercial property, so I moved for the last damned time to another house in Somerville, and seeing the cost of rentals going up because of the approaching oil boom, I purchased the house for a modest price, remodeled it, and lived happily ever after.


Wanderlust, get thee behind me!



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