Florida leads to Roberta's life time of talking

One winter (1954 or 1955) I was left in Florida with Grandma & Granddad to give Roberta a chance to learn to talk without using me as an interpreter. Glad that worked, Roberta, as being your lifetime interpreter would have indeed been a challenge for me! Grandma and Granddad were living above the garage behind another house and it was quite exotic a location as there were lots of bird of paradise and even poinsettia trees. For a few weeks (days?) I went with Marianne to kindergarten which involved sitting at small tables coloring -- not all that exciting -- so made me feel better about missing the experience in Ohio where there was no kindergarten until Roberta was ready to go. I remember there being news about Alaska and Hawaii added as states, which I think Granddad was not sure was a good idea. Why would we want those far off places to be part of the US? They weren't even connected to the rest of the states and that would obviously be a problem. Maybe Dad showed me where they were on the map and that began my fascination with maps.