Ø A new kid moved into our neighborhood.
Ø He was younger than the rest of us.
Ø The Rules of Neighborhood Engagement gave us older kids the right to pick on the new younger kid.
Ø His name was Jerry.
Ø From the very beginning we told him he was in mortal danger because the neighborhood was infested with Jerry Snakes that ate little kids named Jerry.
Ø This went on for months until it came to climax one Saturday when a whole bunch of Jerry Snakes actually did appear.
Ø It was really an extravaganza because the whole neighborhood joined in.
Ø There were kids there that lived around the corner (in our world “around the corner” was a long way off) who hardly knew who Jerry was.
Ø My father owned the neighborhood grocery store.
Ø About 5 of us put burlap potato sacks over our upper bodies with holes cut in them for our eyes and arms.
Ø We appeared one at a time and then all in a bunch and chased Jerry all over the place.
Ø Jerry was terrified.
Ø He ran screaming with his hands in the air as he tried to save his life every time one of us appeared to run at him with our hands in the air.
Ø It was great fun!
I’ve often wondered if Jerry was playing with us much as we were playing with Jerry.
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I Remember My Very Good Friend (still my very good friend today) Who Would Not Stop Crying In Kindergarten…
Ø I remember my teacher sat me next to him to try and make him more accepting of Kindergarten but I failed miserably.
Ø My friend eventually changed schools.
Ø I also remember the last day of Grammar School being lined up at the head of the graduating 8th grade class (I was the head of the class because I was the shortest one) and hearing the Principal Sister Mary Mary Announce over the loud speaker to the Entire School, “I remember little Fella O crying every day of class in Kindergarten. We did not think we would ever get him to stop crying.”
Ø I was humiliated!
Ø None of my classmates ever mentioned this whole humiliating experience to me.
Ø They probably felt sorry for me, and I did not care if they felt sorry for me, as long as they did not mention it to me.
Ø As soon as I got up to my classroom asking my teacher to let me go see the Principal with the Bad Memory.
Ø Once in her presence, I pleaded for a public retraction or, at minimum admission by her that she was woefully wrong.
Ø She would not relent. I can still hear her voice saying to me, “I know it was you, Fella”.
Sister Mary Mary probably was thinking I had a bad memory or she was worried about my soul going to hell because I was a Lying Little Fella.
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I Remember Being A Good School Yard Athlete And Boy Was I Fast!…
Ø I was the fastest runner in Grammar School.
Ø I went to High School and was ready to show the world how fast I was at my first Intramural Track Meet.
Ø I just knew the School’s Track Coach was going to see me zip down the track in front of the pack and come begging me to go out for his Track Team.
Ø The gun went off and the pack took off but I did not.
I was left so far in the rear that I was afraid to actually cross the finish line because I did not want the world (especially the School’s Track Coach) to see that it was me that far back in the back.
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I Remember Playpens…
Ø Mothers used to put their children into Playpens and then go about doing what they had to do.
Ø The depositing of the child in a Playpen had many benefits to the Mother and the Child.
Ø The biggest one was it kept the child from “Getting into Things”.
Ø “Getting into Things” could be any of the following… Pulling Stuff Down, Breaking Things, Eating Things They Should Not Be Eating, Getting out the Door and Falling into the Swimming Pool, Getting Out the Door And Having To Be Brought Back By A Neighbor (today the neighbor abducts the child), etc.
Ø Today a Mother can’t do all those things she used to do because she is busy following her child and preventing it from “Getting into Things”.
Ø They do, however, pray more than they used to because they keep praying the child will get tired and take a nap and then they can get something done.
Ø Sad to say, many times the child and the Mother wear out together and she ends up napping while the child is napping.
I think we little ones went right from “Playpen Life” to “Come Home When the Street Lights Come on Life”. I’m probably wrong about this Street Light Life Jump but I bet not much time did pass between those two Lives because it was safe out there under the street lights.
Lagniappe In The Middle: The Fella safe and sound in his playpen with his Fella Cousin. The Fella is the handsome one…
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I Remember Larry…
Ø One day after classes in High School about 6 of us stayed in the school yard to play touch football.
Ø The next thing I knew this guy, who I did not know, was throwing the football at my crotch while the other team was huddling up for the next play.
Ø It was Larry.
Ø I made it plain to him that I did not like balls being thrown at my crotch.
Ø Next thing I knew Larry was a best friend and we were hanging around together.
Ø I always picked him up when we went anywhere because he could never get his family car but that was OK because he was Larry and I was glad to always pick him up.
Ø Larry’s father was a house painter and Larry helped his father out a lot on the painting jobs.
Ø This meant Larry would often go out on dates without getting all the paint off of his body but that was OK because he was Larry.
Ø Larry was an interesting guy.
Ø Eventually along came this really beautiful girl and she actually really liked Larry.
Ø Larry could not believe such a beautiful girl would really like him and he seemed to be actually in love with her.
Ø One night he got back into my car (remember I always drove) and he announced he was not going to go out with his beautiful girlfriend anymore because, while dancing, he could tell she had a girdle on and Larry did not like girdles.
Ø He never went out with her again.
Ø Larry went away to Mobile, Alabama for College (Springhill) and I attended College at home (Loyola).
Ø One day I got a letter from Larry telling me he was thinking of leaving Springhill and going into the Marines.
Ø I wrote back and told him, if he actually did that, I would join up with him.
Ø Not long after that exchange, Larry was with friends swimming in the Gulf of Mexico and a bunch of people got caught in a rib tide.
Ø Larry went out and saved someone.
Ø He then went out again to try and save someone else and Larry drowned.
Ø I often wonder how different my life would have been if we had joined the Marines together.
Ø I would not have met my wife and not had our family and those are two very big nots.
Ø Larry probably did me an unintended favor by going back out that second time.
Ø Larry would have been a Good Marine.
Our first child was going to be named Larry but she turned out to be a girl.
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I Remember Leon In The Trunk...
Ø One time a bunch of us guys went to a Drive-In Theatre.
Ø My Cousin Leon had enough money to pay his way in but we decided to put Leon in the truck and sneak him into the movie.
Ø Why did we do that? ... Just because.
Ø Teenage boys often did things … Just because.
Ø My memory is weak here because I sometimes think I was in there with Leon but I’m not sure.
I had the money to pay my way in, so why would I have been in the trunk with Leon? ... Just because.
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I Remember Saturday Nights At The Neighborhood Movie Theatre…
Ø The neighborhood kids would often go to the Carrolton Neighborhood Theatre.
Ø We would all walk together to get there.
Ø It was about a mile.
Ø We could have taken the streetcar but did not want to spend the 7 cents it would have taken to ride the streetcar.
Ø Besides the walk was too much fun.
Ø Today neighborhood kids do not walk anywhere.
Ø They are at home playing video games.
Ø The Carrolton Neighborhood Theatre is now closed.
Ø My Mother gave me 25 cents when I left home.
Ø I paid 12 cents to get into the movie.
Ø I paid 5 cents for a delicious hot bag of popcorn.
Ø After the movie we walked around the corner and went to the Gold Seal Creamery Ice Cream Parlor.
Ø I got a double headed ice cream cone for 5 cents.
Ø I always got chocolate and banana and I licked them together.
Ø Even though it was late and dark we all walked home together because it was as much fun to walk home as it was to walk away from home.
Ø The last part of my walk was alone.
Ø We never got mugged.
Ø We never thought of the possibility of getting mugged.
When I got home, my Mother asked for the 3 cents I had left from the quarter she gave me.
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I Remember Supplementing My Finances…Ø My parents would often leave loose change laying around the house.
Ø One day I asked them if I could keep any money I found lying around.
Ø I was shocked when they said I could.
Ø I felt rich!
Ø I was rich!
It took me many years to realize that, as meager as our family income was, my parents often accidentally left money laying around on purpose.
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I Remember Stocking the Shelves…
Ø Remember I told you my Father owned that small Neighborhood Grocery Store.
Ø Neighborhood Grocery Stores used to be everywhere but they are now gone.
Ø On many nights we would have to restock the selves.
Ø We called it, “Putting up the Groceries”.
Ø As we stocked the shelves, we listened to the radio.
Ø We listened to Burns and Allen, Boston Blackie, The Shadow, Gang Busters, Fibber McGee and Mollie, Ozzie and Harriet, The Life of Riley, The Great Gildersleeve, The Fat Man, The Wednesday Night Fights (Pabst Blue Ribbon), The Friday Night Fights (Gillette) and others that I can’t recall at this moment.
It was great fun! At the time I did not know how much fun it was. I wish I had known. Not knowing good things that happen to us at the time that they happen to us happens a lot.
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I Remember Delivering Groceries On A Bicycle…
Ø Many of my Father’s Customers ordered over the phone.
Ø We filled their orders in the store into baskets.
Ø I delivered the orders on our grocery’s bicycle.
Ø The basket on the bicycle did not move when the front wheel was turned to make a turn.
Ø This kept the bicycle from getting out of balance and becoming hard to control.
I remember riding along and thinking to myself about that front wheel, “What will they think of next?”
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I Remember No Super Markets…
Ø In my youth the neighborhood grocery reigned supreme.
Ø Later we moved across town so my Father could take over my Grandfather’s grocery store and my Grandfather could retire.
Ø That store ended up being owned by our family for over 50 years.
Ø For many years now, it has been an antique store.
Ø We extended credit to our customers and delivered to their kitchen table by bicycle.
Ø Then the Super Market (in our case it was the A&P) came into our neighborhood.
Ø “Our” customers stopped shopping with us and flocked to the Super Market.
Ø This whole process made my Father sad and he could not understand why his “loyal” customers stopped shopping with him.
It made no difference to them that the Super Market did not extend credit (this was before credit cards) nor did it make any difference to them that we delivered on a magic front wheel bicycle to their kitchen table. They still flocked.
Floor in the Grocery Antique Store
This was a long one. Thanks for sticking with it to the end. I hope you enjoyed it.
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
