When Leanna Lane Long-ford was only a few years old, she started throwing soft balls. While other girls her own age were playing with their dolls whenever they were playing house. Leanna was not interested and instead she used to play catch with her daddy.

Leanna's older sister was interested in girl's things such as painting both of her toe nails her and finger nails. Also experimenting with female hair styles and fashions. Lana used to tease her younger sister unmercifully by calling her "nothing but a tom boy only fit to play with boys instead of with girls!"

Their brothers used to watch Leanna play catch with their own father and they were naturally very impressed with her. Her father and her two older brothers began practicing four way catch with her.

It was when their mother started paying more attention to Lana rather than Leanna. Linda agreed with her oldest daughter. Because Leanna was a lost cause and she should have born a boy instead of a girl just like them!

It was when Leanna turned five years old she became old enough to play on a mixed team consisting of both little boys and little girls! Her older brothers played on an all boys baseball team instead. Leanna was a natural born ball player and she was able to play many positions.

There was a little boy named Tommy Teto Price who was their pitcher. However, it was not long before Leanna became their team's relief pitcher. When school started Leanna became old enough to attend kindergarten. In fact she was the only girl in her class who played on a coed team with young boys.

The kind-garden class had strictly supervised play period. Leanna was very interested in a red fire truck and she tried to reach for it! However, a little boy reached for it first and told her go and play with girl toys!

It really hurt her very badly because it was Tommy Teto Price who made those hurtful remarks! Leanna went to the nearest corner and put her head between her knees. That Tommy Teto Price was not gonna see her cry! Tommy felt really bad about what had just happened! He grabbed the red fire truck and gave it to Leanna and walked away. Leanna felt better, and it was a good thing because kindergarten was over with.

After school Leanna and Tommy both put on their baseball uniforms because their coach had scheduled a practice season. In fact he scheduled one Monday-Friday. He told them to rest on Saturday for Sunday's game. Sunday did arrive and they played their opposition's team. Tommy and Leanna had something else in common besides being excellent pitchers. The two of them were both powerful home-run hitters and lightening fast sprinters. Thus making them both a winning combination. there team won by a large margin spread of twelve points.

Monday all of their kindergarten class patted them both on their backs. From the first grade through the sixth grade year, both her and Tommy spent their recess periods playing soft ball, weather permitting of course. They also played mixed teams of both boys and girls including the last summer of their sixth grade year.

When they started junior high school in the seventh grade, they began playing on different teams. He played on an all boys baseball team, whereas; she played on an all girl's softball team.

After high school Tommy played on a minor league farm team and Leanna played softball on an all girls team for a couple of years. Tommy got promoted to a major league's team and Leanna signed on with an all female softball team which had a small league all of their own.

Sincerely,

Roxanne Lea Dubarry

Roxy Lea 1954/209

Roxy 1954/ October Country

July 19-20, 2021/August 02, 2021