So, right around my fifth birthday, Mom packed us up and moved us to South Florida. I spent a very short time with my grandparents in Tampa, but we wound up in the Fort Lauderdale area in a suburb named Lauderhill. Looking back, those years were incredibly important in shaping whom I am now, especially from a "learning tolerance before I could learn intolerance" standpoint. We weren't rich by any stretch of the imagination, and my mom worked very hard as a woman in the computer industry. So, many could consider where we lived in those days to be "the hood". That didn't really matter to me. I had friends that I played outside with and rode bikes with, and that was all that really mattered. Not the color of their skin or the place they came from. They were my friends, plain and simple.
Before we settled in the area where my elementary school would be (Royal Palm Elementary, represent!), we spent some time living in a hotel called the Oakland Park hotel. I went to a day care close to there for a while, and every time I hear this song, it makes me think of those times. Seemed like it played every day when I ate breakfast.
See you Monday!
Rob
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