In 1959 when\u00a0my mother divorced, she did not want to return to Southern Alabama. For whatever her reasons, she decided Tampa was the place to be.<\/p>\n
My uncle lived on Idelwild Street and my mom bought a house two streets south and two blocks west. While closing on the house, my mother, my sister, and my two brothers and I stayed with my Uncle Buddy over at his place on Idelwild.<\/p>\n
The subdivision was a booming community and realtors were constantly showing potential buyers around. One day, my mother had my sister, the older of my two younger brothers, my cousins, and me in my uncle\u2019s front yard where we were flying a kite. We had built the kite from scratch and it was a rather windy day. The kite was unstable and needed more weight on the tail. My mother looked at us and said, \u201cWait here and don\u2019t leave the yard.\u201d With that, she picked up the kite and went inside looking for more material to tie onto the tail.<\/p>\n
Well, while she was in my uncle\u2019s house, we kids were hanging around the front yard. I was the oldest at six. Before too long, a realtor came by to show the property across the street from my uncle\u2019s to a young couple. They were going to buy their first home and seriously thinking of moving into the neighborhood. In an effort to get to know what kind of a neighborhood they might be buying into, the young woman turned to me and asked, \u201cDo you live here?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh no,\u201d I replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, where do you live?\u201d she then asked.<\/p>\n
I pointed in the direction of where I thought our new house would be and said, \u201cOver there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her next question was, \u201cWhere is your mother?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn there,\u201d I said, turning and pointing to my uncle\u2019s house.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is she doing in there?\u201d the woman asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting a piece of tail,\u201d I very innocently answered. Because my mother had taken the kite into Uncle Buddy’s house, the poor lady had no way of knowing we were flying kites.\u00a0 She also had no idea the tail of which I spoke was \u2013 well – a kite tail!<\/p>\n
Years later, my uncle finally decided I was old enough to hear the story of the kite tail. He said the realtor, a friend of his, lost the deal and the young couple never bought anywhere near the new neighborhood.<\/p>\n
That was a shame because as it turned out, our neighborhood was a great place to grow up.<\/p>\n
-30-<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2010 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 1959 when\u00a0my mother divorced, she did not want to return to Southern Alabama. For whatever her reasons, she decided Tampa was the place to be. My uncle lived on Idelwild Street and my mom bought a house two streets … Continue reading