Childhood

I promised I would write about something that is not political. So, here goes…

Lately, I have been thinking about childhood. I think because I am now a Mimi and I have two almost 3 year old grandsons and a granddaughter on the way, I wonder how they will experience childhood in today’s world. The 3 year old twins are off to a great start, and I hope they are able to keep innocent and laugh, and learn, and feel love from their family for a long, long time. My daughter is so good about FaceTiming and Sending little videos that hubby and I feel fortunate to be a big part of their young lives. Plus, we live only 3 hours away and we get to see them often.

This wonderful time in my life has had me thinking about my own childhood. If someone asked me about it, I would quickly and honestly say it was great. I was born into a family, as the youngest of 3 kids. Mom and Dad stayed happily married until my mother’s death. Growing up we lived in suburbia most of the time, and we always had a pet. We were like the “Leave it to Beaver” family. If there were troubles I didn’t hear about them. There was no yelling in our home. I went to public school all but one year. I went to church all the time. My Dad was a pastor.

Maybe because I’m aging, and I worry about losing some of my childhood memories, I want to start a list here – of some of them. My older sister has always been the one known to recall family events better than anyone else. Sometimes I worry that I don’t recall the important, and the every day, life from back then.

So, here goes my list. I plan to add to it as memories pop in my head. So, I’m starting this post today but I plan to keep revisiting it.

Early memories. When do you feel you first really remember things? How old, or young, were you? Sometimes pictures help nudge the brain. But, a memory I have early on, where there was not a picture, was when I was in my kindergarten class. Back in my day nobody went to preschool so kindergarten was the first time away from mom. I have a memory mostly of bringing a small rug in, that was my nap rug. I think kindergarten was a half day but even during that time we had a ‘quiet time’ to lay on our rugs and the teacher would turn off the lights and darken the room. It was probably only for 10 minutes or so. But for some reason I remember having ‘my rug’ to lay on.

My elementary school days were spent in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and I went to Caledonia Elementary School. I walked there and back home. When I was really little I don’t know if my parents took me, or if I walked with my older siblings. It seemed like a long way to school but I can picture the route and it was maybe 8 blocks or so. I’d go to the corner of my street and turn right, walk down Taylor Avenue, past my Dad’s church – and a small strip of shops across from it. The butcher shop was in that strip. There was a Traffic light at that intersection. And then I’d walk two more blocks or so, turn right again, another block and turn left. My school was on the left. I don’t remember how old I was when I would walk with my siblings, and then my friends, but it seemed we didn’t worry about anything along the walk. I think I was in 2nd grade when a car with a man rode along side us kids walking to school. I remember one of us reported it Once we got to school, and we had to tell the police what the car looked like. Also, in 2nd grade I was pulled out of regular class to have special time for my speech. I had trouble saying my S’s and Z’s. I was with a couple of children in a small room, and we played board games… and I would have to say “It’s your turn” and hold my tongue back. Ha. I don’t know if the speech class ever really helped. I may still speak with it. Also in second grade I had a teacher named Miss Reid. I remember her so well because she seemed like an old little grey haired lady in my eyes – who was kind of mean. She had fingernail inspections! She wanted to see who was biting their nails. But, I also remember doing spelling bees in her class, standing up front By the blackboard, in a line, words would come to us to spell. If we misspelled, we had to sit back down at our desks. 4th grade was a good year. I had Mrs. Hayes and she was sweet, and motherly. It was also the year I started flute at school. My parents had all 3 of us kids take piano lessons so I knew a little bit about reading music, and I was able to pick up playing flute rather easily.

Occasionally Elmer the milk man ( who worked for Dean’s Dairy) would offer to give me a ride home – and I went with him! He drove a milk truck and delivered all around the neighborhood. How trusting I was. My parents knew – and Elmer was a very likeable guy. We bought LOTS of ice cream from him! He delivered milk and ice cream right to our door. We would save the tear off strips on the ice cream packages and when we got 15 or 20 of them we could get a free half gallon. We also had Charle’s Chips delivered right to our door also. That was the first brown delivery truck I remember – not the UPS trucks. The chips came in wonderful large tins of chips (and pretzels) that were delivered every so often. We’d turn in the empty cans and the company reused them. It’s kinda funny now how we are getting back to home delivery again (thanks to CoVid) and how we are more conscience of reusing and recycling.

Four friends I remember from elementary school are Mindy Phelps, Lora Guy, Sandy Suppes, and Debbie Stautenbower (sp?).

Our home was a little ‘cut off’ street between two busy ones. It didn’t get much traffic though. We would ride our bikes up and down the street – and yes, I do remember putting playing cards on the frame with clothes pipes to make the ‘crickets click’ sound. We had a drive with a bit of a hill that went down to the street and my brother and I used to skateboard down it. I was a bit older tho – maybe middle school age. We knew most of the neighbors on our little street. Yes, we actually did have the rule to get home before the streetlights turned on. Actually, when I was younger, we lived in another house a few streets away. I’m not sure if we rented it before buying. A pastor back then sometimes had a manse or a parsonage provided For him and his family, and perhaps the first house was that.

AnOther elementary school memory I have is playing “Japanese hopscotch” on the playground during recess. We could also go outside on to the blacktop after lunch. The hopscotch was done with a long elastic cord tied into a circle. Then two girls would stand back from each other with the cord around their ankles – and the jumper got into the middle and hopped up and down and made patterns with the elastic cord. Come to think of it, it was a mix of hopscotch and yo-yo-ing. There were certain steps and jumps we all did, and levels of challenge.

Quick memories of Elementary school: Daffadils growing on the grounds In the spring. We used little bunches of them for pictures – for first grade. I loved the school bulletin boards, changed every month. The American presidents pictures all in a row in the long hallways. The school was old with big windows and I remember afternoon thundershowers and being scared seeing the lightening, and hearing the thunder. I was scared of storms for a long time. Even at home I would take the afghan off the couch and ‘hide’ under it when we had a bad storm. In northern Ohio we got lots of snow – and we walked to school even on snowy days. Each classroom had a ‘cloakroom’ and we had hooks for our coats and nooks for boots, etc. Some days we wore snow pants under our dresses – and took off the snow pants in the cloakroom. I ‘won’ a trophy at the end of sixth grade, at the final assembly. Many awards had already been given out to students during the assembly – Mostly paper certificates. But I won a small (and I mean SMALL) trophy for the “Sportsman of the Year.” I remember being so surprised and being so proud. I was an average student, not the ‘pretty girl’ or not the athletic one, so I was amazed that I got an award. It was tiny in size but it really made me feel good. Funny, thinking back, yes – it said “Sportsman” not “Sportsperson”.

During those years, I was a Girl Scout for awhile, and I went to meetings in the public library just down the street from school. I was also involved with things at my church. I was a member of the Children’s Choir. When you are the pastor’s kid you do a lot of stuff around the building. I sometimes helped on Saturday mornings when the bulletins were getting finished and needed to be folded. My best friend at church, Karen Olson, and I spent lots of time hanging out together in an empty classroom – while our parents socialized. She and I would draw on the blackboards, and we loved to make floor plans of houses, and draw in the furniture. Think of it like Sims City – but with no technology. Ha

I am the youngest of three kids with a sister 5 years older, and a brother 3 years older. I remember playing with my brother more than my sister because we were closer in age. We played badminton in our backyard. We played “round the world” with the basketball hoop on our garage. Our garage sat back from the house – it was not attached. We also skateboarded in the unfinished part of our basement, going around and around the big furnace unit. It was cold and snowed a lot where we lived so we used the basement for playing. Half of our basement was finished and had a pool table, which I used as “Barbie Island” and I played countless hours with all my different Barbies… including Midge & Alan. And, Barbie’s younger sister Skipper. Mom ironed down in the basement, and back then, she ironed everything – including sheets. She watched TV down there while ironing – and while I played. I have a very vivid memory of being down there with my mother watching President Kennedy’s funeral. That was in 1963 – so I was 6 years old.

I shared a room with my sister until she got into high school. My parents added a bedroom in the attic for my brother, so at that point we each got our own rooms. Before then my sister and I each had our own bed in our shared room. She had Beatles posters above her bed. The Beatles had just come to America and were huge! She loved them!

After sixth grade, instead of sending me to a very big public school (Kirk Junior High) my parents had heard how rough it was getting – it was the Sixties and the school had students mixed – black, white, wealthy, middle class, and poor – and it was during the Civil Rights movement. My sister and brother went there and had a few frightening experiences. So, my parents sent me to a Lutheran school. I took a bus for the first time. The school wasn’t close by. I think a bus ride took a half hour. A few of my friends from elementary school also went there because their parents had the same idea as mine. Three big memories from there: Somehow I got selected to be a seventh grade cheerleader. Keep in mind it was a SMALL school. I think there was only one class per grade… but maybe not. The other thing I remember is being there after school for some reason and about 8 to 10 of us played ‘spin the bottle’! So, I suppose that was the first time I got a kiss. I don’t remember who it was – but I do know I liked Steve Brady all year there. My last memory is when I got caught talking to my girlfriend during class, and having to stay after school for detention. I missed the bus home. I think our detention was one day a week for a few weeks. So, my friend Lora Guy and I walked all the way home – which was a long way and along busy city roads. Keep in mind there were no cellphones and my parents had no idea I had been kept after – or was walking home. I don’t remember getting into trouble when I got home – maybe my parents were relieved when I walked in through the door. Perhaps being ‘the baby’ helped too. I know my sister clashed with my mother more than I did.

When does childhood end? Is it when Leaving middle school (called junior high back then)? Entering your teens? That seems to be a turning point. Childhood innocence leaves – and hormones kick in.

I moved to Bucyrus, Ohio after my seventh grade. Perhaps one day I will write about some of those memories.

I hope some of you can relate to things I did as a child… living in northern Ohio, in the 60’s. Life was different then, with no technology. (My dad had a dark room for developing pictures – and my brother had only a simple transistor radio.) We had 3 channels on the TV. Our house did not have central air conditioning. We visited relatives in Ohio for holidays. It was simpler in many ways.

As I said at the beginning, I may add more on… just to keep as a record for me. Maybe so my daughters and my grands know a little bit about my childhood back then.

And so I remember.