The year 1950..

The year began on New Years Eve of 1949,,,We were living in Black Mountain North Carolina.
I had just turned 13 in the late fall but was not very different from age 12 which I had enjoyed for most of the year. I guess I was what was called a late bloomer.
That New Years Eve , My sister Mary and I were allowed to 'stay up' until midnight to welcome 1950. My first decade as a teenager coming up. I do not think that teens were considered much of a group in those days. We did not own a tv and mostly just played outside after we had done our homework. I had not developed much of an interest in the opposite sex at this point although some of the girls in my class had. They were more physically and maybe mentally developed than I .

I was content to share my life and imagination with my ten year old sister at this time. She was very bright and fun to be with and even taller than me at this point, We had led a very sheltered life and we liked it that way, Mary and I would go hiking in the nearby mountain area and gather galax for wreaths.  We loved discovering the places nearby. We had a friend Carolyn who lived next door to the church yard. She could often be found leaning against a tombstone and reading a book.

We attended a school that contained all 12 grades, but it was divided according to Elementary School, and High School. Mary and I were in the Elementary School although I was in eighth grade then, and Mary was in fifth. She was very ahead intellectually for I remember she had read "The Rise and Fall of The Roman Empire."
But she still liked to read Regency Romances and the Jane Austen Books. She also liked Detective Stories and Science fiction stories..But she and I enjoyed talking about Jane Austen books.