A Day In The Life..........(3)

Growing Up With Junior and Wayne...  When I left you a couple of days ago, I was beginning to talk about how good it was to grow up in a neighborhood where we had so many friends to play with…..Loretta, Bobby, Clyde, Phyllis, Carolyn, Nancy, Jerry , Darlene and Freddie…..just to name a few that lived across the street, beside us or behind us. We probably played the same games kids play today…hopscotch, giant step, red rover, marbles, hide n seek. We played dodge ball, roller bat, jack rocks.  We had lots of fun on roller skates, and we rode bicycles. There was a pear tree in our backyard behind a shed that the branches hung over the tin roof. We would climb the tree to get on the top of the shed and throw the pears down that had gone bad. We also loved swinging from the tree vines in the woods next to our house. I guess we thought we were Tarzan and Jane. You might think this is all fiction, but it really is what we did. You have to remember that most of us did not have a television nor a telephone; and, of course, no air conditioner or heat pump. When the weather was too bad for us to go outside, we listened to the radio, played checkers, dominoes, read books and would put puzzles together over and over.

Junior  &  Wayne 

We had a library going toward town on Main Street right before you get to Russell Street. When Daddy got home from work, on some Monday's, he would take us to the library; and that was always a big treat. Another fun thing we did was collecting cardboard behind the Big Bear Store across the street, and then we would take it to the Hamilton St. Waste place. We thought we were rich if we had 35 cents. We also collected drink bottles from all around and took them to the A & P or the Big Bear to get the deposit back. We really did feel happy when we could go next door to Shorty’s cafe and order an ice cream or a pepsicola. We loved to be able to sit on one of those swivel stools at the counter. This reminded me of all the places that was within three blocks of our house….The Dairy Queen-Fire Department-A & P Grocery Store-Arthur’s Pharmacy-Paul Smith Studio-Cloverdale Elementary School-Service Station-Used car lot-Big Bear Grocery Store-Ernie’s Place-Shoe Repair Shop-Shorty’s Cafe-Barbershop-Pulliam Boarding House-Mann’s Drug Store-Dutch Laundry-Salvation Army-Stroud’s Grocery and Pilgrim Holiness Church. ……. Some very good and happy memories….Grandma and Grandpa Bradshaw lived on Lake Street which was about a block and half from our house. They were our mama’s parents. When I think of them, I remember two gentle souls who lived a very quiet life. It was so good they lived so close because we got to go see them almost every day. We would get through with supper and Mama would say “Are we ready to take a walk”. It was the highlight of our day.Grandma was a homemaker as they would say today, and Grandpa had a floor sanding business until he started having health problems. Life is good because they paved the way…Until next time…..