Grandpa Billingham by Danie Bothem Huizenga

At some point in our time in Gulfport, my grandpa was recruited as a tool & die maker to go to Pearl Harbor to help in the salvage of the sinking ships. l have a small, heavy brass item from a ship he brought home. He had been a police officer in New Jersey, sent to Florida by his doctor for his health. In the 50's my Uncle Bob Billingham was a police officer in Gulfport.

l had always enjoyed the time spent with grandpa before he left for Hawaii, as he was fun.  He had a big goose in the year that he let my ride because she was smaller and younger than me, but l got to help him pluck the feathers from off of the chickens he pinned on the clothes line after he gently 'took their lives'. They also had a daughter about 3 years older than me.... Aunt Renee. Grandpa built her a beautiful large playhouse with a window box, shutters and l think it had a light of some kind. l have a picture of it somewhere, it was so beautiful... l've been told it is still in existence in St. Petersburg. l loved grandpa, after dinner he would read us poems and when dad got out of the service, and when we returned to his job at General Motors in Bloomfield, N.J.  he gave me a book of poems which is now with my grandchildren. l look forward to reading it sometime to them when l am up in Atlanta.