When I was very young, 8 to 9 years old, we lived in Houston. Back in the early 70’s, Houston was an exciting place to live. Apollo was going on and NASA Houston was receiving attention from the whole world. We were going to the Moon!
I lived in an upper middle-class suburban neighborhood on the north side. Life was literally “Leave it to Beaver” land. Dads were executives and moms were stay at home housewives. We had a country club with tennis courts and golf for the adults and a huge pool for the kids. We even had a skating rink that was THE hangout for all us kids. Moms did the bridge club, PTA, women’s club, house parties…
My mom used to host a group that met at our house weekly for cocktails and Astrology. I was fascinated by it and try as they may to get rid of me, I managed to take part in quite a bit of it, especially when “Miss Issie” was in town. Isabel Hickey used to come to Houston alot back then. I think she had family in town. I don’t know how she and my mom met, but “MissIssie” (a 9 year old boy’s name for her, sounded kinda like Mississippi without the P’s) would always come to our house for the Astrology meetings. She was a really nice lady and took to me. I think she was the reason I got to stay in so many meetings. She would teach Astrology, and even though much of it was beyond me, I did pick up alot.
My dad bought her book for my mom, and MissIssie signed it at one of the meetings at our house. MissIssie gave me my very first Astrology book, Llewelyn’s A-Z. She told my mom that I’d understand alot of it, and grow into it in time.
I still have both of those books. They are my most prized Astrology possessions!