I do not have a memory of December 26, 1954. That would have been my 8th birthday. Shortly thereafter, New Year's Day of 1955 arrived and it would prove to be a pivotal year in my life.

I was in the second grade, attending Hillside, outside of Cushing, OK, the only school I had ever known. At this time all four children of my family were enrolled in this small rural school.

Evidently, employment opportunities for my father were becoming more difficult.

Harold Lee Bradbury was a good man, but uneducated, and lacking many real life job skills. He had so far made a living as a labourer, truck driver and erstwhile oil field hand. He was a veteran of WWII, but seemed to struggle to maintain permanent employment required to support a wife and four children.

It was at this point he (and possibly my mother) decided we had played out the string in Cushing,OK. Without waiting for the end of the school year, we were loaded up (with what there was to load) and prepped for the big move.  

Somehow, my father had acquired a Spartan mobile home, 8' wide and 33' long, connected it to our family vehicle and headed for Colorado, in search of a better future. We arrived in Sterling, CO about March of 1955, and I finished the 2nd grade at Columbine Elementary, a small school on the outskirts of Sterling.  

The summer of 1955 was not memorable, but by the start of the next school year we had relocated to trailer park and had a different mobile home. This one was bigger and we were spread out (slightly). I do remember the space rent was $20 a month and it was touch and go if that payment could be made on time.

I began the 3rd grade in Pantall School in Sterling , CO. Once again, nothing very memorable about this time, but in late November 1955 my folks came to the school and pulled me out for a trip back to Oklahoma. It seems my Dad's mother was ill and not expected to last. We returned to Seminole and on December 2, 1955 my grandmother (my Dad's mother ) died. She was 63 years old.

I never knew how this affected my father, but I learned later he was far from the favourite son. That boy (Jay) had died of a childhood disease 22 years previously and apparently Opal Crumrine Bradbury was devastated and made it clear she wished it had been my father who expired. See further...