Scary times in the manure pit...

One year we had a great deal of excitement at our

place. Believe it or not, it had to do with our manure pile.

It seems one time when Mom took a load out to the pile,

she spotted something sticking out of the side. It was a

bag... a BANK BAG...  a BRINK'S BANK BAG!!!...

Well, had the police and then the FBI there. When you

are a short teen, tall men in black are very intimating.

But they never could figure out how or why it got there.

And they didn't think it came from the great robbery.

At least that is what they told us. But it was a thrilling

and sometimes not so thrilling time for my Dad, as

they investigated him.   

The house was an average house. It was built by

my Dad. We moved in shortly after I was born.

One long living room. A nook like dining room, with

open area towards the kitchen. Also a bedroom,

the folk's on the bottom floor. Hall way from the

front door, around pass the folks bedroom, and

the bathroom, coming out into the kitchen. Making

a complete circle through out the house. And a

racetrack for my brother and I, if we didn't get

caught. 

When I got older and my brother had joined the family,

they decided to make bedrooms upstairs in what was

the attic. The attic being downsized to the sides behind walls. 

Which dad made dressers that were in the walls. Which was

pretty cool, as I could take out the bottom one, that was

long, and go into the attic part. Sometimes taking the

drawer back into place. I could hide there, or go down the

alley of an attic on that side, and scratch on the walls on

my brother's side..scaring the beejees out of him. He

would blast into my bedroom and no one there, drawers

in place.. and then go downstairs crying to my mom

about something scaring him.  Something in the walls.

Mom would come up and listen and I would be silent.

When she went back downstairs, I would do it again.

One year, he caught me coming back out of the attic.

Almost killed me. BUT he was great, as he never

told mom of my disappearing act. So when I would

get into trouble, and she came looking for me.. I

could still escape.  Which is pretty amazing considering

he is 4 years younger than me.. and his profession in

life was to squeal on me. Which he did very well.

We had the average life of the 40's and 50's. We weren't

exactly a Leave to Beaver family... but pretty average.

And inspite of thinking we would never make it to adult

hood, we did and stayed out of trouble. Out of fear of

our mother.. We didn't care what the possibilities were

of what the police or school could do to us.. it was the

fear of what our mother would do to us.  Dad wasn't so

bad.. Mom ruled the roost.  And punishment was what

is called child abuse now days... in those days it was

called correcting your kids and putting the fear of God

in them.

Funny how when you get to be in your 70's .. you think

those were the good old days.. But I think the 1950's

were.  There were jobs, money, people bought houses

and cars and paid cash for the cars and items of need.

Only charging was layaway.  For those under 50.. that

is where you had the store put it in their warehouse and

you paid payments until you paid it off and THEN we

got the item.

Hope you didn't mind a walk down memory lane this

week. 

AND THE BEAT GOES ON...

Also out back there, was jumps. All kinds and sizes. In the

ring part was cross like jumps. Bar types. Usually a

bar across and some times two.. and even 3. Those

jumps were not my favorite place. I had a pony which

I wrote about years ago here, called Bucky.  Actually

his name was Mighty Mouse, but his barn name was

BUCKY.. for good reason.  My mother decided that

Bucky and I would become jumping partners. Bucky

had other ideas.  So a lot of times I ended up going

over the jumps and Bucky didn't. Mastering the greatest

of brake system.. he manage to stop just inches from

the jump. Some times I went over.. some times I went

thru, and sometimes, I ended dumped right under it.

After months of failure and Bucky dumping Mom

a couple of times, she gave up on us become the

great team.  So Bucky and I mosey across the field

beyond. In the spring and fall the field was full of

fishing nets from the commercial fishing ship, called

the NOMAD. In the summer time the nets came and

went. So Bucky had plenty of time to lolly gag around.

Some times my goat Heidi would join us. 

The other jumps that were more out in the field, were

what we called chicken shed jumps, as they were shaped

like small chicken shed. They averaged about 4 to 5 feet

tall. And about 10 or 12 feet long. 

One of these had a flat top of about 6 inches. One summer

we must have watch Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney

movie as a group of us came up with the idea to have a

"show" AND we were going to charge for it.... a nickel.

Can you imagine, up on this jump.. 6 inches of board..

singing and dancing.. Yes, I said dancing. And if you

missed stepped, you ended up sliding down the side

of the jump. If you were lucky, you slide down the side

away from the audience.  Now, I am a self admitting

horrible singer. In fact to even use the term, singer,

is an insult to those who do sing well. I am so bad,

that my grandson told me 50 years later, not to give

up my day job.  And if I recalled right.. some of the

audience demanded their money back.  And when

the parents got involved I think it was a total refund

deal. We were bummed.  As there was a penny candy

store down the road, and we had great expectations.  

Our place

My father worked civil service and my mother was a stay

at home mom... Which was the norm for the 40's and 50's.

With just my brother and I.

Around back of the house there was a small yard and a

cement patio, which joined the back steps to the back

door.  We had chairs on the patio.. but no umbrella,

or cover.  It border the barn. When you left the patio,

and stepped down, to the direct right was a gate to

the horse area. A small place we let the horses out

in the winter, while we clean stalls. Unless the doors

were snow blocked. We also had two geese. The

meanest suckers you ever saw.  The male wasn't

too bad.. he was an odd one.. as he would sink

when in water. We had a 8 foot long water  tank there.

And when ever the male goose got in there, by

choice or not..(little brother) he sank and we would

have to rescue him.  Inside the barn was 4 stalls.

One on one side which shared the wall with the

feed room/ mini tack room and garage.  On the

other side was 3 stalls. Above was the loft for hay for

the winter.  I say for the winter, as we had a hay stack

outside for the rest of the year.  Of which we would

run across the roof of the barn and jump on the hay

stack and slide off.. Which of course, would take

hay with us.. and usually ended up a tail end whipping

for our fun. Starting out with a loose hay that we stacked

there. Our job, my brother and I... was to stomp it down

while Mom and Dad threw had on top. Later bales of hay.

Outside of this fence where the hay stack stood, was

all open. Which had a large ring that my mother would

practice for her shows.  She started out with 3 gaited

horse, dabbled in a 5 gaited horse, and then ended

up in the 50's with jumpers. Beyond that was the manure

pile. With a ramp. Which when I got old enough to clean

stalls was a wonderful exercise of running with a wheel

barrow full of manure, across the area to the ramp and

up.. You really had to have a good run by the time you

got to the ramp or you would die mid way up with the

wheel barrow going off the ramp and dumping the stuff.

Not a good thing.

more tomorrow...

THERE WAS A HOUSE...

I was raised in a Cape Cod house. It was named after

an area in Massachusetts. It is a house that is pretty

well square... Looking at it from the street, you will see

a door in the middle.. usually a small cement porch.

With one window on each side.  And pretty well the same

minus door, of course, on the sides. If there is a chimney,

as ours had, there is one in the middle with the window

on each side.  Ours had 3 windows on the other side.

One for the bedroom towards the front. A little one for

the bathroom .. and two small ones side by side for the

kitchen. Which you could look out as you did dishes,

as the double sink was there.   Around the corner from

there, was the door and an area that had stairs that

was enclosed that lead to the basement.

We had a driveway on each side of the house. The one

on the right went pass the house to a one car garage.

Beyond the garage was an attached 4 stall barn.

On the other side was a driveway that went clear thru the

property, with two gates. The gates keep the horses in

and the cars out. But it was the way to get to the field

beyond.  Also was used for my father to work on cars

in that driveway.. from time to time.

The front yard was pretty bland by standards. There

was a very large Hydrangea or each side of the porch.

My mother always had flower gardens. but for the life

of me.. I don't remember what was under the two

windows. I do remember there were window boxes.

Which surely had flowers in them. But on the ground?

I don't have a clue. There was a tall hedge between

the house and left driveway. 

On the other side of the driveway on the left.. was a

double use area. During the 1940's it was a garden.

Victory type garden. And in the late fall and winter

it was a horse corral.  At the far left of the area was

a chicken house... and later a feed shed that had

a green house added to it.  Which was kind of funny.

See inside our house was becoming a jungle according

to my father. Mom had house plants every where. Even

had Dad make 2 shelves in the back of the piano for

her African Violets.  So when he had a friend getting

rid of a greenhouse.. Dad stepped up and claimed it.

He worked hard for 2 weeks putting that greenhouse

together. Attaching it to the pony shed with a dutch door.

He took the side off the shed and added the greenhouse.

All went well, for a while... Mom put about 80% of her

plants out there, and also used the greenhouse to

start her plants for the garden. Dad, was one happy

camper.  UNTIL.. cold weather came in October. And

while Dad was at work, Mom brought in all the plants,

back into the house...Which by the way, had grown about

10 more plants. But Dad wasn't going to be beaten

yet... he installed a kerosene heater. Which almost

killed the plants until he got it to heat with our fumes.

He put in a chimney.  But every time the temps dipped,

Mom started her parade of plants.  Dad gave up, but

he knew come spring.. they would go back out.

more tomorrow...

Siblings...

Where do you fit in the rank of your family?

Are you the oldest? The youngest? Or the middle child/children?

I started out as the oldest, and then got deranked for a year or so, to the Middle child…  My folks had a foster child.. it was a friend of mine for years…who wasn’t getting along with her foster parents she had. So because she and my mother had a great repour due to horses and she was my friend… Mom decided they would become foster parents.

She was 18 months older than I… so I became the middle child.

Somehow being the oldest and being the middle child …kind of blended in to each other. See as the middle child…. I got the blame for what ever went wrong. Or whatever happen.  See the OLDEST child .. Gloria… would

never do “that” because she knew better.  She knew right from wrong, and just wouldn't do it… And my kid brother… well, he was too young to know to do “that”, so he wouldn't come up with it… So that only left me…the MIDDLE  child. Who knew about it, and I guess I was suppose to be

so dumb to think I would get away with it.  So while having the best friend for a sister now..was not as cool as I thought it was going to be. 

But as in all things good, they come to an end…See Gloria and I had skipped school for 3 days.

We went fishing, mostly, but goofed off…and there was a few boys in the mix of all this, during one day. But it wasn't a sex thing because I was still of the age, that boys were my pals. I was a tomboy, so we played football, baseball,ran down the beach in races and etc… They were just another

goofy kid, to me.

Some how my mother did not see the humor of all this.. and decided that I did not start this temporary vacation.(which was amazing in itself, being I had be so devious before..but she figured out that it was actually the OLDEST kid did. AND that Gloria was a bad influence on me.  So sadly

she removed Gloria from our lives. Which even though she went from my best friend, to a bossy sister.. it was still sad to see her go.. I forgot the details as that was about 60 years ago. But do remember I never saw Gloria again.

So that threw me back into being the OLDEST… but some how without a middle child.. that I was back in hot water again.  As my kid brother still was not smart enough to be devious as  OLDER child would be.. so once

again.. it was my fault…   And besides… even if he did.. well it was still my fault as I was suppose to be watching my kid brother and make sure he didn't get in trouble.  And that is how life was… Until I left at the age of almost 18, after graduation from high school.

So what was your rank in the family… They say the youngest isn't such a hot place to be either. Even though they seem to be the one that gets spoiled.  Parents know this is the last one.. and then they are the last one

to leap out of the nest. Also the parents have extra money, being the rest are gone, so they get cool things, the folks couldn't afford before.. 

But the youngest is the one who gets all the hand me downs until the rest have left. And get left behind, because the other siblings don’t want to babysit the baby of the family…and teased, and practical jokes pulled on them. 

Knew one family where the oldest 4 boys … left the two youngest ones on a large stub, until early evening

When the older ones were done playing in the woods, they came back to get the youngest ones and went home..  One evening they forgot them.. and that is how their mother found out about it.   So guess being the youngest isn't so hot either.