Fun Memories About My Childhood

(for those interested)

        I remember many things, as my skull is a BIG file cabinet of memories.  When people tell me that they can't remember things, I have a hard time with that concept.

        As I spent most of my childhood in Falls City, Nebraska; most of my memories are from there.   Falls City is a small city of maybe 2300 people, or was then.  I seemed to be related to all the people in the town.  I had cousins all over the place.  I grew up playing mostly with my cousin, Beverly, she was one year younger than I.  She was my best friend.  My dad and her mom were siblings.  Her parents lived on the same hill as my dad.   (My parents divorced when I was three, and I bounced between Mom in Kansas and Dad in Nebraska).  My dad, Bev's mom, and our grandma owned the equivalency of a city block, so we played often.  It was hell to mow. hehehe

        My Dad spoiled me all he could.  I was his Angel Baby.  He died when I was 14.  I miss him so much.  Sometimes he still comes to visit, in my dreams.  The memories of Falls City are when I lived with him.  I stayed with my Aunt Jo a lot too though.   It was a small city and I pretty much ran and did what I wanted.  Back then they weren't too worried about the kids getting kidnapped.  Us kids would go all over town on our bikes, and try to make it home by dark.  That was good enough. 

       My Mom was the best too, as us kids bounced back and forth, I have good memories both places.  This page is of my time at Daddy's.  I will make another page with my time with Mom.

We would play like the yard was an ocean, and we were mermaids.  And the dirt patch in the middle was a boat. hehe                                                                                                                                                                  

Grandma had a crib in her room where the babies that came to visit would frequent.  I remember Bev and I climbing underneath it with Jell-O packets and dipping our fingers in it and licking them.  It was good. hehe

We played in the Sand Box, which was an old tractor tire with sand dumped into it.        

We had a tire swing near the Sand Box which was next to a long picnic table.  We would swing off of the table (like Tarzan) and swing high into the air.  It was really fun when it had rained and there was mud under it.  We would try not to get muddy, but managed to get that way often.

Grandma and Aunt Jo would cut up cantaloupe and watermelon and we would eat it at the picnic table with all of our cousins that frequented the place.   Grandmas house was a magnet for family, so we saw them often.  She was always babysitting one or another of them.

 I remember my Uncle having a horse trailer with the bars in the yard, and Bev and I would climb inside and pretend we were prisoners.  Or we would climb into the row boat that Grandpa had beside one of his many sheds and pretend we were on water.  The ironic part is that there was usually water in the boat, complete with leaves.

Grandpa had old junked out cars in the yard.  Bev and I would climb into them and pretend we were going to the store.  If other cousins were visiting all the merrier.  We would "pick them up from school".   (One time, my sister, Jodie, was "driving" one of the cars and Bev and I were in the back seat.  My Grandma called us to lunch, and everybody piled out.   Jodie was in such a hurry, she didn't notice that I was getting out her side.   She slammed the door on my poor little thumb. Grandma had to wrap it up and all.)

I remember Bev and I watching Bewitched and I Dream Of Jeanie when our dads would come home to Grandmas for lunch.                                                                                                      

When I was in Kindergarten, Butchie Hayes would walk me to school.  Bev wasn't old enough yet.  I would walk to his babysitters and he would walk with me from there. hehe    

Bev's brother, Jesse, and my brother, Rick, would get other kids from the neighborhood or other cousins together and play touch football in the yard.  They would give one of us the ball and make us do the running and tell us where to run to.     

I remember an old lady named Della.  She was very eccentric.  She was a little gone in her mind and would always say the darndest things.  She lived right next to Daddy so us kids would go over and visit her when she was in her yard.  We loved her eccentricity.  She would argue with Jesse about whether her boobs were bigger than his.  Her house was very unkempt.  She had cockroaches all over the place and even seemed to name them.  I don't know if she really did.  She just called out names and I figured she was talking to them.   In her tub, I remember she would always have something in there.  I guess she never used it for it's intended purpose.  Her house always smelled like old tobacco, because her husband smoked a pipe all the time.  She would have puzzle boxes everywhere.  Dell didn't change clothes everyday either.  She would put on seven dresses at the beginning of the week and take one off every day.  Even in the summer.   She carried a little tiny bag of money pinned to her bra under this ensemble.   She would pull it out and show it to us.  She wanted to tell us about the fact that it contained her whole life savings.  She didn't trust banks.  Although she wasn't your normal neighbor, the lady was great.  Us kids all liked her.  When us kids would find a sick cat or something we would go over there and ask her what to do.   She was interesting, to say the least.

Bev and I would find stray animals and keep them often.   I don't know how many animals we went through.  We would try to take care of strays if they were sick.  But many times there was no hope.  We would bury the poor animal.  I guess that yard had its share of poor animals buried there.  I remember one time, Jesse had a Doberman pincher and he loved the dog, King.  King played with me one time with a sock and accidentally bit me and left a scar.  Well anyway, in the winter one year, King was outside in the dog house.  We figured King would be ok.  Unfortunately, King died and froze.  Jesse and his dad had to bury him under the plum tree.

My favorite animal that I remember was a tan dog that had funny fur.  A scraggly dog.  Her name was Frisky.  She had puppies one time and it was so precious to watch her with her babies.

I remember Daddy making peanut butter fudge.  And sitting on Charlie's lap while he sampled it.  Charlie was a good buddy of Daddy.   And he was my buddy too. And while Dad and his buddies would watch wrestling on every Sunday morning, they would eat it. Daddy's closest friends that were not related, were Tony "King Fish", Charlie "Blue Jay", and Bill "Red Bull".                

Bev and I would get hotdogs and marshmallows and go to the "pea patch" out behind the house with matches.  We would get some leaves and make a small fire to roast them.

Jodie and I would go to the "pea patch" and pick Mulberries.  Sometimes we would think we were sly and snatch some of the strawberries from the lady down the alley.     

Grandma would send Bev and I outside to shuck corn into the trash can.

I remember walking home from Kindergarten alone one day and thinking that the clouds were following me, and trying to outrun them.

Grandma named her car Bessie. hehe         

There were times when us kids would be arguing and I would say I was going to go tell.  I would stand on the front porch for about two-three minutes and then come back out and say, "Grandma said you have to stop it."   I never really told on them, as Grandma and Aunt Jo would just say for me to take care of it myself.

We burned our own trash, and although it wasn't the best smell, when I go by a farming town now and smell people doing the same, a feeling of nostalgia washes over me.

Daddy would brew up some watermelon wine sometimes. He would leave the jug in the tub. I thought that was so funny.

I remember my cousins, Brenda, Dawn, and Bud coming over to our trailer and Dad would play cards with their parents.  The kids and I would hang the mattress off of the bed and use it for a slide till we got caught.

Every year, I would watch Wizard of Oz.  One year, Daddy was outside looking at his car with a friend and I was inside watching the movie with my cousins when all of a sudden the channel went blank.  We were freaking out.   Turns out that Dad got a remote control with the new TV and was outside the screen door torturing us as we enjoyed the songs that we knew so well.

I guess Dad watched too much TV, maybe that is one reason I enjoy it.  I remember Daddy sitting there with me.  We would eat Ritz crackers and sandwich spread or peanut butter or sardines. ( I look at them now and can't feature liking them...but since Daddy did, I guess I figured I would. hehe)  We watched Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, The Muppets, every Charlie Brown special there ever was probably, and Mash.  There were others, but these especially make me think of him.   His heroes were The Fonz, The Red Baron, and ANIMAL. hehehe.  Dad was the greatest to watch TV with.

One year for my birthday he bought me three albums of Olivia Newton John.  One year he bought me a Kodak Instamatic (they don't make film for it anymore.) One year he got me a Black and white little TV from JCPennys. Christmas was always good. hehe He loved Louis Lamour books, so he got one every year. hehe How original!!!

Jesse (Bev's brother) would go fishing and bring home fish and gut them on the patio in front of the house.  Us girls thought it was gross.   Maybe that is one reason he did it there.

On the fourth of July, there would always be a gathering in the middle of the yard, where the dirt patch was.  And we would have many fireworks.

Rick, Jodie, and I would get allowance on Sunday.   Rick would buy chocolate chip ice cream.  Jodie would buy peach Jolly Ranchers.  I would buy Chocolate Chip Cream Pie.

I remember going with Daddy to 'Sun Springs' with his friends Charlie and Carol, and Tony and Jackie, and all of their kids.  It was a little bit of a resort.  However, it wasn't like a country club or anything.   The grown ups would visit while we all went swimming.  We would ride on a tire swing that was connected to a wire of some sort (I guess you would call it a pulley) over a small creek.  It would go over the edge of a ravine and down near the creek and up the other side.  Many scrapes and bruises were caused from that ride.  There were Weeping Willow Trees all over the place, it added to the decor.  I love them to this day.  I used to grab hold of the limbs and swing.  There was a skating rink and horse back riding too.  My brother broke his arm falling off of one of those horses once.  It was always fun going there though.                

Every year, Daddy would take us to the Humboldt Fair in Humboldt, NE.  It is a small fair, but it was a highpoint to me.   

Daddy would take us kids dumping.  Not because we had nothing, but because he would find old clocks and radios, and shelves and such and fix them.  That was actually fun.  It was quality time with Daddy.  God help us if one of us girls had to pee.  Daddy would purposely go over the bumps or railroad tracks. hehehe  I remember more than a few times when one of us girls would have to pee next to the tire on  a dirt road.

Daddy had a big black-light above the couch.  When he would go out with friends on weekends, Bev and I, and our cousins that were with us would walk up to his trailer and go in and listen to his 8-tracks of Looney Tunes, or of the Chipmunks Christmas Songs and dance with the white glare coming off of our socks.

Our families (My Aunts, Daddy and us kids, and our neighbors (who were close to the family) would go to Shawnee River to camp.  They would mow a path where we were camping and even mow a path to the potty place.  I thought that was ingenious.  They would even go down the hill where we would go swimming and fishing...and they would chisel out the mud to make stairs for us littler ones.  It was the best camping escapades I could ever imagine.                                                                  

When Aunt Jo would take Bev and I to my Aunt Betty's farm, we would play with many other cousins.  When it was winter, we would build forts and have "wars".  When it was summer, we would climb in old cars in the yard or the corn cribs when they were empty.