When we moved I had to change grade schools. I was in the sixth grade. Mrs. Keeler was my teacher. I liked her. Most of the kids were nice and I had a good time there. When you are in sixth grade it feels like you are on top of the world. I remember we had to learn dancing. That was fun, except for the Polka. I couldn't do that one. But learning to "Fox Trot" or "Waltz" was fun. Oh yes! And the "Cha Cha"....Ha! In the warmer weather we'd have Gym class outside in a field and sometimes they'd play Softball. I couldn't run so they'd have someone run for me and I'd still get to bat the ball. I was pretty good with my arms.
I liked one boy in class. His name was Gary. But he liked another girl better. They ended up getting married years later. And divorced. That's the way it goes. I also liked a boy that lived up the road. His name was Steve. Steve would come down to our house at dusk to play hide and seek with us. He was the first boy I ever really kissed. One time we were all playing up in the hills behind our house and I was sitting with Steve and he kissed me and my sister, Chris, was watching and pouting. So I told Steve to go kiss her too. Ha! I can't believe I did that. Sure wouldn't think of doing that as I got older.. One day at school he handed me this pink pearl bracelet. It was a gift he said. It was real pretty. I put it in a special little box when I got home. Years later I found out he had taken it from one of his sisters. Steve went on to be a little womanizer and had lots of girls after he got in Junior High. I never really talked to him much after sixth grade anyway, even though we rode the same bus. It's funny. I saved that bracelet all these years. I always kept things. I was going through my old "memory" box about ten years ago and when I came across that bracelet, I laughed. I put it in a mailing envelope along with a note and sent it to his sister. I told her the circumstances on how I had gotten it. She wrote me a note and said she and her other sister got a good laugh over that. But when they asked Steve about it, all he could say is he didn't remember giving it to me. Ha! Ha! Typical.
That year wasn't too bad. Got to know all the people that lived up the road in our little neighborhood they called North Ilion. There were a few strange families on that road but there were a lot of nice people also. I loved sitting on the porch and watching all the traffic go by. Back then I could name every car and the year and model. Got used to the noisy trains going by too. After a while the noise just puts you to sleep.
On the other side of our house was a nice two-family house. Next to that was a gas station. That's where us kids would go to buy candy every time we got any money. Orange NEHI soda was my favorite. The people that ran the gas station lived up over it. Up in back, in the hills, they had dumped a lot of junk cars. We'd go up there and play in them sometimes. The hills were our get away from reality. There were lots of apple trees and pear trees up there. So at least we had fruit when it was in season. And lots of berries too. A farmer down the road had these awesome grape vines growing behind their house. We'd sneak down there at times and take some. Those big dark purple grapes. They tasted so good!
Another family raised Peacocks and they'd have them out in the front yard in cages. I thought that was so neat!
In the house on the other side of us, where the wild family lived, was another apartment that an elderly lady lived in. Mrs. Rose. She was a nice lady but she had this weird brother that had a bedroom upstairs and he'd be in his room mostly naked. Never pulled his shade down. He must have been in his 60's or 70's. I think he was a little off. These people were related somehow to the other family.
Anytime my mother baked bread, she'd always save a loaf for Mrs. Rose. Sometimes she'd take it over herself and sometimes one of us kids would. My mother always shared her bread, even when we didn't have that much to share.
I put this "Google Earth" photo of North Ilion in here just so you can get an idea of where North Ilion was and Mackin's Hill and where we lived. We lived in the area where that loop was built in the road. All the houses were torn down in the early 70's to build that. We were long gone by then.
No comments:
Post a Comment