ABOUT 1951 thru 1953
There are no pictures of this house that I could find, but I do remember watching Dad make spinach soup in a blender (our first) when I was four or five. We were in Sappington, Mo. I distinctly remember Joanie whaling that she “…..hated spinach because it was always dirty.” I think it was because she’d tasted fresh spinach that didn’t get rinsed enough.
I remember living next door to the Powers, Elanore and Gary. Cammie was their son’s name…Joanie’s age, and they wouldn’t play with me. Mrs. Casky, the kindly old lady on the other side gave us heart-shaped lollipops. The Lovelaces lived across the street in a huge white house. I found a cat skelleton in the alleyway behind their house.…….Richard Strumph, a boy my age lived down the street. I don’t think his candle was lit (sadly). He always had a runny nose. I probably just didn’t know about my own runny nose, but noticed his. He got his head struck in the ladder on Joe’s fire truck that he used to peddle up and down the sidewalk………and Chris Pobaninsky (my age) down the street the in the other direction. Pobaninsky is spelled just how I remember it was pronounced.
Funny, how many bits and pieces you remember when you’re that young. I was about 5 years old, and that would make Anne 4 and Joanie about 7 ½. Joe was toddling at about a year and a half or 2 years old.
I remember the big brownstone 2 story house, the basement with the coal chute Anne and I used play on and slide down the furnace where we used to burn our trash…. The cellar…..… Being able to stand up under the house. There was lattice covering the area directly under the house in the back, but we could squeeze in……. Mom built a large fenced in area with flagstone for Joe to play in, because he kept running off down the street. I don’t think that stopped him. I found him down the street once, sitting in a neighbor’s dog house……diaper in hand. Needless to say, Mom was pretty frustrated with Joe’s antics at such a young age, and she already had her hands full with Joanie, Anne and me…..not to mention that she was probably pregnant at that time with Claire.
Joe had a propensity for climbing anything over 6” high. Mom was worried that he’d hurt himself so she cleared all the furniture out of an extra room upstairs for Joe to play in. After all her efforts, Joe managed to break his collar bone when he fell off the radiator that was still in the room.
On mentioning the coal chute, I remember that Mom used to dress Anne and me first for church. She’d send us out to play with instructions to “stay clean!” Then she’d dress Joanie, who wouldn’t think of getting dirty before church. While Mom was busy with Joanie, and her long golden curls, Anne and I would have great fun sliding down the coal chute in the basement. It was a shame, too. The dresses were white. I think after a while, she changed the order in which she dressed us.
I remember Christ the King Catholic School, where Joanie and I went to school……2nd grade for Joanie and kindergarten for me. Those nuns back then were really mean. I was the new student there, and didn’t know that on certain days they went down to the cafeteria to get a treat (candy), nor that I was supposed to bring money for it. On the first candy day I got in line with the others. My kindergarten teacher (nun) asked me if I had money to buy the candy. I told her that I didn’t, so she told me to go back to my table and wait for everyone else to return. She walked a few feet away and casually put a few coins on a table. I thought she’d left them for me. After she left, I wandered over and picked up the coins and took them down to the cafeteria to buy candy. I know now that it was play money. She came up to me and asked me why I wasn’t still upstairs at my table. I showed her the coins and told her that I had money to buy candy. She told me that I was a thief, and said she was going to call my mother and settle on a proper punishment for me. I was really terrified, but nothing ever came of it. It was a good thing that we didn’t stay there very long. That nun probably would have had me thrown in prison. It wasn’t until 6 six years ago that I mentioned it to Mom. She said that she never knew anything about the incident, that the nun had never called her. Boy was I set up!
It was in St. Louis that I befriended Cowboy Jim, and Joanie still had Pinkie and Lemon in the dirty clothes hamper. Actually, I was Cowboy Jim. I don’t know where I got that character, except maybe from a radio program. We certainly didn’t have a television. I fashioned my Tinker Toy set into a two way radio, and who knows why Cowboy Jim required a two way radio? Anne’s imaginary friend was invisible, even to her. According to Mom, Anne used to sit on the stairs and talk to it, enumerating how many fingers and toes she had. One day, Mom listened to this one way conversation….counting fingers and toes, and Anne ended the conversation with, ”And what have you got?....... Nuffin’! “
I (Cowboy Jim) had to have stitches in my/his bottom lip from jumping off the dresser onto the bed, to make my/his stick horse go faster. Unfortunately we (Cowboy Jim, Me and the horse) missed and smacked our mouth on the foot of the bed. My two top front teeth exited through my bottom lip, and I carried them down in my hand to show to mom. I didn’t know my face was a bloody mess. The next day, Anne fell down the front steps and cut her chin, which also required stitches. We both had bandages across our chins and Mom said that she had a hard time telling us apart.
Joanie hated her saddle oxford shoes. What a surprise, and didn’t we all? One day when we were all playing in the front yard, Joanie kicked one of her saddle shoes. She kicked it so hard that it flew up and broke a second story window. She got in a world of trouble for that one.
I remember Uncle Goonie coming to visit us. I don’t think Aunt Joanie came with him on that trip. I think it was closed to Christmas. He brought candy for us, and Mom hid it in the carved wooden box that Dad had brought back from China. The box always had its’ special place on the mantle. I think one of my brothers still has the carved wooden box. I think that was the same Christmas that Santa brought us a train set. Dad said it was for all of us, but I don’t remember anyone playing with it much except for Dad. I don’t remember seeing the train set after we left St. Louis.
Claire was born in St. Louis, October 27, 1952, just before we moved back to Texas. I remember Gammie coming to help Mom out while Mom convalesced. I remember her getting us ready for school. Dad worked for Corning Glassware, and was on the road most of the time. I vividly remember watching Mom change Claire’s diaper, and wondering if I could do that. Later, I sneaked back in the room and stood on something and changed Claire’s diaper, just to see if I could. I remember being satisfied with the job I’d done, and Mom coming in. She said something about it, but I didn’t get in any trouble. I’ll bet that made her think about just how helpful J., A. and I could be.
It was about that same time that I got sick. One day, while playing outside, and Joanie and Cammie were ignoring me, we (Cowboy Jim and I) just decided to lie down in the grass and take a nap. I remember Mom carrying me into the house and vaguely hearing her tell someone, possibly Gammie, that I was sick. I remember an earache. A doctor showed up next to my bed, taking my temperature and giving me some kind of medicine. Next thing I knew, I woke up in Mom’s bed, and the first thing I saw was a really beautiful green wool snow suit hanging on the door. It was sort of a get well thing. I think Gammie bought it for me.
