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.
Raise your hand if you had clackers. I don’t mean those hard plastic
sissified ones that you cannot miss. I am talking about 2 acrylic balls
connected by string and a plastic clip that you had to work hard to get
to clack together; the ones that bruised your arms unmercifully; that
were heavy and built nice arm muscles in the process of clacking. I had
blue ones. I got the blue ones so that they would match the bruises on
my wrists and forearms. The plastic clip broke that you held them by, so
we tied a knot in the middle and I held the knot. I was quite good
after I abused the ulna and radius on both sides. My poor mother thought
for sure that I had blood clots that would break off and go to my heart
in my sleep. My children had the plastic things that were a “no miss”
clack. No pain, no gain, I always say.