Fun Times

We had many hours of fun on our swingset. There was a bit of an accident on this fun piece of equipment that I can never forget. I was hanging from the bar between the ladder of the swingset and the swing my sister Michele was on; I fell to the ground landing under her swing. Protruding from beneath her swing was a long screw that scrapped across my left eyebrow leaving me with a scar to this day.
Daddy build a brick barbeque that was fired up many times for picnics with groups of children coming to our house from our Brownie and Girl Scout troups, as well as the church Girls Auxilary (G.As). My favorite food from the barbeque was Sam'ores (graham crackers, chocolate and toasted marshmallows). After eating we would play hours of badminton. Going to the Girls Auxilary camp in the summer was a treat. Being away from home was fun but it was also a disciplined time; including assigned chores. I did not like cleaning the latrine (Sunshine House is what they called it).
We attended the Berwyn Baptist Church every Sunday and Michele and I were very active in G.As. I have memories of activities such as sewing, making potato stamps and growing sweet potato plants. We learned Bible verses and passed the "Forward Steps" program. Michele and I only made it to "Princess".
Mr. Schinner would pick us up and take us to Sunday school and Mrs. Schinner was my teacher. I always told her I wanted to be a missionary when I grew up. We were shone many movies about mission work in other countries and I thought it would be adventurous.
I grew up in the suburbs and when I had an opportunity to go to a church picnic on a farm, I discovered a new way of having fun; we played in the hay loft for hours.
When I was twelve, I was baptized. Mother said that when Reverend Koch lowered me back into the water she thought that he held me down there too long. Maybe I needed an extra long dunk.
My mother used to always tell the story about going on the overnight camping trip at the Girl Scout lodge. We were all settled in our sleeping bags when the sound of the whipporwill made me feel scared. I some how reached over to my mother's air mattress and proceeded to let the air out bringing my mother to the hard wood floor beneath her.
Mother worked for The Hot Shoppe restaurant company. Each year they held their family picnic at Glen Echo Amusement Park. We all got on the Whip ride after eating ice cream and soon discovered that was not a very smart thing to do.
My uncle was a Shriner and always got us tickets to see the circus. That was really a very exciting time. The music, the costumes and all the funny clowns were a very special treat for me to experience. The circus took you out of reality and into a fantasy world.
My favorite type of movies were musicals. After each movie I would pretend to be the character who had done all the wonderful singing. I remember seeing a movie with Anna Maria Alberghetti and thought she had the most beautiful voice. However, I do not remember what the name of the movie was.

Our Yard

Daddy had rabbits in a pen in our back yard. I was never sure if they were supposed to be pets or food. I am pretty sure we did eat them. However, we also played with them.

My father had a really nice backyard made for us by having the area at the point of walking out of or basement to be flat. This is where our games of Croquet were played; my sister Pam's swimming pool was placed there. Pam says she remembers Croquet balls ending up in her swimming pool. On the flat area was installed our clothesline. I can remember taking down many a frozen diaper from the line in the winter.

Daddy had the next part of the yard terraced. Where he planted many varieties of flowers. The beauty of Tiger lilies, Iris and Lily of the valley are visions in my head as I type this. Other visions come to mind about Tulips, Azaleas and a beautiful Mamosa tree in full bloom with pink feathery flowers.

SEE PAM RUN-WAWAY

What possessed this child to run-a-way to Smith Lake? Could life have been that bad? Smith Lake had a huge gravel pit. We, as older kids, Michele, Lynn and I would go there and slide down those pits. That was dangerous since at the bottom of the mountain of gravel was the lake--kerplop, splash.
There was Pam and Andy sitting at the bottom, (on the safe side of the pit), thinking about their life. Pam started getting a little concerned about the fact that the Easter Bunny would never find her here. This tells us that the time of year must have been very close to Easter. As it began to get dark, the two adventurers headed home to hide in a safer place; that being the basement of our next door neighbors, (the Demmicks). Mother, as a last resort, before calling the police decided to check the Demmick's house. Pam was not greeted with a scolding--she received hugs, a grilled cheese sandwich and a glass of milk. The Banner WELCOME HOME PAM might as well have been hanging over the front door!

Part 2-FUN WITH LYNN AND PAM

The One That Got Away

No, it was not a fish--it was a duck. The setting was Greenbelt Lake. Lynn peddled over there with her fishing rod. After casting her line she heard a horrendous sound. This sound was coming from a very distraught duck with fishing line entangling his feet. The wellbeing of this duck was now in the hands of one very embarrassed little girl. Everyone in the park was now looking in the direction of the squawking duck. The duck rescue squad came to free the duck and Lynn's fingers from the jaws of the duck.

QUAAAAK, QUAAAAK, QUAAAAK

(Duck screaming)

FUN WITH LYNN AND PAM PART I-LYNN HAD NO TOYS

These stories could never be told in just one part; my fingers would fall off from typing. I was not around when most of these antics were going on or I was not a part of them. While sitting around a table with a recorder the size of a cigarette lighter, my two sisters told their stories. As they their stories were unfolding, I kept saying "where was I"? and they would say, "yes, where were you. I am four years older than Lynn and ten years older than Pam; so I could have been at work or my boyfriends house.

Lynn had no toys---well, that is the story that she tells in order to justify torturing her little sister, Pam.

Take the day that Lynn took Pam's sandbox and put it in a tree. The idea in her little brain was to made it like a tree house. The ladder was placed at the tree and they climbed up to the waiting sandbox. Lynn must have had to leave for a moment. At the bottom of the tree she removed the ladder; therefore leaving her little sister stranded in the sandbox-tree house. Hmmm, I wonder how long she left that poor kid up there and how long was it before Pam began screaming.

The bees in our yard were not safe from the scientific mind of Lynn. that would probably be better stated as the torturous mind of Lynn. She caught the yellow jackets in a jar, fired up the barbeque in the back yard and proceeded to boil them alive. I guess you could say that she had inovative ideas for entertaining herself.

Grandma Hayes

My grandmother lived in a big house next to a funeral home. There was a wall that separated my grandparents property and the funeral. All kids like to climb and I managed to get up on that wall and was in the process of walking on it when my grandfather came out of the house and scare me by telling me to get off the wall or the dead people would come and get me. I never climbed that wall again. Having had children and grandchildren myself; I now know that he was protecting me from falling off the wall.

I have memories of blue hydrangea growing on either side of the stairs that led to the large screened in porch that went all the way across the front of the house. We called them "snowball flowers" because they were so large and fluffy looking.

When I think of grandma's living room; I can see a couch that was made of a course material, ( I believe it was horsehair). There was a curio cabinet that held her collection of all kins of elephants. No one seems to know why grandma collected elephants. A very strange type of bird was also in the cabinet. It was a "drinking bird". Grandma would place a glass of water in front of it and it would bend over to drink from the glass. As a child, I thought it was real; it fascinated me.

All grandma's give out milk and cookies; and ours did also. I see the pretty blue glass cup that she would pour my milk into. What made the cup a little special was the picture of Shirley Temple on it.

Sunday would have been the day that we visited grandma's; probably after attending church. She would give us paper dolls that she had cut out from magazines or the funny papers. The one from the magazine was "Betsy McCall", from the McCall magazine.

There were many granddaughters that these paper dolls were given to; and I am pretty sure that my cousin Ruthie also received some of them. Ruthie's mother, Aunt Ruth was the oldest of my grandmother's twelve children.

I saw most of my cousins at Christmas or when we would have family get-togethers in the summer time. Most of us lived in the Washington Metropolitan area; however there were two of grandma's children living out of state. Uncle John lived in Georgia and Aunt Doris lived in Florida. We did not see them as often as the other aunts and uncles. There was a special gathering of all of us whenever either one of these aunts or uncles would come to see grandma.

Country Store and Family Time

There was a small store that we would walk to; and it was there that we purchased treats such as Lick-M-Aid. This was a very ooey, gooey and sticky, pleasure. The product was packaged in an envelope (like Kool Aid), we would lick our fingers and stick them into the envelope to retrieve our powdery treat. I remember grape and cherry were my favorite flavors---any one have a wipe---oh, never mind, they were not invented yet. Other delectables I remember were Rock Candy and the ever popular Tootsie Pops.

Let's see who can blow the biggest bubble with our Double Bubble gum. Along with the gum, you got a comic that featured a character named Pud.

Many of our groceries were bought at this store. We did not have large grocery stores on every corner. We took a bus to the only one that I can remember; so a lot of times we walked to the local country store.

When it is hot outside; you head for the beach. Daddy would have us all get into his paneled truck that he used for work. There were three of us at the time and not enough seating in this old truck; so daddy would take a bench style seat out of another vehicle to accomadate us.
There was no Air Conditoning or seat belts in those days; but we all arrived safely and probably a little sweaty.

Along the way, we kept entertained by reading the signs placed along the road. These signs were called Burma Shave signs because that is the product that they advertised; an example is: "It has a tingle and a tang that starts the day off with a bang.

My father liked to play the slot machines in the arcade at the beach and that is probably where he was when my sister, Lynn, got lost looking for him. She followed a man wearing a yellow bathing suit because that is the color of the suit daddy always wore. I am sure she must have been scared not knowing where her daddy was. Eventually she was reunited with her daddy and the rest of the family.

Another trip I remember going on was a ride to Sugar Loaf mountain. This is where my mother's side of the family had some of their family get togethers in the summer.

The other place for us to see our aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents was at uncle Tom's on the 4th of July. Grandmother's birthday was very close to that date so we always got together.