FOUR

1959

Friends/Family:
Mom and Dad, Brother

Starting to have some memories that I feel confident about. I checked with my mom though to be sure. I recall my mom cutting her foot. She was trimming the bank of our little creek at the brick house. She was using one of those sickles and she thought she saw a snake and took a swipe at it. It turned out to be her foot and she took a big chunk off the top of it. My dad was working so she called the Patrol Post and someone came and got her. My brother and I rode along in the back of the patrol car and thought it was pretty cool. I don't recall worrying about my mom. I was having more fun in the back of the car. I remember right where the car was parked and going in the back door at the hospital. My brother and I had to sit in the waiting room until my mom came out. Then my dad showed up and took us home.

I remember having to feed Champ, our Dalmatian. He was huge to me and he was on a chain in the backyard. I always had to take a bowl of food out to him. I would put it at the very end of his chain. I was afraid of him because he would jump on me. So, I would slide his bowl towards him and run!
I played in the basement of our house. We had a furnace that used coal and I would go into the pile and get pieces of coal and draw on the floor. I also had a set of marbles and would take them out and line them up on the bench in the back room and look at them. My grandmother gave them to me. They were so pretty. I had a few cat eyes and would wonder how they got that thin ribbon of color in there so perfectly.

My brother and I played baseball in the backyard. I recall the yard being very big. I would always pitch to my brother and he would hit line drives right back at me. I got hit in the gut many times. At the time, I did not think he did it on purpose but I wonder about that today. We also had a wood pile and I would play on that while my brother would play with his toy John Deere hay baler that actually made tiny bales of hay.
We made the most awesome snowman in our side yard one year. He was huge. And I put a scarf on him and dressed him up. My mom and brother and I were all out there working on him. My dad was filming us. When it came time for us to pose with the snowman, I put my arm through his and his arm broke off. I stood there in shock. My dad got it on film. It was terrible. I cried because I thought I had ruined the snowman. I did not get in trouble but I felt sad that I pulled his arm off. He was so perfect.
Living in Ohio, we had fireflies. We would catch them and put them in a Miracle Whip jar with holes in the lid. My brother and I would race to see how many fireflies we could catch then we would take them into our bedrooms and they would blink on and off all night long. Unfortunately, in the morning, they would be dead. Don't know why our parents let us do that. I also remember being very daring and pinching their butts off and making rings around my finger with their gooey glow. Their butt juice would actually continue to glow. Now that I am describing this, it is pretty gross but I recall it being very cool at the time.
My brother and I had the measles at the same time. We got to stay home from school and my mom fixed us soup and crackers and 7-Up. It was always cool to get sick because mom would wait on us and we got to drink soda pop and color in bed.

In History, this happened: 1959
http://www.infoplease.com/year/1959.html