Memories Shared

Down through our 54 years together, we would both share memories of our childhood. How I wish I had a recording of these times. I have dug back into the old My Trixie website, plus my own memory banks to record the following bits and pieces.

Chicken Every Sunday Mama, Everything's All Right

That's the lyrics from an old song but it fits. When Bob lived on First Street, every Saturday when Grandpa Harris would butcher the chickens he raised, Bob and Leonard would walk to Grandpa Harris's house which was about a miles walk. Grandpa would cut the chickens heads off and let ithem flop around awhile and put several in a gunnysack. Bob and Leonard would carry the sack home for his mom to dress. To dress a chicken, you scald it in boiling water and pull out all of the feathers. Not an easy task plus wet chicken feathers stink! However, the chore meant they would be having Chicken every Sunday.

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Treadle Sewing Machine When Bob was about three, he and Leonard were playing with their mom's old-fashioned treadle sewing machine. The way the machine worked was to push down on the pedal on the bottom of the machine and the large wheel would turn and make the needle go up and down. Leonard got the bright idea of pushing the pedal to get the wheel going as fast as he could and Bob was to stick his hand in the wheel to stop it. Bob did and broke his wrist! They tried to hide it from Mom but it was badly broken. Mom took him to the Health Department to have it set and Leonard got a good licken.
Mom's Orders Mom explicitly told the boys not to go down to the creek to play which meant they did. He and his friends swam in that creek and even had a cave complete with a kerosene stove.
Log Pond Another place to swim was in the Log Pond. This was a place where power poles were stored. When it rained it became a small, shallow pond. Orders from their mom were to absolutely and positively not go to that pond. Bob and Leonard could not resist a chance to swim. One day when they went to the forbidden pond, the water had been sitting long enough there was creosote scum that stuck like glue. They had a great time but there was no way to hide the condition of their clothes and bodies when they got home. For punishment (besides a whipping) they had to spend all the next day in the house in their underwear while Mom did the washing.
Guardian Angels Bob raised pigeons. To get these pigeons, he and his friends would go up to the viaduct on O Street to catch a male and female. This was accomplished by climbing around under the bridge high over the railroad tracks. Survival is called Guardian Angels watching over children. Bob traded one of his prize pigeons for his first bicycle.

Teenagers

Some of the friends he told stories about were Larry Miller, Arty Ruckel, Shelly Hahn (married Bob's sister, was killed on the railroad.) and a colored boy (now days it would be African American) named Botts. One activity was to go "bushwhacking. That's when the gang would pile in a car and try to spot a couple parked on a country road necking. Shelly would sound his bugle and they would yell "Charge" scaring the couple half to death. And boys being boys, there would be times they would go looking for girls. At those times, poor Botts would hang his head because he knew there was no way he could go along. Bob said, "That was the only time I would even remember he was a Negro)."

The Ice Skater

In his early teens, Bob started ice skating. He and a friend pooled their money and bought a pair of used hockey skates at the Salvation Army. They would go skating at Sawyers Snell or Oak Lake and take turns using them. The first pair of skates Bob had all to himself were given to him by a neighbor girl. They were white girls' figure skates. Bob blackened them with shoe polish. He did not want his friends to see he was using girls' skates, Bob could do all of the fancy leaps, spins, and jumps. There was a man training another skater who encouraged Bob to go on with his ice skating and even try out for the Ice Capades. He called Bob "Sonya" after a very well-known skater in the Ice Capades. Blog posted February 2014.

Love of the Game

Bob loved baseball and he wanted to play baseball but he didn't have a mitt. His Uncle Hank gave him an old softball catcher's mitt which would work as a first baseman's glove. That's how Bob ended up playing first base. He and his friends played baseball every chance they got; pickup games in a vacant lot or up at the park. At an older age, he tried out for organized baseball and made first string for the Midgets. His baseball playing days ended when he began high school. Bob needed to work after school and didn't have time to go out for sports. In later years, the Lincoln High Baseball Coach was visiting my dad and met Bob. Coach Bill Jensen remembered him and expressed his disappointment that Bob had never tried out for the team.