4 - A Legal Immigrant.. A new country

When we drove out of Elliot Lake, I had this empty feeling, that I was leaving a very special part of my life behind. The beauty of that part of Canada has stayed with me through-out my entire life and I have never stopped missing it. Anyway, we drove off in our 1960 VW bug with me in the back seat and crossed the border at Sault Ste Marie.

We headed south for our first destination, Huntsville, Alabama, home of Redstone Arsenal. My father had a senior master sergeant uncle stationed there and we were going to visit with them.
On the way we stopped at virtually every tourist trap along the way. We recorded it all with pictures and postcards in several photo albums that I still look at today. I remember stopping in a driveway facing Fort Knox our nations Gold Depository and setting off an alarm of some kind and an army jeep full of soldiers told us we couldn't stop there. I still have the picture. Cave City was another stop where I recall being fascinated by the huge caves. After a several day stay with our cousins in Huntsville we headed west across the southern route going through state after state and we were fascinated by the differences in terrain and kinds of people. This was our first experience in the south and the poverty was amazing to behold. It was both sad and scary at the same time. The countless motels we stated at and the many swimming pools I got to swim in really made my summer.

In time we reached what a tourist might call the old west. Deserts, cactus and ghost towns and a smattering of long horn cattle. Wow! We stopped at Old Tuscon and Dodge City and several other western towns. Right here and there I fell in love with the old west. My heroes at the time were Roy Rodgers, Range Rider, Lash Larue, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy and The Lone Ranger. Nobody like them today. Kinda sad that my kids didn't have that. They had "The Power Rangers" PUKE!

I'm not sure of the date but we final reached California. Palm trees and sunshine all of the time. We drove up Highway 101 to Santa Maria, California. My uncle Martin Berkovitz was a Major in the US Airforce stationed at Vandenberg. We stayed at his house for close to a month. He had this huge house with a pink grapefruit tree, a tangelo, a lime tree and several apple trees in the yard as well as a large grape arbor. This was indeed the garden of eden we had found.
One morning my father called me in and asked how I'd like to stay in California for good. I of course agreed that of course. And we stayed. I started 3 months worth of Junior High the following monday. Then summer vacation. But that's the next blog posting.