Sunday, July 26, 2009

Part - 29 - Andy and Family - 29.a. Andy



RAISIN'

29. ANDY and FAMILY

29.a. Andy


James Andrew (Andy) Wood Jr. was born on November 4, 1958 at Mobile Infirmary, weighing in at 9 pounds 7 ounces.

Andy was a big baby to begin with, and the Carnation milk formula made him fat. But! For a year, he had colic and cried, and cried, and cried. We tried all types of medicines, especially paregoric, to give him relief. I guess that by the time he was a year old, he outgrew the problem. We knew nothing of the wide range of formulas that are available now to prevent those things.

The kids went to Mrs. Tucker’s Day Care and Kindergarten for about three years before the time Andy started to school. Actually, he had sat in her kindergarten classes for two years. Also, Mother had given him some of her “Sally, Dick and Jane” books to read before starting to school. When he started to school, he could read, write and do simple arithmetic. So, after doing some testing with him, over a three-week period, the school officials recommended that he be promoted to second grade.

We went along with their recommendation. He never had any problems with the scholastic work, but he did have some trouble for several years emotionally. He was the youngest in his class and, naturally, was the brunt of peer pressure. By about the fifth grade, he had pretty well adjusted.

Both kids were very active and involved in numerous things while coming up.

Andy wasn’t in Cub Scouts, but he joined Boy Scouts at eleven-years-old and before he was fourteen, he had completed all the work required for his Eagle Scout rank. He had to wait until after his fourteenth birthday to have his Court of Honor.

All was not perfect during scouting! Doc Johns, the scoutmaster, took some videos of Andy’s first camping trip on a cold, February weekend. It seems that Andy’s sleeping bag kept coming unrolled. Needless to say, he wasn’t very pleased with
developments there.

Andy, kinda like I did when I was little, enjoyed doing lots of playing by himself. He used to know the names and car numbers of all the racers at Mobile International Speedway. He would have some of his toy cars run ‘round and ‘round him, announcing the leaders like a P A system. Of course “Andy Wood” fared quite well in most of those races!





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