Early history: My grandfather on my father's side was Hanford Simeon Adams. He came from Canada and settled in Presque Isle, Maine. He married Georgia Cox, from Fairfield, Maine. They had 10 children, my father, Charles Everett, was the youngest. Mother's parents were Lewis Allen Brubaker (See Brubaker genealogy) from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Amy Ruth Gere from Illinois. They met while attending the University of Illinois in Urbana. They had 5 children and mother, Dorothy Ellen, was the third child.

My family: Dad and Mother attended Millersville State Teachers College in Millersville, Pennsylvania. After graduation, Dad was drafted into the Army and posted at Camp Lee, Petersburg, Virginia. After Mother's graduation she and Dad were married and Mother taught school in Petersburg.. Dad was in charge of the base motor pool and devised an intricate system for routing the vehicles. When it was his time to be sent overseas during World War II, it would have taken so long to train new personnel to follow his system, that they decided to let him stay. And so, Petersburg, Virginia is where I was born.

            

My early days: I was born in Petersburg, Virginia, on January 5, 1944. My earliest memory is at 2 1/2, when my brother, Charlie, was born. Mother and I were staying with her parents in Maplewood, New Jersey, while Dad finished his Army tour of duty. That memory, in August of 1946, is of seeing my new baby brother in his bassinet the day Mother brought him home from the hospital. My next memory is of living in an upstairs apartment in Marysville, Pennsylvania. Dad was putting carrots from our garden out on an old tin wash tub so I could see the bunnies eat them.

         

When I was 4, we moved to Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. We had a tiny, little back porch that was several feet above the ground. A Pussy Willow tree grew right up beside the porch. There was a railroad track that ran behind the lot. Charlie and I walked along the tracks one day and came upon a sleeping hobo. I doubt that Mother knew we had wandered that far from home. Susie was born in 1948, while we were living in Upper Darby. I don't have any baby pictures of Sue. I will have to see if I can get one from her.