We went back to Winter Garden, Florida to visit Uncle Bill and Aunt Mae Ellen a few more times. I don't remember when exactly, but we visited and then one time after Daddy got out of the Army we actually moved down there for a little while. I am not sure how long we lived there, just a few weeks, or maybe months. Momma did not like it down there at all. I liked it, I think I was probably in the 4th or 5th grade. I remember the school was really nice. It was fancier than Fleeta, I even had a dance class at the school and I loved it!! The playground was neat. I do not remember anything about the teachers though. But we moved back to Alabama, to Blue Springs, a community about 10 miles south of Opp, Alabama. We lived in living quarters in the back of a Texaco service station. We rode the bus to Blue Springs School a few miles from where we were living.
Back to our visits to Florida. Uncle Bill was a big drinker and was drunk a lot. Aunt Mae Ellen was a small woman, and bless her heart she was not pretty at all! (kinda ugly, really). But we got along with them okay, I guess. They had three kids, two boys and one girl. I really don't know, but I think the two boys were fairly close to Wayne and my age. I don't think Judy had come along at that time. But I tell you what!!! We were SCARED TO DEATH of Uncle Bill and Aunt Mae Ellen!!! They would whop them boys up side of the head for nothing!!! I mean it wasn't a light slap, but it would be a hard, knocking down whop!!! I don't see how they survived!!
Strangely, neither of those boys had any children. Their daughter Angelee may not have been born then or she might have been a baby, I simply don't remember. The two boys grew up to be good upstanding men. James the oldest was either a Superintendent or Principal of a school/system near Jacksonville until he retired. Warren, the next oldest I think worked for the City of Winter Garden, but I am not sure. Anyway, I guess the beatings either made them want to do well, or maybe they had to do well to get away from home. I don't know much about Angelee. I do know she had some children, not sure how many though.
Uncle Bill liked to go to the Cock fights and drink and gamble. One night he had Aunt Mae Ellen with him (she might have gone with him a lot, I don't know). I don't know if she drank with him or not. But anyway they were in Tampa, Florida at a Cock fight and were going back to Winter Garden. Uncle Bill got to the interstate and got onto the wrong ramp and was going against traffic. They had a head-on collision and Aunt Mae Ellen died instantly. She was decapitated. Of course Uncle Bill was arrested for drunk driving and I don't know what other charges, but he did some jail time and if I remember correctly, he may have died in prison. Mamma, Daddy and I went to his funeral I think. I don't remember if Wayne or Juanita went or not. I don't remember going to Aunt Mae Ellen's funeral, or it might have been hers we went to, but I don't think it was. Very sad life and ending!! Very proud of my cousins though for overcoming such a harsh upbringing. Really, it was scary being in their house, you never knew what would set them off to whop those poor kids upside the head!!!
Thankful for my fine parents!! They never had such tempers, Praise the Lord.
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