by Ginger L. Fernandez

Created on: October 31, 2008

My World

I do not know what you heard, but take it from me... growing up in the sixties was still a real kick... that was one of our more colorful expressions meaning / fun. My family a staunch pillar of the community lived the great American dream. The five of us mom, dad, my two brothers, Steven and Greg and Me, Anastasia, but Frankie to my friends... we are The Vestra family. We are of Indian Spanish decent. Our father's people migrated here from Barcelona Spain. My mother's people are from right here in the good old U-S of A. She is a Native American from the Cherokee Nation.

Naturally, we are of the Catholic faith. My two brothers and I attend a Catholic school. Our father is the lucrative owner of a chain of Steak Houses across the Midwest. His fortune is as vast as the country itself. He owns dozens of commercial and residential real estate prosperities. The advantages we take for granted, others dream about. Some of the people in our community, some look upon my parents as a symbol of everything they want in life. Some less fortunate even envy our family. Our home is humungous.

Back sometime around the turn of the century a Mr. Samuel J. Hudson the owner of one of the largest Hotels in the entire city, built this house as a present for his new bride. He called it Hudson Manor. You know the kind I mean. It is one of those monstrous places with twenty rooms. We have, a four-car garage, swimming pool, veranda, and servant cottages that line the ten-archer property. It is over two hundred years old and was the first house built in the area.

A stream runs straight through the property from one end to other. It sits on a hill surrounded by smaller properties built along the property line.

During the depression, Mr. Hudson lost his shirt in the stock market crash and sold most of the property to the city of Detroit. A city charter named the surrounding property, Hudson Valley Subdivision. Our grounds remain plush and green with the finest assortment of fruit trees in all of Michigan. It is a beautiful place to live.

The city built an elementary school complete with a playground. A few years later, they added a high school and several well established churches. The inhabitants as they trekked this way expanded the community by building rows of businesses a shopping district to complete the neighborhood.

Walking down Manor Street on my way home from school one afternoon... a couple of blocks away see some kids about my age playing. I do not know whom, but somebody

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