More 4th Street Memories

                        

I cannot figure out why mom is showing us these shorts.  Did she make them?  Are they shorts?  That is not her happy face so why?  Who took this picture?I think she looks like she is about Junior High age.

Is there anything better than summer when you are a kid?  Having a long free time to do whatever you want, no structure, no supervision.  When it was hot, Mom closed all the windows and pulled all the drapes to keep out the heat and it worked better than you might think.  My brothers and I would take out the monopoly game and play until we were tired of it or something better came along.  We left the game set up in the corner of the living room.  We played ball in the front yard, rode our bikes, walked the dog, went to our friends house. 

I think I was about 9 or 10 when I discovered the piano.  My mom and I were visiting a lady whose name I cannot remember.  She had a piano.  I sat down and started messing around, picking out tunes by ear.  The one I remember was "Onward Christian Soldiers".  My mom must have been impressed because next thing I know she bought me a piano.  It was an old upright and it was painted army green.  I started my piano lessons with the preacher's wife.  I was not a great student but I kept at it long enough to learn to read the music and my teacher let me play contemporary songs so I started practicing more.  I am sure my brothers will tell you that I played the same songs over and over and I did.  That is how you learn!  I also took organ lessons and soon I was playing at church.  I never was any good at the organ.  My Aunt Carol and my cousin Jean were much better musicians than I was.  I played for myself.  When I left home at 18 I did not have a piano for almost 10 years.  Finally I had enough money to buy a used piano for myself and I started playing again.  Still not that good, but good enough for my own enjoyment.  I placed the piano on the wall that adjoined the kids bedroom when we lived on 25th Street in Milwaukee, WI.  I played long after they were asleep and to this day I am sure that BK know the words to "Don't let the Sun go down on me" and others.  In 5th grade, music classes and band instruments and choirs started.  I did not play a band instrument but I sang in the Early Bird choir at Milford.  Why can't I remember the director's name?  I know Mrs. Hale was our music teacher in kindergarten and first grade.  Oh, wait!  It was Mrs. Bush.  We sang "This land is your land" for sure, but I can't remember the rest right now.  I did 5th and 6th grade at Milford, a school that was out in the country.  Nevada had a habit of busing city kids to the country and country kids to the city.  On the bus we would sing "From the Halls of Milford Prison to the shores of bubble gum bay.  We will fight our teachers in battle with spit balls, gum and clay.  First to fight for wrong and freedom and to keep our desks a mess.  We are proud to claim the title of the teachers number one pests!" 

My 5th grade teacher was Mrs. Gallagher.  She had red hair in a French roll.  She loved to tell us horrible stories of traffic accidents where people had their head cut off.  I loved her

My 6th grad teacher was Mr. Wolf, my first male teacher.  He had bad breath, dandruff and a habit of invading my personal space.  I hated him.  We did get to go to Mrs. Osmundson's class for math.  She was a great teacher and a welcome respite from Mr. Wolf. 

Milford was where I figured out that I was not going to be an athlete, at least not one that had to run. I am quite sure I was the slowest runner there.  Boys after girls, girls after boys was not a game I could compete at!  I went to the bars and twirled around and hung upside down!

I want to go back to 3rd grade at Central for a minute.  They used to bus the kids from North into Central for lunch.  The Central kids had a game that we had to get off the ground before the North kids got off the bus or we would get cooties.  Imagine my horror when I had to go to North the very next year!

I lived on 4th Street from the time I was in 4th grade until I graduated High School and left home for good.  I have lots of stories.  When we moved there I was a little girl who still believed that grown ups knew what they were talking about and that they always did the right stuff.  During that time I learned that my parents did not know everything, that they could be weak and foolish and make mistakes.  I went from my mom and dad are the smartest to my mom and dad don't know anything.  Both positions are equally foolish, but it was a long time after I left home before I learned that parents just do the best they can and hope for the best. 

More stories from 10th Street

Most people my age or older remember where they were when Kennedy was shot.  I was in the 3rd grade and I don't remember where I was-probably at school.  I did not understand any of it.  We stayed home from school and watched the funeral on our TV but I don't remember being sad or shocked or mad or any feeling about it.  Same with Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy.  The riots in other places did not effect me.  I lived in a small Iowa town with only white Christian people.  I was 16 or 17 before I ever saw a black person. In church we sang "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.  Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.  Jesus loves the little children of the world."  I believed every word of that and assumed my family, friends, neighbors, classmates and fellow Iowans all believed it too. 

 My first memory of feeling sad or outraged about the unrest, the war, the state of the country was when the music hit me.  "Has anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?  Can you tell me where he's gone?  I thought I saw him out walking over the hill with Abraham, Martin and John."  Now when I hear some of the political songs from the 60's it fills me with sadness.  My childhood until the age of 11 was a time of innocence and isolation from the real world.  My teen years were full of drama and personal traumas which left me no time for world affairs.  I have many stories to tell but I am not sure which ones I will have the courage to record here.  I know there will be gaps because some secrets are not mine to tell.

When I was getting ready to go to the 2nd grade we moved again.  Our new house was on 10th street and we could walk to school at Central.  This was a big house, 4 bedrooms, 1 bath.  All the floors were linoleum.  I had my own room which mom painted purple for me.  The boys shared a room and we had one bedroom left that was our play room-mostly just toy storage!  Mom and dad slept downstairs.  We had 3 cats.  They were allowed on the screen porch and man did that porch smell bad.  We never had a litter box!  I used to bake cookies with my friend Lori Moses.  She was older than me but her baking skills were not much better than mine.  We could read and follow directions and we were creative.  Our efforts were always met with approval and the cookies disappeared in no time even the purple, mint flavored ones.

There was a tree in our front yard that had some boards nailed into it for a ladder and a couple of boards across the branches.  I loved to sit up there and do nothing!

One time I told our neighbor that my grandma had C A N C E R.  My mom was so mad but you know I must have heard it from her.  I was 7!  We used the quilts Grandma Scott made for tents by throwing them over the clothesline.  No wonder they didn't last. 

I remember when the Beetles came to America.  I remember when John Kennedy was shot.  We stayed home from school and watched the funeral procession on our TV. 

About this time, mom taught me to iron shirts and that became my job.  Today, I do not iron unless I am quilting. 

I think this was my favorite place that I lived when I was young.  We had lots of room, lots of things to do, lots of freedom.  Kids and parents today would be appalled at the freedom we were given, but we survived!  We moved again when I was going into the 4th grade.  After that, we had a lot of drama in our lives.  Good drama and bad drama so stay tuned.

I went to second and 3rd grade while we lived in this house.  My dad says it was a drafty old house full of mice, but to me it was home.  I rode my bike, played games with my brothers, learned to read all the books my dad brought home from the library, played with my cat, had a kool aid stand, snuck down the stairs to see my Christmas presents early and all the other "normal" kid things-at least they seemed normal to me at the time. 

Memories, Part 2

My mom was raised on a farm outside Maxwell, Iowa.  My dad was raised on a farm outside of Collins, Iowa.  Both of these small towns are in Story County.  My parents lived in Story County until they moved to Ankeny in Polk County around 2005?  After my mom died in 2013, my dad moved to Wisconsin to live with me.

When I was 5 we moved to Nevada, IA.  We lived in a small 2 bedroom house on 3rd St. My brothers and I shared a small bedroom.  I had the top bunk.  Behind the house was the horse barn on the 4-H grounds.  This was not usually even noticed until the fair when a very large smelly pile of horse manure arrived.  My mom stayed home with us most of the time.  I know she worked some at the local newspaper.  And we got our picture in the paper when she was featured as homemaker of the week.  I don't remember my dad being around except on the weekend. He traveled all over the state and worked for the Iowa Department of Transportation.

It was 1960, Big Bad John was on the radio every morning when I was getting ready for school.  Nixon, Nixon, he's our man.  I had morning kindergarten at West School and I walked to school with Willie Graham..  Mrs Ritgers was my teacher.  We learned to write our name.  We had music several times a week with Mrs. Hale and recess every day.  I had 1st grade there too.  Miss Roberts was the teacher who taught me to read.  I remember the first words I learned.  Look.  Look oh look.  Look, look, look.  I was so excited!  Miss Roberts is also the teacher that gave me a complex about speaking in front of the class.  She threatened us with "ruler medicine".  She wouldn't let Willie Graham go to the bathroom so he peed in his pants. A mixed record.

 I used to play with a boy named Dale Burmeister.  One day we were playing on the bleachers by the horse ring.  Dale stood on the top level and peed!  Somehow my mom found out and she never let me play with him again.  We were happy.  I remember coming home from church one Christmas and saying something that got me in trouble. We had been up early to open our presents but we had to go to Sunday school and church. When we pulled into the driveway, I said "now we can start getting used to our toys". I'm not sure why but mom looked at me like I shouldn't have said it.  It is funny what we remember.  I remember when mom had her wisdom teeth pulled.  She had an ice bag on her face. I whined that I had a headache.  I whined until she said "fine, take it!"  I brought her home a marigold plant in a paper cup at school.  Mom said " ew, I'm allergic to marigolds". I thought she was the most beautiful mom ever and loved to out make up on her and style her hair.  We got a new puppy and named him bubbles.  He had worms.  Mom wormed him and believe me that made an impression.  Mom killed a mouse with a broom in our kitchen.  Again, that made an impression. One time my mom decided that she would feed us some canned spinach.  We had been bothering her to make it so we could be strong like Popeye the Sailor man.  It was gross.  It took me 40 some years before I gave spinach another try!

I had a friend, I think her name was Luann.  Her momma came looking for her one day and whooped her butt with a switch.  Made an impression on me!

 My brother, Steve had 2 memorable accidents while we lived on 3rd St.  He rode his bike into the mulberry tree.  He was stained purple right down to his skin! He landed belly down on the floor grate that came from the furnace and had a scar like a tic tac toe board on his stomach.

You know I can't remember Mike doing anything interesting.  That's funny!  I used to read to the boys.  Of course I couldn't really read, but I had memorized the books.  Guess mom must have read to us quite a bit.  My favorite was Little Black Puppy.  I bought a copy off the internet when my grandson, Kennedy was born.

I had a birthday party when I was 5.  Cali Christy will tell you I spent too much time drawing the donkey for the pin the tail on the donkey game.  That was my one and only birthday party until my
daughter gave me a surprise 50th birthday party in 2005.

We lived on 3rd St for 2 years.

I wish I could verify some dates and events with my mom, but she has been gone over 3 years now so I have to go on my best guess.

Memories

I remember the day my brother Mike came home.  It was late June in 1957.  I was 2 years and 4 months old.  Of course I don't remember everything.  I must have been staying at grandma's house while mom was giving birth.  They laid him on grandma's brown  davenport ( that's what we called the couch).  I remember that I was not impressed with him.  The very first time I saw him and he needed his poopy diaper changed.

Several days later, my second memory.  It would have been early July.  My dad wakes us up and takes us to the storm cellar.  A tornado.  I didn't understand anything, but I remember.

I lived in a small house in Maxwell, Iowa for the first year or so of my life.  I don't remember anything except the stories.  They called me terrible Terry.  My parents were so young.  Dad used to tell mom she needed to watch me better so when he was supposed to be watching me and I took off down the middle of the road he found out how hard it is to watch a runaway toddler and I got a swat on the butt.

Dad tells me that we moved from that little 3 room house ( it had an outhouse) when my brother Steve arrived.  I do not remember this! We moved to Uncle Doc's farm. Uncle Doc was my grandpa Scott's youngest brother.  Grandpa was one of 11 children.  Uncle Doc was a bachelor. His farm house had 4 bedrooms and a huge bathroom.  I lived there until we moved to Nevada when I was 5.  We had a TV and a dog, plenty to eat, clothes to wear, plenty of love and attention.  My mom had me and my 2 brothers 1 year apart, 3 kids by the time she was 20.  It was a happy time for me.  We used to dress up the dog in my doll's clothes.  My favorite doll was soft plastic and had plastic hair.  This is the same doll my brothers used for target practice, colored with markers and basically totally destroyed when we were teenagers.

My mother killed a skunk.  I confess I am not sure if I remember the event or the story of the event.  I know our dog had to be put down because he fought with the skunk.  My mother killed it by throwing a flashlight at it.  It's a good story.  I believe it.

I was sitting under the kitchen table while my mother was working, cooking, cleaning?  My brother Steve came running past me.  Blood was running down his face.  The explanation is that he was running around behind the big old oil stove in the living room and slit his head open on the damper.  I don't remember if we had to take him to the doctor.

We had plum trees on Uncle Doc's farm and my mom made plum jelly.

I got sick to my stomach after eating a banana and have never liked them since.

When I had a cold( I was sick a lot) mom would have me rest in her bedroom.  She left the cough syrup next to the bed and every time I coughed, I took another swig.

I used to play with my belly button.  I had an innie-outie.  It drove mom crazy.  I still don't know why it was such a big deal.

My first dog's name was George.  The one that replaced him was named George the 2nd.  You will see a pattern later that started right here.

I went to kindergarten roundup in Maxwell, but I never went to school there.  We moved during the summer before I started kindergarten.

Maxwell was where I first went to church.  It was where every other house on Main Street belonged to one of my Scott relatives.  There was a movie theater where we saw Francis the Talking Mule movies and Grandpa would buy us a bubble gum cigar at the grocery store.  Looking back, everyone was white.  As far as I know everyone was Christian.  Adults were there to take care of you, teach you, scold you, love you.

More later.....