I now suspect that it may have had something to do with a series of inner ear infections I had up until about that time; but, there is no way of knowing for sure.

No one at the time, including what doctors I went to, suggested that my constant ear infections could have anything to do with my speech defect. The doctors, I am talking about were all for the ear infections, not for the speech defect. No one, at least where we were at knew anything about going to a doctor for such a thing.

All I knew, all my family knew, was that I could not "talk plain." Few people outside of the family could understand me talking.

My friend, Sara , was one of them.

A lot of people were not so understanding. They would assume that I was not intelligent just because of the way I talked. How do I know? Because they talked in front of me. "She's really that old?" "You'd never know it by the way she talks."

Some of them told my parents that I was "tongue tied" and if they would have the piece of flesh under my tongue clipped I would be able to talk better.

My parents knew better than that; but, they never told any of those people where they could go because it would be "impolite." People looked upon things differently back then; and, most people did not realize how damaging it can be for children to hear certain things.

Anywaay!!...

When I entered the first grade, my teacher noticed my problem and referred me to a special speech program operated by the Duval County school system.

I don't remember if it was everyday or just a couple of days each week; but, for about two years, along with some other children who also had speech problems, I was driven by a volunteer to another school in Duval County where I had speech lessons.

The school was Lake Forest and my teacher was Rose Forney. Many years later, about forty in fact, I read in the paper about a former speech teacher who was doing missionary work in China. They said her name was Rose Forney!

Well Miss Forney, I never forgot ya! I owe you a tremendous debt because I came away from your class speaking clear as a bell!

It was you who recommended me for a special prize. I won that prize as the best speech student in Duval County for that year and I got to go to Camp Crystal Lake for a whole month!

It was a very expensive place. Just one week is supposed to have cost $500 and that was in 1955 money! So I got a prize worth $2000 and they let me go even though I was a bit too young. The camp was for ages 9-16 and I did not turn 9 until that August.

I was the youngest one there. They put me in a cabin with nine year old girls which was fine. I was the only speech student in that particular cabin.

I still had speech lessons. They were in this cabin which was kind of off from the other cabins and it was rather bare with just a long table, a few chairs and a tape recorder. We had not had a tape recorder, that is what we called them back then, at Lake Forest and it was the first one I had ever seen. It was also the first time I heard my own voice. I was speaking pretty plain by then.

My teacher's name was Abby. I never knew her last name; but, she must have thought I improved or was a pretty good student or something because at the end of my month I won a little trophy for being the best speech student that summer.

We had the usual prerequisites for a summer camp back then.

Nature studies, it was there I learned that snakes are not cold and slimey, no matter what my family thought and still thinks!

We always went to bed at nine and got up at seven except for some mornings when there was a morning hike for those who wanted to go. If we wanted to go, we were supposed to tie a towel around our bedpost and the counselor would wake us at five to go on the hike. I always went on those hikes.

We had arts and crafts. I learned how to braid in that class. I made a blue, yellow, and white whistle holder to put around my neck.

We had swimming lessons; but, they never succeeded in teaching me how to swim. That I learned several years later on my own when I figured out that all I had to do is push against the water!

There were also times in the day when we could do whatever we wanted to do such as swim or hang out in the very large and airy recreation room which overlooked the lake.

We also had a kind of interdenominational church service every Sunday. Not my favorite thing to do; but, that is the way things were back then.

Every Saturday, our parents could come to visit. My parents always came. Late every Saturday afternoon, we gathered in the recreation room and, before the visiting parents, each cabin would preform a little skit or sing a song which we had practiced all week long. I remember singing "You Are My Sunshine" once; but, otherwise I don't remember what my cabin did before the group.

I do remember our last night together. The usual routine was to every evening at dusk gather before a campfire next to the lake and have a sing along which usually ended shortly before bedtime.

But that last night we had a big dinner where the head of the camp dressed as "King Neptune" and gave out awards to those who had finished the camp plus special awards for those who were judged best at something. It was then that I won my best speech student award in my swimming suit. They had said we could wear anything we wanted to the dinner and I wore my swimming suit!

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