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!