After Aubrey's navy tour ended, he used his military benefits to begin attending Tulane University in New Oleans. During his last year of school, their second child, Tommy was born and named for his great uncle Thomas.

When Tommy was not yet one year old, his father graduated from the university, then applied for work at several locations. When his father received the first job offer, his parents made the decision to take the offer.

So, they pack up all their belongings and left New Orleans, taking both of their young children away from family, friends and their ancestral home to move across the state line, into Texas and to the small north panhandle town of Borger, Texas.

It was in the year 1951, when my father Graduated from Tulane University with a degree in Chemical Engineering, and was offered a position by Phillips 66 Petroleum. After he accepted the position, he the packed his small family of four, which included himself, Aubrey, known by his friends as Al, his wife and my mom, Maybelle, their firstborn son, whom I always called Freddy, and later, just Fred, and myself, the baby of the family, Tommy. We then left our ancestral home along the Mississippi River in New Orleans, Louisiana; this has been our family home, both my father′s ancestors as well as my mother′s ancestors for about ten generations.

This was very early in my life, when I was before the age of episodic memories, so except for the few photos I later received from my mom and the many stories that mom told me about that time, (both of which helped me to piece together my life then,) I don′t remember anything from this time of my life.

After leaving our home in New Orleans, Dad then drove his family across nearly one thousand miles to the north Texas panhandle where he had been hired for his first job, in the small town of Borger, Texas. Mom always was a good wife, seeing to it that supper was on the table when Dad got home from work, and the best mother to her boys always making sure that both boys were well fed, kept spotlessly clean and dressed appropriately for the north Texas cold winters.

After only a relatively short time in Borger, Aubrey was asked by his employer if he would be willing to move to the company′s refinery in the Texas Coast lands which refinery is located southeast of the city of Houston on the ship channel, between the towns of Pasadena and Deer Park, Texas. Again, he conferred with his wife and together they agreed to take the offer, primarily because it would mean an increase in salary as well as what seemed to be a better opportunity. Again, Aubrey and Maybelle packed up their possessions and began the long six hundred and fifty mile drive from the top of Texas southeast to the Coast of Texas.

At first, they were able to find a suitable home on Garner Street in Pasadena but this is not a location that I have much memory of, in fact, I only have one. That memory was the occasion when my older brother, Freddy was trying to scare me. I recall that it was late in the day, during the twilight and he asked me if I saw that man outside, to which I replied, no. I walked to the front window and began to look outside and he then said, Don′t let him see you, because he will come and get you!

This not only scared me but it also kept me from looking out any window that entire night. It is funny that I could have so easily been scared like that, but Freddy really knew how to do it to me.

Nevertheless, I still always looked up to my older brother, who died in the

Now that dad was working at the Pasadena refinery, southeast of Houston, and as the family grew in number, Aubrey and Maybelle would move to progressively larger homes. The next home we lived in after Garner Street was at 1115 Roper Street in the town of South Houston and this location is where I have a large repository of memories. So much so that I will get occasional random tidbit of memory that often come back.

I often think of the aviary for parakeet that my dad built there but I never was allowed to enter it, in fact I can remember that dad would say, don′t go near the parakeets because they are raising their babies. Also, at one point, the family acquired a puppy, which because it was kept in the garage and kept barking all night long, or rather it was more like a squeak that a bark, so, we named the dog squeaky.

Two, when I became five years of age, my parents bought for me my first two-wheeled bike. Oh how many great times I had on my new red Schwinn bicycle.

This is also where I began to have additional siblings, first a sister, Elise, who was named after my mom′s mother whose name was Elise Marie; my mom′s dad was Andrew Joseph. Next, a brother, Barry John, then a sister, Debroah Anne, another sister, Rebacca Sue as now the family has grown to a total of eight people. It was at this time when the family had outgrown another home, so my parents began to look for the next place to live. This time, dad wanted to have a home that was much closer to his work and so began to look in a fast growing area not far from the ship channel on the east edge of the city of Pasadena, but within the school district of Deer Park, Texas. The search continued for some time until mom and dad found a home builder that they liked, one who had some already drawn plans, of which my parents decided on a four bedroom, two car garage, brick home.

Then, mom and dad had the builder, whose name was Ed Louden build this four bedroom orange brick home in Pasadena, Texas, but in the Deer Park School District, but most importantly, within two miles from the refinery where dad worked.

Everything was what everyone wanted, dad was only a short drive from his job, mom had a new home, and the kids could walk to both the elementary and middle schools which were both only a few hundred yards distance from home. When each child began High school, they were picked by a bus directly in front of the Orange Brick house to take them to the High School, which was only about four miles to the east in Deer Park, Texas.

Maybelle kept the home going, seeing that the family was cared for, and there were two more children added to the family, Susan Marie and Robert Joseph who increased in number to eight children.

Also, Maybelle was very religious and reared her children in the Catholic church, requiring all of us to attend every Sunday meeting as well as the Saturday morning Catechism classes.

Although Tommy never really came to love the church as did his mother, she did develop within him a deep respect for God and his Word, the Bible. During his life, he began reading the Bible in earnest and read completely through a couple modern English versions.

Later, when preparing for his Wayƒarering Journeys and needed a small Bible, mom wanted to purchase it for Tommy.