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.

And Then There Were Four

One morning I awoke to find that my father had left my three sisters and I alone in the house. I became frightened and called my Uncle Bud. He came and got all of us and took us to his house for a week.

I knew that my mother was in the hospital having a baby. However; I did not know what had happened to my father. I was happy with my aunt and uncle and my cousins. I secretly wished that I could live with them forever.

Mother had another girl; she was given the name Pamela, we called her Pam. My sister, Lynn, had been the youngest for five years and was not happy to have this new little person in our house. Lynn said Pam was ugly and my uncle Bud gave her a bit of a smack. I and Michele, on the other hand, wanted to be little mothers. Lynn had always been my father's favorite. She was a "Tom Boy" and the closest daddy would ever get to having a boy in the house of four girls.

Troubles Were to Be Kept Private

We were a dysfunctional family growing up. Of course, that word was not part of any one's vocabulary in those days. We always thought that we were the only family that went through the trauma of living with the sad times that resulted from Alcoholism. However, as we grew up; we realized that we were not alone. My mother told me that she had a brother that also suffered from this disease.

My mother had several emotional breakdowns and I also was effected emotionally by the events that were taking place in our home. I was in elementary school at the time and can remember hearing the very loud arguments between my parents. This would cause me great anxiety and feeling of fear would still be with me the next day when I went to school. I would think about my home life and cry. The teacher would find out why I was crying and then my parents were contacted.

My parents were not happy about having their troubles known. I was told to keep or private life private. That is the way it was then; you dealt with your problems and did not involve outsiders.

CHRISTMAS

Memories of Christmas were centered around activities. The Christmas sugar cookies that were cut into various shapes with the colored icing ( made from food coloring, powdered sugar and water) covering the tops. To finish off our masterpiece of culinary design, we used colored sprinkles. As I think back on it now, those cookies really did not taste that good; but we sure had fun making them together.


Another creative activity was placing the Christmas stencils against the windows and daubing them with glass wax to make them look frosty. Every window in the house, upstairs and down stairs was decorated. The application of the glass wax took a while to do and no one wanted to remove the stencils right after the holidays. Therefore, the art work could still be there until it was time for Spring Cleaning.

After daddy and Lynn or Michele would go down the street to the woods in our neighborhood to cut down our tree; it was time for daddy to climb up into the attic and bring down the Christmas ornaments that had been very carefully placed in their boxes the year before. There was a great deal of anticipation as each box was opened revealing the treasured Christmas tree ornaments; some of which had belonged to our mother's mother.

With the tree now in it's stand and positioned by the window in the living room; it was time to place the Bubble Lights on the branches. These lights were shaped like candles and had a liquid in them that bubbled when they got warm. Each ornament placed on the tree was different from the next. With all the ornaments in place; we were given strands of shiny, silver tinsel that we placed on the branches.

The last boxes to be opened were the train tracks and the train that daddy placed around the bottom of the tree. We all loved watching the train going around and around the tree and often placed small objects in the open cars.

The above picture shows three of the train cars that have survived the years. They are place around my sister Michele's tree in home every year.

Before we went to bed. all the lights were turned out and we all sat and watched in wonder at the magical, colorful Bubble Lights as they glowed and bubbled; what a sight to see!

It was a tradition in our house to secure a large sock to the window sill in the dinning room; we did not have a fire place. Each year we received: oranges, apples, nuts and hard candy. Peeking out of the top of the sock would be a small gift with a candy cane.

It was nearly a guarantee that you would be given new pajamas and underwear. We found out later that our Aunt Libby was the one who bought the underwear from a Dutch Maid party she had attended.

I think my favorite gift was the "Roberta Bride Doll: that I received. I often wondered why my sister, Michele, and I got the same doll; I thought that because it was called "Roberta" it was only for me. Recently, I found out that the dolls were made by The Roberta Doll Company in New York. That company is no longer in business and if I had the doll today, it would be a collectable.