Chapter Eighteen - Barry
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| Barry L. Bowerman & Chris |
Barry was born September 26, 1959, by Cesarian Section. Frances
had gone on maternity leave and was supposed to be taking it easy but
decided to mop the entire house before she did. We had to rush her to
the hospital and the doctor recommended we not wait for normal child
birth.
We decided also that now we knew what was causing these babies
we would have the cords cut and we did. We knew that Barry was the last.
He may have been last but he was certainly not least. We loved him as
much as the first two. Three children were enough at our ages.
Barry never bothered learning the fine points of talking when he
was a baby. If Tommy and Terry wanted something, all he had to know was
"Me too." He mastered that in short order. All three of the boys enjoyed
playing together. They had a few friends but the three of them were so
close together in age that they were really pretty self sufficient.
Barry followed them into Golden Springs Elementary School but
since he was born the latter part of September he was really allowed to
start school one year too soon. He had problems in the first grade and
again in the second grade. We talked to the principal about it and
followed her advice to let Barry repeat the second grade. I always felt
bad about that, like maybe I robbed him of a year of his life. It did
make a big difference though, as he never had a problem in school after
repeating second grade.
Barry and I were always very close, or at least I thought so. I
do not believe it was that I loved him more than his brothers. It was
just that he always seemed to be ready to try things I liked to do or
needed to do. When we moved to Springdale Avenue we knew we were going
to be short one room and I decided to build another bedroom in the
garage. Barry worked with me on it and we built the entire room. It was
a lot of hard work and used a lot of his time but he never complained.
Barry was industrious and went to work while he was in high
school. He worked at a drug store awhile and then went to work at a
Hardee's fast food place. He quit taking an allowance when he got a job.
I guess I really began to panic when Barry got to be a teenager
as it meant that the boys would soon be gone. I was so accustomed to
having them around, helping them study, advising them, helping them with
their problems, etc, that I could not bear the thought of them leaving.
I guess I thought when they were children and I held them by the hand
that I just assumed they would always be there and life would go on like
that forever. I never realized they left the nest. The idea of them on
their own and taking the knocks of life on their own seemed absurd.
Barry married Shelby Burgess and they have one child named
Christopher Lynn Bowerman. They bought trailers and houses and I guess
Barry and I built more decks than anyone else around. It seemed we were
always building a deck next to a trailer or house somewhere. Even when
he bought a trailer in Georgia, I went over and we built a deck there.
The marriage broke up and Shelby got custody of Chris. Then Barry went
to court and he got custody. Then they had a shared custody arrangement.
Finally, pressure on the job got to the point that Barry could no longer
stay with Hardee's and he had to take a job in Georgia. Shelby went back
to court on the basis that they had agreed that Chris would stay in the
Weaver school system and regained custody because Barry had moved to
Georgia. Now she has remarried and moved to Georgia, so go figure.
Barry met Shannon Hiett and they had one son, Dustin Chase, and
a daughter, Cylie. They were living in Cleveland Tennessee until Frances
passed away and then Barry, at my request, quit his job and moved in
with me, including Shannon and the children.
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| Dustin Chase Bowerman | Cylie Brook Bowerman |
Barry is a worker and if anything explains his life, it is work.
He worked a long, long time as a manager at Hardee's and finally was
selected as an area manager with five to seven stores assigned to him.
Then he made the mistake of dating a girl at one of his stores and was
demoted to manager of a single store.
Barry bought a house in Weaver and did a lot of work and spent a
lot of money fixing it up. When he was an area manager he was paid
mileage for using his car and had bought a second car for store use. He
was unable to maintain payments on a current basis after he was demoted
and the AMSouth Bank repossessed it. That bank jerked him around a lot
and I went down once and told the President what I thought about it. It
turned out he was a figure head with no more authority at the bank than
I had and I pitied him so much I just left.
As mentioned above, Barry and the girl that he was demoted for
dating have a son named Dustin Chase and a daughter named Cylie and were
married in 1993. Barry is a fine boy and deserves the best. I did not
mean to indicate that the young lady was at fault for causing his
demotion.
Barry had a tough time finding a job after moving in with me. He
tried a couple of jobs and they were miserable. Then he went to work for
Rice Pest Control Company and is very much satisfied with his work.
Shannon is working for a Nursing Home in Heflin and doing very well. The
major problem they have right now is that the children have to get up
too early to go to a baby sitter. This makes them irritable.
Note: Since the book was published Barry has gone to work for Ecolab,
a national pest elimination company and Shannon stays home
and takes care of the children.
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