As I sit here writing my latest column, I can look out the window and see sunshine and to my surprise – not much wind. I have to say that the month of March was definitely a windy one. I can remember as a kid we had a book that had an illustration for each month which actually showed the month, of March with an illustration of wind blowing. April was, of course, the showers that brought May flowers. These are things of my youth that I still remember and quote from time to time. The other day I was hanging out with my granddaughter, Ava, who is 8 years old, and I quoted an old Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme that I’d had read to me many times as a young child. It started with “Hey Diddle Diddle, the cats in the fiddle and the cow jumped over the moon. I won’t go further, but I did remember the whole thing and when I’d finished I asked Ava if she’d ever heard it before and she said that she had. That surprised me a little, but it also made me feel good that she knew it.
In my days as a youth, we didn’t have much entertainment, except for the games that we played outdoors, the books that we read and the adventures that we enjoyed while exploring the “crick” that ran under Bridge Avenue. The bridge that we hung out at had cement guard rails on each side of the road where the crick ran. These cement rails have since been eliminated. On many rainy days, I would play with toys, but my main source of entertainment was reading. I had some Sports Afield and Field and Stream magazines that my cousin Tom had given me. I read those books from cover to cover many times over. This probably added to my love of fishing, hunting and all things outdoors. I also had the Weekly Reader, which came in the mail each week in the summer. It had current events, which made for some pretty interesting reading. I looked forward to it coming in the mail each week. I couldn’t wait to tear into it and read it from cover to cover.
My mother worked from home when I was young. She had a Beauty Shop in our home, which brought some much needed money for the household. My Dad worked long hours 6-7 days a week, so I looked forward to spending time with him in the evenings. I spent most of my time outdoors, playing with the neighbor kids when weather allowed
Those were good days and a great time to be a kid. We’d roam the neighborhood in the evening after supper. During the day we would play baseball or football, hang out at the “crick” or head over to “Skunk Hill,” which was east of Bridge on the way to Goose Lake. We’d spend a few hours there just hanging out and playing Army or Cowboys and Indians (unacceptable in today’s world). This was when we got our imaginations going and us kids could be pretty creative.
I can remember how much I enjoyed being able to take part in any event that involved hanging out with my cousins or my aunts and uncles. There are apartment houses on the east side of Bridge Avenue where a field once was and every year my Grandpa Turbin and my Uncle Orville would hire Vern Torgersen, who had the farm just north of the Fairgrounds, to bring his threshing machine to help with the crops. I can recall being excited to be able to go with my mom and my two aunts, Ruby and Millie, to bring lunch to the threshers. I felt pretty special when I would get to eat lunch with them. The women would make sandwiches with fresh baked buns and they also had nectar to drink in Mason Jars using wax paper to cover them. Threshing looked like hard work, but, by the time I was old enough to help, that era had passed. I did, however, get in on baling hay and straw.
Until next time: It’s always fun to look back at those days and reminisce about times long gone. Pictures and memories are things that can stay with you forever.
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