Early Warning Signs
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There were signs early on that ours was not going to be a normal household and that my sister and I would be different than the rest of the kids.
My earliest recollection that something was amiss was when my sister and I went to the legion in Brighouse ( now central Richmond ) because of a Christmas party for the children of veterans. I remember anxiously driving to the legion in Brighouse from Steveston. There were on stage activities for all of the children and at the end all of the children were to receive gifts.
An announcer ( maybe it was Santa Claus, I cannot really remember ) proceeded to call out all of the names of the kids in attendance, so as to present them individually with a Christmas present. My sister and I waited anxiously for our names to be called out so that we could go on stage and get our gifts. We waited and we waited. And, finally the announcer was finished and there were no more gifts to be handed out. My sister and I had been forgotten about. We did not receive any presents....
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This is my earliest recollection that things were going to be different for us Baydala kids.
Other troubling events started early as well. Someone came and repossessed our car because our father could not make the payments. I remember how happy we all were when we got that maroon Studebaker and when we went to the Drive In and to the White Spot and to all of the beaches. And, then someone just came and took it away.
And then we lost our little house on Steveston Highway as well. We had to move. My father and mother broke up and my mother and my sister and myself moved to the east end of Vancouver and lived in a basement suite. My mother got a job at a hardware store on Main street in Vancouver. She supported myself and my sister. I did not understand the significance of all of these things, but I knew that my life had changed. But, I continued my life as a happy child nonetheless. See my post: 1958:A very good year ( August 7, 2006 )
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