AUTOBIOGRAPHY - 1952 - Two Years Old - Muscatine, Iowa

Year:  2nd Birthday
Location:  Muscatine, Iowa - Barry Avenue


Originating Circle:
Newborns:  my brother Timothy Victor Parish, my cousin Deborah Baird, Barbara Rogers (daughter of my parents' church friends Gordon and Betty Rogers)


What Happened: 
Dad was promoted to manager of Quality Control at H.J. Heinz Co., Muscatine, a position he held until they moved to Pittsburgh in 1971, where he was promoted several times in national company-wide positions.


My brother Tim was born when I was one and a half.  Mom's father Carl Brehm and his wife Leota (for whom he left my Grandma B., huge family scandal, and Mom's middle name was in her honor, as she was their doctor) came to visit us when Tim was born.  That's the only time we ever saw those grandparents--I can barely remember them in our house on Barry Avenue.  Mom had a small oval photo of him, a handsome man, which always hung in our home.  He and Leota moved to California, but after the divorce he continued to provide for Mom and her siser Mary during the Depression.  He was a welder and sold welding supplies, a handsome charmer.  He welded a little red double-seater swing for the girls, which I got to play on when I visited my Aunt Mary.  This passed down Aunt Mary's side of the family.  You had to be very small to swing on it or put dolls in it.  He also made a doll bed big enough for a baby, and my Mom passed that down to me. 


I believe potty training started that year, and Mom said I let her know I needed to go by saying, "Wanna be good girl." 


Stickee:  "NO!!!"


INSERT PHOTOS - Baby pictures of 1952
Doll bed with Abi inside
Photo with Grandma Brehm & Tim and me
Photo of me and Debbie Baird