GROWING UP WAS EASY

SCENE THREE

As Jayla and I were growing up and learning more about getting grounded (Jayla was becoming a pro at it!) along came my little sister Jolie. She was the sweetest baby with big brown eyes and curly, almost-black hair. She was born with a birth deformity in her hips (under-developed hip joint) which caused my parents great anguish and concern over how to care for her. I remember my Mom crying many times when my Dad was at work, but I didn’t understand at that time how difficult it was for them the first two years of Jolie’s life. She was in and out of body casts and braces and no one knew if she would be okay later in life or have difficulties walking. I spent hours and hours playing with her by crawling on the floor with her. She learned how to pull herself around with her hands and forearms while dragging her body cast behind her with only her little toes exposed. When she got really tired, I would pull her around the house in a little Red Radio Flyer wagon. One time, she tumbled off the wagon when I was pulling her and her cast hit the hardwood floor sounding just like a boulder had crashed into it! My Mom and Dad came running up from the basement and realized that the cast had cracked right down the middle! (I was terrified that I had done something wrong!) I never knew how financially devastating that must have been for them at the time to have to get another cast put on her immediately. Jolie and I just laughed when it first happened like kids do (she was not hurt at all,) but my parents weren’t laughing! They scolded me, but they didn’t blame me and told me to be much more careful in the future while playing.

Jolie and I shared a bedroom so our older sister could have one all to herself. I didn’t mind it because we had so much fun laughing when we were supposed to be sleeping. I would use my Kenner Give-A-Show Projector to project cartoons on the wall way passed bed time. I would also play a little game of spit balls with her. I know this sounds really bad as I was the only one doing the spit balls and Jolie was my cute little target. She would giggle uncontrollably as the little wet wads would go flying through the air at high speed and land on or close to her. (seriously, I missed my target 99% of the time!) Mom never could figure out what was happening in that bedroom with my little projectiles lying inconspicuously in the dark until well after dawn.

But you should have seen my Mom in the morning when she would come in and stand there with her hands on her hips, trying to figure out, “what in the Sam-hell” those little wads of paper were all over the floor and stuck to Jolie’s crib! We still laugh uncontrollably to this day about those recurring spit ball sessions that occasionally took place in our bedroom in the cover of darkness!

Jolie was growing up happily and survived the casts, the braces, and the spit balls. She reminded us of the little girl on Family Affair with what we called Buffy curls, since Mom always pulled her curly hair up into pigtails. She was walking just fine now, even running around like a normal little girl. It had been three long years since Jolie was born and along came my little brother Jozef. He was not on the family planner, so to speak, but totally loved and celebrated by all of us! My Dad had been wanting a boy for many years (Can you imagine my poor Father sharing one tiny bathroom with three girls and a wife?) Jozeffy was the cutest little boy with blondish-brown hair, big brown eyes, and always smiling. He loved to be rocked, as he was born with colic, so my Mother rocked him a lot for months after his birth. As he grew into a toddler, he loved rocking on his horse or in his “Bubba chair” (a red padded child’s rocking chair with the back looking like a teddy bear including head and ears at the top.) He also loved music, as we all did from a very young age, and rocked just as hard and fast as that little Bubba chair could go until the day it broke! Jozeffy inherited our 45 record player and played records non-stop on a daily basis. If you didn’t hear it, he must have been sick or sleeping! Jozeffy had a great disposition as a young child from my perspective. However, Jolie would probably say something quite different. They argued a lot! Boy- Girl arguments, totally different from sister to sister quarrels (sisterly love I guess.) But I was getting interested in boys at this point so I really didn’t care what was going on between them. The two big sisters were now sharing one room and Jolie and Jozef shared another room while he was still very young. Eventually Jayla married at age seventeen and I had my own room at fourteen. Then my Mom had to separate the boy & the girl and I had my old roomy back! No more spit balls and not nearly as fun! I really wanted my own room. It wasn’t long before I moved in with Grandma at age seventeen (three doors up the road) and left Jolie and Jozef to have their own rooms at last!

Jozef grew up with an awesome personality, tons of friends, and was a very good student. Everything was normal all through High School for him, and he was quite popular and humorous- like a comedian at times. Then one day after graduating high school, Jozef started having some explosive temperament issues that caused my parents great concern. It was like a temper tantrum on steroids. After several hospital visits and many Doctors later, my parents learned that his diagnosis was Bipolar Depression. They were aging parents now and mental illness was completely new to all of us. We got a crash course on the condition and learned how to deal with it as best that we could. With the correct Doctors, medications, and psychologists, my brother would be okay. But this all took its toll on my Mother as her own health was starting to deteriorate. Jozef remained at home with my parents and he never got married. He is very active with church, friends, counseling, and still loves music. To this day Jozef has more friends than absolutely any one person I have ever known.

GROWING UP WAS EASY

SCENE TWO

My Dad was Superman to me. He was very handsome in his young Daddy days. His black hair was a cross between Elvis Presley and James Dean and there was nothing he couldn’t do! While I was growing up, he was a self-taught mechanic, a base playing musician, and later in his life, became a TV repair technician. There was nothing in our house that my Dad couldn’t fix. Looking back, I am sure it was out of necessity that my Dad learned to fix everything, because he probably couldn’t have afforded to call a plumber or an electrician every time he needed one. Especially when a diaper got accidentally flushed down the toilet, and that did happen more than once in our house!

My Dad also made us feel safe all the time. If a storm was brewing and my Dad wasn’t home? I was scared that a tornado would sweep through our house and suck us up into the open sky, scattering us around like confetti! But as soon as my Dad pulled in the driveway, there was no chance in hell that a tornado could get us! He would lead us to the basement and play his acoustic guitar to occupy our minds during the severe storms.

He was an unbelievably smart man too. He dropped out of high school to help out at home while growing up, which was not uncommon for children to do back in those days when families fell upon hard times. But, in addition to being a mechanic, he was an accomplished up-right base player during the big band era, and played with several bands over the course of his younger life. He eventually started playing an electric base for easier transportation to and from shows. He even built his own amplifier, which my big sister, Jayla and I, would perch ourselves on while he played on stage at some of his ballroom gigs! After his playing out days became less frequent, he then built a recording studio in our basement, which provided me and my big Sis hours of musical entertainment growing up! Those were some of the best days of our lives.

To add to our musical world, our Mother was an accomplished classical pianist. She was movie-star beautiful, talented, and the best Mom EVER! She ran our household with a whole lot of love, encouragement, and of course, a wooden spoon. Yes, we did get whacked with it on many occasions, usually when Jayla got caught mumbling smart remarks after my Mom warned her “don’t you say another word!” Or, she would make faces at my Mom once she turned away from us. But, of course, my Mother had eyes in the back of her head, just like all Moms did back then, and Whack!

Our Mom was a genuinely kind and loving woman to all those who touched her life. She gave up so much to raise her little girls and always provided us with that beautiful yearly Easter dress and new shoes! {My website Icon photo is from Easter} If it was cold, we had little white fur hand-muffs to keep our hands warm with a matching fur hat or ear muffs. She rarely had her own car when we were young, so she kept us busy with chores, yet, entertained us with fun projects all the time. She would let us build tents and skate on the living room rug. That is, she let us use wax paper under our feet to sort of slide across the floor! We would have picnics in the middle of our living room when it was raining outside, and spent hours playing with Barbie, Skipper, and paper dolls. I guess our living room back in those days was the only play area we truly had when it rained. We didn’t have a garage, or a carport, or patio, as several of our neighbor’s did. It was also where we would open up the dining room table with all 3 leaves, so big, that it engulfed most of the room for every holiday dinner! We’d help set the table with beautiful linen table cloths, china plates, and tall tapered candles. It was the most beautiful thing I ever saw!

Our basement was the other seasonally large space for playing in, but only when it wasn’t too cold. It is where Jayla learned how to take apart a transistor radio (to my Dad’s surprise!), but she was able to put it back together again (also, to my Dad’s surprise!) Since my Dad had no boy yet, he couldn’t have been more proud! We also received roller skates one Christmas, the kind that fastened onto your shoes, and we retired the wax paper skates. Oh My God! One of the BEST gifts EVER! We spent hours roller skating in our basement, swinging around every pole we could as fast as we could! Way better than using wax paper under our feet, which led to many brush burns from the living room rug!

The basement is also where I believe our imaginations taught us how to be creative and resourceful. In the far dark corner was a manual tire changer my Dad had stored there. Also, some shelves to keep things stored up off the floor, such as an old-fashioned, hard-sided suitcase. Jayla loved horses, and this is where she became International Velvet and I was her side-kick, Janet. She rode that steel tire changer like a pro and I rode the suitcase propped up on its side so proudly next to her! We entertained ourselves quite often in the dark corners of our basement where our young and wild imaginations could give us anything we dreamed of…

And I Have a Story to Tell

Written by Lorraine Turner

This is a true story about how a shy young girl grew up in a small town with no money and no means to explore opportunities in the Arts, and how she developed into a confident, talented artist because of her parents’ nurturing and love of family. That young girl was me. My early career experiences in the world of luxury goods and services led me down the path to Corporate America, impressive titles, and financial success that would eventually cause my demise in the great recession of 2008. After a worldwide down-sizing, I would soon find myself jobless, homeless, and financially devastated fighting for my life. Over a year of tireless job searching and extreme difficulties led me to a job networking in the real estate business making a fraction of what used to be a six figure income. I learned to live life happily on far less money and resided in an apartment instead of my custom-built ranch in the country. A fresh new beginning taught me that true happiness is not found in the things that you accumulate in life, but rather, the lessons learned that teach you humility, giving you wisdom to pass on to others, and the joy it brings to your own life when you do.

After suppressing my artistic abilities for many years during my hectic and time consuming career, art found its way back into my life while strolling on a Key West beach in 2013. Find out how walking away from my material belongings was empowering when my husband and I sold our house to live full-time in a motorhome and explore the country. (Read more about the RV lifestyle in the early articles of this Blog) Hear what my fans and followers are saying about me and what makes my Artwork so special in this life enriching and passion-filled story.

For anyone that has triumphed over fear, depression and serious loss, this is a must read for you! Please click “Follow” for a free read of a girl’s story of truths, frightening, yet never-imagined, life experiences.

Join me for the journey…

ONE

GROWING UP WAS EASY

SCENE ONE

I grew up in the 60’s near Youngstown, OH. It was what a lot of folks referred to as “living in the sticks” back then, although, you’d never know it today. The population of our township was less than 2000 in 1950, and is now well over 35,000. Growing up in a town in a less than middle class income family, I heard the phrase “six figure income” used in conversations that I knew absolutely nothing about. After all, my family certainly had no experience with the luxury life-style a six figure income could afford. Our entire neighborhood was comprised of hard-working Blue Collars in very small three bedroom, one bath homes. All of my childhood friends usually had more than I did, but still, we were all very much the same. We’d stand together waiting for the bus eyeing each other’s clothes and shoes, and mine were usually hand-me-downs from my older sister of three years. But after school, we all played together outside until our Moms called us home one by one when dinner was ready. One Mom yodeled out seriously loud, just like Tarzan! (I’m not kidding! She was cool long before Carol Burnette came along!) Others yelled out names. But my Mom would whistle twice with her fingers in her mouth as loud as she could! We all ran home, washed our hands, and sat down for dinner at the supper table; ours in the middle of our kitchen. We discussed the day’s events with our parents while enjoying a scrumptious home-cooked meal. If we got the dishes done and homework completed, we’d get to resume our outside play with the neighborhood kids until dark. Then one last Tarzan yodel and we all ran home to wash up and get to bed!

I was completely oblivious as to how the rest of the world was living or how other children were growing up. After all, I had clothes, food, a roof over my head, friends…everything I needed was right there. I was also lucky enough to have a big sister to grow up with, a younger sister when I was eight, a younger brother when I was eleven, and my parents were absolutely the best human beings on the planet! Well…I did have an awesome Grandma that lived three houses up the street from us too! But, my parents were the kind of parents that you would want every child to be raised by. I often say, here and now, that if I could have rented them out, there would be no dysfunction in the world today!

Hello Readers! I have missed you all! I just wanted to let you know that I am starting my new story here!

All those that actually know me from our RV days have voiced how much they enjoyed this blog for the last two years! Many of you know my story and how I ended up living FT (full time) in our Motorhome, but most of you do not. I have decided to tell my personal story starting from childhood, and how a young girl growing up in small town America with no college degree went on to have a six figure income and ended with Six Wheels Down!

While traveling in 2013 on our first Snowbird journey to Key West, I started a hobby using my artistic ideas combined with my love of seashells! I started doing something that no one else was doing; custom acrylic paintings on wood with seashells artistically made into roosters and many other Key West memorabilia. It added dimension to the paintings and created a keepsake of all of the things I collected from the land and sea wherever I visited. (LT’s Land & Sea) Many of my followers now possess one of those custom painted seashell artworks. I have never been featured in an art gallery and I have never sold them in any store or craft fair. But close to 200 people around the country have one of my artworks hanging in their home, RV, or sunroom. They were featured in a resort, a chapel, and a landmark restaurant in Ohio. I am known as “The Painter of Shells” and I have a story to tell.

I hope you will join me in my journey of life’s highs and lows with my usual humor served up with a side of sarcasm. (The names of family, friends and neighbors have been changed to protect their identities.) However, I will be sharing the names and comments of those that granted permission. I hope you’ll enjoy the art and the story that goes with it, as this is the book I never published. Perhaps, someday…

The Painter of Shells and I have a story to tell!

A copy (print on canvas) of the Original Painting pictured above went to Judy P. of Titus, AL

“Lorraine’s artwork is very thoughtful, in that, she takes time to pick her colors and textures so that it is also dimensionally beautiful. I actually have a piece that is a photo of her work printed on canvas. It looks like a gorgeous painting!”