Chapter Eighteen - Barry




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.

Dustin Chase BowermanCylie Brook Bowerman
Dustin Chase BowermanCylie 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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