When I was a very young girl and my brother, barely a year older than me, moved across the USA with our parents, mother an artist and father a writer. Looking back, we lived much like gypsies.

We left Los Angeles in our little black car filled with all our belongings. Gene and I sat on top of all our stuff. I loved that because then I could see everything and I always like to see and experience everything. 

We headed for Carson City, Nevada, only I didn’t know that at the time. In fact, mostly I never knew where we were going when my parents said, “Get in the car. We’re moving today. And, we moved a lot. We usually learned that morning and sometimes in the middle of the night.

Gene and I were always excited to move because that meant we’d have a new place to create new adventures. Our parents were usually busy working to pay for the roof over our head and do their art. So we had time to do our stuff. Although, they always seemed to know what we were doing, but for the most part didn’t get in the way of our adventures.

We lived in Carson City for a year, a long time for our family. We always moved to cool places across the U.S.A. We went to Rochester, NY on a train and I wore my new taffeta outfit, a white crinkle blouse and a black and white skirt that talked when I walked. I felt like a big girl when my father’s family met us at the train. They smiled a lot, spoke Italian and served delicious home made food Italian. I loved Uncle Dominic until he tried to put his hand under my skirt. I avoided him after that.

Off to Rome, NY where our father put lightning bugs in glass jars and lived in Ticonderoga, NY in autumn where the leaves were purple and orange, red and yellow. I’ll never forget those colors on the trees and on the ground. My brother and I would always find a chance for new adventures.

We lived in a boarding house with a lot of other people in the Italian section of NYC. Our dad told us.that was the Italian section and I thought he must know ’cause he was Italian. And of course my brother and I had a  chance for more new adventures.

When we lived on Staten Island school was getting in the way of our adventures so we took the day off of school. Of course we never mentioned that plan to our parents. Instead of getting on the school bus we headed for the village and returned the same time the bus was supposed to arrive. Smart for an eight year old and seven years old, huh? Gene’s wrist watch helped us keep track of time. Had it all planned out, but didn’t expect our mother to be waiting for us at the bus.

Fort Lauderdale was next and a great place for new adventures. All are in my book a collection stories of Gene and Kitty’s adventures.  

When I was eight and Gene was nine  we moved back to Los Angeles on a Greyhound bus with our father, little brother and pregnant mother. Gene and I were excited for new adventures. But they were never as much fun as our adventures moving across the USA for the past 6 years.

My collection of stories of Gene and Kitty’s adventures is narrated by Kitty, a person who had first hand experience in their adventures. My plan is to finish this memoir in 2021.