Year Four - 1970

We left off with me, my mother and new baby brother back in Marshalltown, IA. I mentioned that my newly adopted dad was home for the holidays. That fact was reinforced by the news shortly into the year that my mother was pregnant again. My brother Jason had just been born in October and by December my mother was set to have another child. Seems like a short window, but these crazy kids were in love. That and my dad was away in the Navy most of the time in the previous year.

With my father away and two kids at home, my mother was not rushing back into the workplace. We were living in a single wide trailer in a small trailer park placed right next to a creek. At age three, I loved going down to the creek (really just about 20 feet from our home) and I would marvel at the little minnows and crawdads in the water. The creek never got very deep, so you could wade into the water. It was located at the bottom of a ravine that was about a three foot drop from the bank of the stream. The ravine was probably the more dangerous of the elements of this natural playground. Falling from there onto the rocks in the stream was the easiest way to hurt yourself. There were many trees that lined the creek. Trees to climb and build forts in.... Of course, I was strictly forbade to play in or around that stream. That never seemed to stop me.

To make extra money, my mother took in other children to care for during the day. She would babysit these kids and take care of my brother and I. Sometime in this year I learned how to lock the front door to the trailer. I thought that was the funniest thing. Locking my mother out of the house. She would pound and yell. I would laugh and laugh.

One time, my mother had gone to the wash house to do laundry. While she was gone I got out the Flintstone's chewable vitamins. I poured them all out on a paper plate then me and the other kids my mother was watching proceeded to eat all of our favorites! I liked the car. Well, you can imagine what happened when my mother came back to the trailer....she was mortified and rushed us all to the emergency room. We had to have our stomachs pumped. I guess the vitamins had iron in them as well and too much iron is a bad thing for kids.

In the midst of this year, my father returned home full time. With a third child on the way....we were quickly outgrowing the single wide trailer. So, we arranged to move into a house. A house located just on the other side of the creek!

A few other things that happened this year. I had a teenage babysitter who showed me her Barbie collection. I was amazed and instantly hooked. When ever she babysat for me I asked her about her Barbies. The clothes and everything were fascinating to me. I then found that my grandparents also had a lot of Barbie toys as well. I was told that these things were not for boys....but that never stopped me from wanting to play with them. I loved all the little clothes and shoes! But, I always had to leave the Barbies at grandma's house at the end of the day.

Also, I am told I got up in the middle of the night and placed a can of soup in the oven and turned it on. The trailer was filled with smoke from the burnt label on the can and everyone was really freaked out that I would turn on the stove. No one was hurt and I guess I just was hungry for some soup.

My youngest brother, Joseph Donald Frohwein, was born on August 5, 1970. And by the end of the year we were moved to a new home. A real home. One with three bedrooms and a basement! This is the first address I ever remember having as well. 1208 Fairmeadows Road. This is where the next few year of my life would take place....

Year Three - 1969

We join our story again in Charleston, SC. The new Frohwein family has just re-located there while Don Frohwein is active duty in the Navy. We were located near the white sandy beaches. And many photographs were taken of me atop a pyramid of cannon balls and an actual cannon. The first pictures of me on the beach are taken here and a sailors cap is my favorite accessory. For many years after, I was told the story of being at the beach and my family basically washed my cloth diaper out in the ocean. My new dad loved to kid me that there was a shark out there chewing on my turd. Lovely.

I can't say for sure that I have a lot of genuine memories of my time in Charleston. But, I did have one incident happen to me that I still carry the emotional scars for to this day. I was playing in the sand one day and I happened to dig into a nest of sandflies. I was bitten over a large percent of my body and I was treated at a local hospital. Here is what wikipedia says about these bugs "Sandfly bites may leave large, red itchy bumps that may turn into a rash. These bumps are frequently several times as itchy as mosquito bites, and tend to last longer as well."

Although I do not remember the actual attack, I was plagued for years after with an extreme fear of all flying insects. I did not like the beach or sand for a long while. And I think this also led into my fear of swimming and of water that would come up a few years later. I still get an anxiety pulse whenever I am around a bee or a wasp. But, unlike my youth, I do not go screaming away in rabid fear anymore.

Also, in this year my mother discovered that she was pregnant. She and Don had created a honeymoon baby, I assume. And by the end of the summer there, my pregnant mother and I had planned to relocate back to Marshalltown, IA. My mother wanted to give birth around family and friends. The short time we spent in Charleston would be the last time my mother would live anywhere else besides Marshalltown, IA - as she still resides there to this day.

So in the early fall my mother and I left my new dad in South Carolina and boarded a plane to return to Iowa. I remember some things about this experience. I remember dressing up like we were going to church. People chose to dress nice when they flew in a plane back then. I remember the flight attendants paying a lot of attention to me. I got free pilot wings and I think I even got to go to the cockpit and meet the pilots as well. And one other thing....I got to have as much 7-Up as I wanted! It was a very exciting trip for me then and even today when I fly, I am very excited about the whole flying process.

My brother, Jason Edward Frohwein, was born on October 16, 1969. I was happy to have a brother. We were living in a single wide trailer in a small trailer park next to a creek. We did not have much of anything, but we were happy and I believe Don (here on out to be referred to as my dad) was able to come home over the holidays. Well, he would have had to have been there in December...

More on why.... next week!

Year Two - 1968

We last left our story with my mother a newly divorced woman around eighteen years of age. She was working at a manufacturing plant in Marshalltown, IA and her newborn son (me) was living with her parents in Kansas. She also lived with her younger sister. My mother met and began dating a man named Don Frohwein. He also worked at the manufacturing plant (Marshall Manufacturing.....what a creative name!). Don Frohwein was around eighteen years old too. He was a farm boy from a neighboring town. His family owned a farm in a rural area about ten miles out of town. He worked at the manufacturing plant and on the farm. Then he was a Navy reservist on weekends as well.

Don and my mother (Kathi) began dating and things heated up fast. I returned from Kansas and the three of us moved into the Frohwein family farm. Shortly after that, Don was informed that he would be going into active duty with the Navy and they stationed him in Charleston, SC. Well, the whole romance of the officer and gentleman thing must have taken hold.....Don Frohwein and my mother were married and we all prepared to move out to South Carolina for a year.

But, before that happened...it seems that I had had very little (none) visits and connections with Dave Presnall. I guess with me living in Kansas and then the rural farm, there were few chances for me to hang out or bond with my biological father. And in learning new words, I had started to attach "daddy" with this new man, Don Frohwein. A call was made around this time from Dave to my mother.....without much emotion or fanfare, Dave suggested that he would not object to Don Frohwein petitioning to adopt me as his own. And so it was.....

One of my earliest memories is one where I was sitting on top of a large desk. There was a man there who asked me if I wanted this Don Frohwein person to be my father.....and I think I remember a reply in the affirmative. Much paperwork and a shake of the hand.....and my last name officially changed to Frohwein.

We settled into housing on the base there in Charleston. Many pictures were taken of me on cannons and at the beach. A new family had been formed.