Past Tense

Fiorella rode her first bicycle standing up for two years because it was too big for her. Needless to say, the bike was second-hand--not many bicycles were being turned out in the post-war years, and she was lucky to have one at all. No gears, of course, which meant Fio developed leg muscles to die for.
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Fio learned to ice skate before she learned to roller skate. Every week in winter, the family--Mom, Dad, Baby Brother, and Fiorella--would pack up and and visit the local rink. Mom and Dad had their own skates, but Fio was sraapped into rented skates. No idea what was done with Brother. Of course, when the family moved to Texas, the skates were put in storage and eventually donated to the Salvation Army.
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Moving to Texas meant dropping out of Brownies and joining Bluebirds, the only show in town. It also meant having bat-and-ball recesses on the barren grounds of Fio's new elementary school instead of  the equipped playground she'd been used to, and she had no idea how to catch or bat a ball. Needless to say, Fio was the last person chosen for teams.
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Moving to Texas also meant having to learn what seemed like a different language. Regional accents were much more pronounced back then, before universal television taught us how to sound like everyone else.
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Fio's parents were almost totally cut off from their roots. Mother and her two sisters-in-law would write back and forth once a month to stay in touch, and that every Christmas and Easter, Dad would pay Ma Bell big buck$ for the family to connect with relatives in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Then there was the two-week automobile trip  to visit almost every summer. Did Fio ever tell you that she used to get car sick?