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I was born in Covington KY at William Booth Memorial Hospital at the mouth of the Licking River. The obstetrician was a woman. I was baptized in Covington, with Bill Trimpe and Emma Kuebbing as sponsors.

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Mother was living on Holman street, which had a streetcar.  I remember nothing about the place except a vague memory of it being on the second floor.  As you went down the street, it was on the left side.

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Her father- and mother-in-law lived on Pike Street with their daughter Emma in a three room house w/indoor bathroom & basement. The Pike Street front yard was tiny. The house sat on the property line on the left side (when facing the house). It had a paved right side yard which gave access to the door to the kitchen, which was the main entrance.

The front room was the bedroom. It was narrower than other rooms because of a covered external porch on the right side. The porch gave access to a door to the middle room.

In the back yard grandpa had previously grown and bred roses and peonies. The yard sides had fences, probably wrought iron. The back of the yard was a wall with a fence on top of it. The yard behind was several feet higher than my grandparents' yard. In the far right corner was a compost pile. I think my attraction to green issues and to composting comes from my paternal grandfather Joseph.

The house was still standing 2013May when I went to my 50^th college reunion

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For the first several years of my life, my father was in the Army in the South Pacific. I think he did gun repair.

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My mother found me an inquisitive child. To keep me quiet, she bought or was given puzzles. She claimed I quickly grew to solve 1000 piece puzzles. I attribute my ability to do analysis to this training.

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While living on Holman street, there was an episode where I went with other children to a place where there was standing water. I took off my shoes and walked around. I got a piece of glass in my foot. It is somewhere in my baby book.

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We moved to South Fort Mitchell before I started kindergarten.

I went to kindergarten at Beechwood School on Beechwood Rd in SFtMitchell. It was what in TX would be called an independent school district. All schools were on one site. The school was highly rated because most elementary and many high school students went to Catholic schools. In addition, its catchment area was above average income. The tax base was strong and the children came from middle class families.

At the time, Blessed Sacrament School in SFM did not have a kindergarten. The church was one of the wealthiest in the Covington diocese. There was a story that Fr Streck (sp?) asked the bishop for permission to start one. He even offered to support a kindergarten at ever school in the diocese. He was turned down.

Mother said she walked me to kindergarten every day since we had to cross the Dixie Highway. I have only the fragment of one memory about going to Beechwood and it is not clear.

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The first six elementary grades I spent at Blessed Sacrament School. It was staffed by Benedictine nuns, who had a spacious convent next to the church. During my time there it went from one room per grade to two. While I never experienced it, there was one room that was split between two grades. I think just before I entered the school, a large three story addition was made on the back. The lowest level of the addition was the cafeteria.

The BSS cafeteria was run by one paid employee (Nellie Willen?) who lived up Highland on the right from us just past the Ross interesection. (I might be confused with Nellie Wallace, who lived between Mrs Willen and us on Highland.) The cafeteria was staffed by the mothers of students. The meals were good and somewhat nutritious. I say somewhat because this was the time of the federal milk support program. The schools got free milk, cheese and butter. Mrs W used butter to "season" the vegetables she used. Because this was before the wide availability of frozen vegetables and before cheap fresh vegetables became available, the veggies were canned.

One of my favorites was "chili". It was soupy chili, not "Cincinnati recipe". But one mother would have a large pot of it in the middle of the lunchroom for seconds.

Because the neighbor across the street was one year ahead of me in elementary school and high school, and since both schools were Catholic, and since we went to the same high school, at the end of each school year my parents would go across Highland to the Colette's house and buy the next year's books.

I am sorry to say I don't remember any of my elementary school teachers. I remember first grade as being large -- perhaps 50-80 students -- 5 or more columns of 10 or more students. I remember no students, but a few last names like Ruh. I don't remember any of my classmates joining me at Covington Latin School.

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