Babysitting

Lisa and I used to take turns babysitting for our neighbors. They had a little boy and a baby daughter. She was a fat pudgy baby that I adored! Her mother would get her to sleep and call me to come babysit so she could go buy groceries. I would always figure out some way to wake the baby up so I could hold her. 

I also used to babysit at night for them to go "out" sometimes. I was the one usually called for that job because I was the oldest. Sometimes, they would let us do it together. We used to get into their liquor cabinet. We thought we were so cool taking a drink out of the vodka or bourbon bottle. We would also eat everything in the house. 

Looking back, I wonder why in the world they continued to call me. I was an awful babysitter. I rambled through their things, ate their food, talked on the phone, and drank their liquor. I would die if someone did that to me. 

This is so NOT Marcia Brady........I'm ashamed (not).

Peggy

My friend's mother's name was Peggy. She was one of the funniest people I knew at that time. She drove a green Opal Cadet with a hatchback. I had never seen a hatchback. My mother drove a big long white Cadillac with 4 doors and fins. I hated it. Peggy would take us to the store (which was one of our daily rituals) and let us sit on the tail gate. She would hit a bump and the tail gate would come down and hit us on the heads.
She was so lazy that the baby learned to sit on the vents to dry her diaper when it was wet. Babies wore cloth diapers back in the day. Peggy thought the baby (Jodie) was so smart. Uh...she had to be, her mother was lazy as sin.
We used to love to go downtown and shop by ourselves. One Saturday, we dressed up. I wore Peggy's shoes and one of her dresses. I thought I looked divine! My feet were actually killing me, but I would not admit it. In fact, I crammed my feet into shoes that were too little for years because I was so embarrassed by my big feet.
Peggy didn't cook a whole lot, but one of her best meals was her Hungarian Goulash. She also made Waldorf Salad her own way. Basically it was apples, bananas, pecans, mayonnaise and a little sugar. I loved it!! I am not sure why we ever ate anything in that house though. When I'd spend the night, we'd go into the kitchen in the middle of the night, turn on the light, and thousands and thousands of roaches would scatter! I have NEVER seen that many bugs in my life before then or since then. (How did I lie down at night and sleep? I guess because all the roaches were in the kitchen). The house was filthy. Our feet would be like "grocery store" feet when we left there (we went barefoot all the time).
One night I spent the night with Teresa and woke up to find her older sister, who we were all afraid of, physically fighting Peggy. She was jerking the rollers out of Peggy's hair, and she was slapping her. I was so afraid I jumped up and ran home. I cried and cried. My heart was broken, but I was terrified. I had never seen family violence. It really scarred me.

Red Rover

Does anyone ever play Red Rover any more? It was one of my favorite games at Dwight School. It was actually an ego booster for me because it was a popularity contest mainly. I loved to be called! I was a fairly heavy child (not fat, just a big girl), and I ALWAYS broke through. We also played freeze tag, football, softball, Who stole the cookie?, and hide and seek. Normally, I hated games with running (because big girls don’t run) but I did love Red Rover. I always felt sorry for the kids we clotheslined. Wasn’t pre-puberty fun??

Dwight Teachers

There were some very wonderful teachers at Dwight School. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any of them! lol Mrs. Weeks taught 3rd grade, and I was terrified of her. Mrs. Splitozer taught 2nd grade and she scared me a little too. She swatted my BFF Carla on the rear end one day when we started back upstairs after lunch. There was Ms. Lois Usry and Mrs. Baker who were good teachers (and Mrs. Baker did teach me Social Studies in the 5th grade!). Mrs. Cunningham taught the “special readng” kids, whatever that meant. And of course, the award winning Mrs. Pearl Gilbert taught 1st grade. She was the mother-in-law of one the best teachers I had in junior high, Lucy Gilbert, and the grandmother of the love of my life, "Kimbo"(more on him later). Our principal was Mrs. Webb. She scared me, but she liked me.

Dwight Giants, We are Great!

I moved to Dwight School in the 5th grade because of a new thing called "zoning" our school system was going through. I cried because I had gone to Oak Park for 4 years, and I didn't want to change schools just because we had moved to a new neighborhood. But after the first day.....Oak what? It was like my little country club. Did I learn anything? Heck yeah....I learned that if you take a quarter and drag it along a plastered wall, it makes a silver streak. I learned about sex and some really cool bad words. I learned that boys, while thrilling, were really a little goofy and giggled over stupid stuff. I learned that a bloodhound when left unattended will walk right up into the school, right up to the desk of his favorite master, Tim Ware. I learned many nasty tricks to play on teachers and substitutes. I learned how to skate. I fell in love right off the bat with a twin, and my best friend was his twin's girl. Math? well....my math education left off in the 4th grade. I had my first black teacher. Her name was Mrs. Baker and she taught us Social Studies.  She actually taught us to take notes. Don't remember even having reading. Don't remember science either. Mostly what I learned at Dwight was life lessons. I learned that girls are mean, and that guys make the best friends most of the time. What a great place.
My best friends were: Carla, Jonathan, Karen, Yvonne, Teresa, Mike (my ideal guy, but was afraid to let him know),  Ronnie (my honey bunny), Lisa, Teresa (the football star), Kyle ( a later honey bunny), Lynne, Kaye, Debbie, Bruce, J.T. and Steve. There were lots more, but I am getting too old to remember names.

Teresa, the football star

Recently I mentioned my neighbor and childhood friend, Teresa (RIP). My very favorite story about her is when she tried out for football. She was mean as any boy in the neighborhood, and tough as nails! We used to play hard in our neighborhood, and she was always challenging boys. We dared her to try out for our football team. I guess she figured why not since she was already a cheerleader! SHE MADE THE TEAM!!! The coach begged her mother to sign the contract. Of course, she refused (as this was the late 60's in the deep south), but we were so proud of her! My mother loved the story too, she told all her friends.
Spending the night with Teresa was always an adventure. She had 2 older sisters, a younger brother, and a baby (oops! I'm pregnant?) sister. Her mother was so funny. We loved talking to  her. Her father was overseas in Iran (or was it Iraq?) working in the oil fields. He scared me a little but I think it was because he was never at home. Her momma drove an green Opal Cadet that she let us hang out the back (literally) when she drove us to the store. She cussed a little and we would laugh and laugh when she did. We could eat all we wanted up there and drink all the Cokes we wanted. It was a great place to be!

Good Memories

Growing up in Brady world, I had as my best friend, Lisa, who was also my next door neighbor. She moved to North Carolina when she was in the 7th grade. She is still one of my best friends, and we keep in touch. There was another neighbor that was a good friend. Her name was Teresa. She was killed in a car wreck several years ago. She was mean as any boy we knew! There will be more stories about her. Lisa, Teresa and I had so much fun growing up in an old cotton mill village.
One of our favorite things to do was go to the store in the afternoons after school. We sometimes rode our bikes, but we also walked. And sometimes, we rode in the back of Teresa's mom's hatchback. She let us hang out of it and drag our feet. My mother would die if she knew it. There were 3 different stores that we frequented. There was Mr.  Brown’s Food Town, which was a grocery store where you could actually buy your groceries, but no one did because his prices were high, but his soft drinks were the coldest, so we always went there for our drinks. If we didn’t have much money, we’d comb the weeds for bottles to return for the deposit. Across the street was Ben’s (and we called him Mr. Ben and his wife Mrs. Ben) store. It was a storefront on a house where they actually lived. He didn’t have a great selection but he was so sweet, so we’d give him our business a good bit. (Side note: many years later, someone robbed them and shot and killed his wife). Then down at the end of Tuscaloosa Ave. was a little tiny Shell station that had candy, the best “penny” candy in the land. An old lady named Mrs. Yates ran that store. She looked like she could barely move, but a guy I grew up with decided in our teen years to attempt to “take her” (rob her), and he found out how tough she was. She took a baseball bat to him and put him in some bad hurt. She broke his arm! I digress….her penny candy was GREAT! You could get a bag full for a quarter, and it was always fresh. Laffy Taffy, BB Bats, Zotz, Fireballs, Red Hots, Lemon Heads, Jolly Ranchers, Pixie Stix, and so much more. Some of my other favorites were Sour Cream and Onion potato chips, Archie taffy, Charms suckers, those giant sweettarts, and anything chocolate! (Side note: Mrs. Yates would also support the smoking habits of children. She sold cigarettes 3 for a nickel to many of my classmates.) How fortunate I was to grow up in that great neighborhood.