I am a 73yr. old widow. We will get into that part of my life at a later date. Right now, let's start with being born. I was born Nov. 13, 1935, in Bloomington Ill., where my mother's people lived. I was the 3rd child born there, but my mothers first born, Robert, was a "blue baby, and only lived for a short period of time. My sister, Judith, was next, and she was only 18 months older than me. She passed away in 2007. My younger brother, David, was born about 4 years after me. He still lives in Houston.

My Father owned two Burlesque Shows and we traveled all over the United States with a Carnival. One of the shows was "Broadway on Revue" and featured white girls, and because of the times, the second show was billed as "Harlem on Parade", and featured black girls. My Father was a full-blooded Russian Jew, from Albany, N.Y.. He was what they used to call a "first born" because he was born in America. My Mother was Irish-Indian from Louisville, Kentucky. I will go into their background later. Anyway, let's fast forward now. My Father, who was a genius in Math and Languages, ran away from home and joined a carnival. He was the much loved black sheep of his family, who I understand were and probably still are quite wealthy. He never told us why he ran away, nor why to a carnival. Anyway, he worked his way up the ladder and ended up owning two shows. They got rained in for a week in Louisville, where my mother and some of her friends went to the carnival. My Mom saw my Dad on the bally, (outside stage) and fell in love. I guess it was the same for my Dad. She came back every day that week and left with my Dad when the carnival got out of the mud. They got married in the next town and were married until my Dad died in the l950's.

We grew up living in my Dad's tent truck. We would pull into the set-up area, always a field that had a water source, read that as a water spicket to fill a trough for animals, and then began the transformation. The roust-abouts would come and empty the tents and poles out of the truck and start setting them up. (Roust-abouts were hired hands that came and went, usually as their need for money was good or bad. Most were drunks and worked just long enough to buy a bottle.) They would set up a huge tri-pod that held a huge pot that was filled with water and a fire was built under the pot. That was everbody's source of hot water. We all ate in the cooktent, where you could eat from the line, or cook you own food when the line cooks were done. We did both, but mostly ate from the line. How my Mom raised three children in the back of a truck is such a wonder to me even to this day. I don't know how she did it.

I will continue this at a later date.