Melvin Tracy:  

Life School Days At age 6, my Uncle who raised me since birth, enrolled me in the North Lemmon Public School, North Dakota. My cousin Helen was a year younger and stayed home. I left school on foot and went home. No cousin no school. Then next year we both were enrolled so I passed 2 grades in one year. My natural mother wanted to punish my Uncle over money matters involving my deceased natural father's estate so each year from the first grade on, one of my older brothers showed up at school to kidnap me. I was protected by the teachers. Finally at age 9, my stepdad amd natural mother showed up at the farm after I completed the 4th grade and took me away. I entered Mott, ND Public School at the 5th grade. In the 6trh grade, my step Dad died so I had to do all the farm chores. My mother started gossip about everyone so no one would work for her. When a freshman in High School, we moved to Lemmon SD and I enrolled there at the Lemon Public School. A Year later after working on a farm, I took a train to Long Beach, CA. I enrolled in Jordan High at age 15 finishing my sophmore year and junior year then senior year working in cafes and hotels as bus boy and waiter. I left for the WW11 on May 24th 1943 before graduating in my senior year but recieved a diploma anyway. During this time, I was continuosly libled and slanderd by a family member and a Phys, Ed instructor because a family member was having an affair with a Long Beach Police detective using me as a scapegoat to come by the house and "investigate" me. . I returned to the USA on December 15, 1945 spending 2 years in combat. In about 1950 I moved to San Diego, CA. working for Golden Arrow Dairy after bar tending for awhile at the Harbor House at the foot of Market Street and Lymans Grill and Pizza Garden across from the San Diego Hotel. At age 56 in 1981, I realized the war had caused me to miss an education. I enrolled in Southwestern College majoring in the Administration of Justice. After...Expand for more