But I remember when I was 11, I had never been to the mainland, and my grandmother and my mother and mysister, who at the time was two, decided we were going to take a big summer trip.
My mom had thought his yearly bonuses would be going toward college for me and mysister, but not only was my dad a big spender, unbeknownst to her, he had also been buying regular tickets to visit his girlfriend in Greece.
The phone call came late one August afternoon as my older sister Gracie and I sat out on the back porch shucking the sweet corn into the big tin buckets.