Archive for the ‘childhood’ Category

Of Course Global Warming Is Real

Monday, November 10th, 2008

It’s coming up on the time of year when we would get bundled up, grease our sled runners with bacon grease and slide down the hill on 15th street. At least that was true when I was many years younger than I am now, back when we still had snow.

The road up Barger Hill was once one of the finest sledding roads known to any wide-eyed kid. We loved when it snowed because we knew it was time to get our sleds out and start making that road impassable to cars. That was before salt trucks, of course.

I remember bundling up so much that I could barely walk, which was the only way mom would allow me to go out into the cold air. We would walk our sleds up the hill, lie down on them and rocket down the hill, ending up on 15th street in front of our houses. Over and over we did this until the street was a sheet of ice from the sled runners.

The time came when we could no longer use the street. The city started plowing it before we could make it impassable. The people who were building the big houses at the top of the hill insisted upon being able to drive home. We thought that was pretty unreasonable of them. After all, there was a little back road they could use. It was barely one lane, but it would have allowed us to keep our sledding track.

Also, it has been quite a few years since that much snow has fallen on my little hometown. When I’ve been home I’ve seen kids sliding down the dead grass on the hillsides. No sleds, though, just cardboard. What a poor substitute for flying down that icy hill, barely in control of a speeding sled, laughing all of the way down.

If we reverse global warming and widen the back road will you give us back the road up Barger Hill?

Posted in childhood, kenova | 3 Comments »

Corn Off the Cob

Sunday, October 12th, 2008


In his maydecembersecrets.com website my friend Ron talked about his childhood happening in a more innocent time. I think that was true for me, too, even though it didn’t necessarily feel innocent around Halloween.

We went trick or treating on Halloween but it was different from today in many ways. Although we often ate too much candy during and after Halloween, we didn’t have to be careful about needles, razor blades or other additives that parent must check for today. We also received homemade items that would probably be thrown away today. I remember the popcorn balls, in particular. Popcorn was mixed in melted caramel, formed into a ball, and then wrapped in waxed paper. They were so good we often ate them as we walked and never wondered if the person who made them was wearing surgical gloves at the time.

We had to work to prepare for our Halloween pranks, if I can actually use that term to describe what we did. I lived in an area that had several small farms and garden plots close to me. By October all of the harvests were in and the fields had only the remnants, like corn stalks, remaining. Inevitably there was corn missed when the ears were removed by hand. We would comb through those rows of dead corn and always found several ears of dried corn.

We removed the shucks to get at the dried kernels inside. Then we took the ear of corn in both hands and twisted our hands back and forth on it over an open paper sack. This twisting motion released the kernels into the bag leaving only the empty corn cobs (which we occasionally used to make pipes.) It required a lot of ears of corn but we would usually end up with four or five pounds of corn kernels in the bag. By the time we were finished we had some very sore hands, too. I don’t know why we didn’t wear gloves.

Our children would probably laugh at us for calling what we did next a prank. We had two ways to display our displeasure at any home where we were not given candy. We carried our bags of corn along with pieces of soap as we went from house to house asking for candy. If we got none or no one was home we either soaped their windows or threw corn on their porch, or both. We really got even, huh? It didn’t occur to us to do any damage. That was as mischievous as we got until we became teenagers.

Today, carloads of children are taken from neighborhood to neighborhood. The candy is all that matters. I do believe some of these children may have little candy during the year but the waves of kids are too much at times. It’s also not unusual to wake up the next day and find pumpkin pieces scattered in the road where kids have taken jack-o-lanterns from porches and thrown them into the street. It felt like enough to us to just throw some corn. We enjoyed the artwork on all of the jack-o-lanterns too much to destroy them.

Times change. Kids change. Ideas of fun change. We were definitely “greedy” for candy at Halloween but ours came from homes in our neighborhood. We didn’t consider asking our parents to take us somewhere else. I don’t think they would have, anyway, and we still got more candy than we needed.

As I close this post I leave this thought with you. Halloween may have changed. Throwing corn might have been replaced by throwing pumpkins. However, if you enjoy eating candy corn during the Halloween season you can thank me and my friends and those Halloween pranksters that came before us. That candy corn represents the kernels of corn we threw. The yellow and white colors make it look just like the kernels of corn we so laboriously separated from their cob. I’m glad we could do that for all of you.

Posted in Halloween, childhood, kenova, pumpkin house | 1 Comment »

I Love My Sister’s Words

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008


This is the second time my sister (yes, that one) has gifted me and my readers with memories that I don’t have or don’t remember as well. I do remember some of the things she talks about below but I have only heard about some of the others. I particularly remember the rabies shots, though. I have included her words without edit. She’s really pretty cool.

Her words:

“Hey, I was checking out your blog for something new today and saw the picture of you on the pony. Can you believe I remember that picture being made that day. A man would come around to the neighborhood with that pony and take kid’s pictures. I was so jealous. I think I would have looked very cute on that pony too. Also, I remember the drum major outfit mother made for you to be in the toy band when you were in elementary school. I was jealous of that too!! For some reason I always felt you got all the attention and I was just there. I am telling you – you made a mark on my life for ever!!! Also, I read about the dog with heart worms. Do you remember your dog named Corky? He got rabies and you and daddy had to take shots, I think in the stomach, I WAS NOT jealous of that. Do you remember the “Ladies Aid” that would meet at our house from the church? We lived on Pine Street then. They would come and stay all day and make quilts. They all would bring a “covered dish” and we would get to eat lunch with them. I can still remember that being the best food ever. They all brought their kids, (no sitters back then) and we would play all day outside even it rained. I would like to play in the rain again!! I can also remember they cut up old sheets and made bandages during world war II, That was 1941 to ‘46 I think. I would have been about 10 and you about 5. Can you remember any of this? Do you remember the cellar under that house where mother kept all the stuff she canned. She would put a cloth on the big crocks of kraut and a big rock on top of the crock. I can remember sneaking down there and removing the rock and putting my hand in that big crock until I found the big core that came from the cabbage. Loved that part! Also, remember on Pine St. we lived across from a railroad and “hobos” would ride those trains and they all knew they could drop off at our house, because mother would feed them. I remember she always had “soup beans and corn bread” to feed them. She had these special dishes and forks she kept just for them to eat with. It is strange to think back on these things now as we now have to tell our children not to talk to strangers, but mother and daddy would have them on our front porch and we all talked to them.”

That ends her memories and this is Earnest writing now. One thing I wish is that I could remember those days on Pine Street. However we moved from there when I was three. I love thinking about my mother feeding “hobos.” That is so much not something I remember about her.

Here are some of my sister’s words about her marriage. They are worth adding.

“We went to the Greenbrier this week for our 53rd anniversary!… We have had many many things to overcome. It has not been easy to say the least, but we never gave up and we now enjoy a wonderful life as old people together! My husband is the BEST!”

I remember when her husband first came into our family. I thought he was really cool. Mom and dad didn’t feel that way, to say the least. I’m glad my sister decided they were wrong. Congratulations to the two of you. 53 years! That’s amazing.

Oh, I had dinner with my niece this week. She told me her dad was the one who gave me the 50 cents I used to buy my croquet set. Imagine that.

Posted in Shorty, childhood, mom, sister | 3 Comments »

Growing Up Earnest

Monday, September 15th, 2008


Yep, that’s Earnest when I still thought I might grow up to be a cowboy. That’s also the house with the broken door. I lived there from about age 3 to 12 or 13. There are a couple of things of which to take note (in addition to how cute I was). One is the tree behind me. That’s the apple tree that fed the June bugs I flew. Second is the open window. I don’t remember when mom and dad finally got window air conditioning, but it wasn’t while I lived with them. That open window and a large fan upstairs were all we had for cooling. It didn’t do a very good job but I didn’t know anything different so it was OK. I do remember laying awake in the summer tossing my pillow over and over to try and find a cool spot, though.

That was a great neighborhood for a little boy. Directly behind the apple tree is my dad’s garden. The picture isn’t good enough to see it. Once the growing season was over it became lots of things. It was allowed to grow high with weeds in the fall and it became a place for us to fight wars and build clubs out of cardboard boxes and generally pretend we were somewhere other than Kenova. There was another, larger garden across the alley and we would dig foxholes and tunnels in it. War was a big deal for little boys back then.

I wanted to be a cowboy or a soldier. I didn’t become either but it sure felt real when I was growing up Earnest.

Posted in childhood, kenova | 4 Comments »

Who Knew What Fifty Cents Would Buy

Saturday, August 30th, 2008


I have to admit that evil sister probably hated me when I was a little boy. At least as far as my effect on her life. You can be sure that I played my part of pesky little brother to the limit.

For instance, there was the time when she was sitting in the living room with her boyfriend. The back of the couch faced the living room door so I was able to stand in the hall and see when they got close together or if her boyfriend put his arm around her. When that happened I would wander into the room and start playing or talking to them.

Well I’m sure you can imagine that I didn’t make them very happy when I interrupted whatever they were doing. On this particular night I was a very big pest. I was in and out of the living room several times and my sister was getting angrier each time I “visited” them. Finally her boyfriend bribed me with fifty cents and I left them alone for the rest of the evening.

Fifty cents was a lot of money to me then. I couldn’t wait to spend it so the next day I walked to the local 10 cent store and shopped and shopped before finally deciding on a toy croquet set (not the one in the picture.) Yep, it had several small mallets, balls, stakes and miniature wire wickets. As it turned out, the balls were so small that they would be deflected by high grass and therefore weren’t much good for croquet.

So, for what does a disappointed little boy use a useless croquet set? If you ask my evil sister she’ll say I chased and hit her with the mallets. So tell me my faithful readers. Do you really think I would do such an un-brotherly loving thing?

Posted in childhood, evil sister | 2 Comments »

Traveling With Mom And Dad

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008


The deeper I get into this blogging activity, the more surprises I find.

I have a traveling Jones. That’s pretty well-known in the family. Throughout my life I have believed this to be due to all of the reading and dreaming I’ve done. Through my reading I’ve visited places and times and worlds and characters that often transcended the world in which I lived. Who wouldn’t want to travel to as many of those places as possible?

I was talking with Earnestine about traveling with my mom and dad when something struck me – they loved to travel! I had never thought about it. I knew they traveled quite a bit after all of us kids left home but I just assumed it was only to come see us and their grandchildren. When I stopped assuming, however, I immediately remembered my experiences when I traveled with them.

In my lifetime they didn’t own a car until the early fifties (there was one before my birth) when they bought my brother’s 1949 Chevy from him. Until that time they both rode the bus to work and when we went somewhere we walked or rode the bus. Then they got the car and things changed. We began going to my grandmother’s house a lot (I got sick in the car.) When my sister (not the evil one) moved to Ohio we drove there (I got sick in the car.) Then, she moved to New Mexico.

I remember our first trip to Albuquerque – it took five days (I got sick more than once.) There were no interstates. Highways were mostly two lane and went through every small town from West Virginia to New Mexico. My memories of that trip have always related to the destruction of my ukulele (due to the evil sister) and getting sick. This recent revelation, however, gives me so much more to think about.

In that five days we stopped at almost every historical marker and state line monument along the road. About half of the trip was on Route 66 and we stopped at most of the tourist attractions that are now part of the Route 66 folklore. Snake farms, tepee motels, buffalo ranches, caverns, and whatever else appeared before us. I’m surprised we got there in five days. I even remember my first experience with “Mexican” food. We stopped in Tucumcari, New Mexico for dinner and I had Mexican spaghetti. Hot! Hot! Hot! It’s over 50 years later and I still remember that meal.

There was another trip to New Mexico before I left home. It was just mom and dad and me but the trip experience was more of the same. After that mom and dad visited us kids wherever we were. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. New Mexico several times. Birmingham, Alabama., Springfield, Massachusetts, New Orleans, Louisiana, and more. But there came a time when they began to just stop by to see us as they traveled through.

On one trip they stopped in New Orleans to see my family and went on to New Mexico to my sister’s home. Then, for some reason, they went on to the Grand Canyon and California and back through the upper Midwest before returning home. Why? They didn’t have any family in any of those places. Until now I always thought they were just taking another way home.

But what came to me in the past few days is that my sister and I had no interest in historical markers on the way to New Mexico. We didn’t care much for Route 66 “tourist traps.” We certainly were not impressed by the monuments that told us where each state line was located. (or how high above sea level we were as does the picture above.) It was also a pain trying to get each of those little state decals to slide off the wet cardboard onto the rear window of the car without tearing or wrinkling. My sister and I could have cared less, not to mention how tacky they looked. We just wanted the trip to be over. Have I told you the car was not air-conditioned?

My mom and dad, however, loved all of this. I didn’t realize that at the time, but certainly do now. They were both raised on farms and probably never thought they would see much more than where they lived. When they were able to travel, however, they did! As I think back, I realize their traveling gave them an opportunity to live a life they might never have thought possible. They were having fun! What a concept!

At some point they stopped traveling. I don’t know why and don’t know if one or both of them made that decision. It doesn’t matter, though, because in their life they were able to go places and see things they had only dreamed about. They enjoyed life outside of the five kids and all of the grandchildren. I’m sad this has occurred to me only now. I’m glad I do finally get to know, though.

So, yes, I come by my traveling Jones honestly. That little small town West Virginia boy always dreamed of traveling but never really expected it to happen. But, like mom and dad I have had the opportunities and have taken them. I’ve traveled the world, as have some of my siblings and children. I actually scheduled one business trip so that I literally took a trip around the world, just so I could say I have done it. But I’ll bet nothing I saw on that or any of my trips was more exciting to me than the Grand Canyon or Golden Gate Bridge or Mount Rushmore was to my mom and dad.

I haven’t finished traveling yet. I hope to never reach a stop. I wish I could take mom and dad on a trip, though. I wish they could have gone to Paris with us. I would have loved to buy them one of those little plastic Eiffel Towers! It would not seem at all tacky if I was handing it to one of them.

Posted in Chevrolet, France, New Orleans, Paris, childhood, dad, evil sister, mom, sister, ukulele | 4 Comments »

Pigs Love to Eat What?

Saturday, August 9th, 2008


Well, the truth is they seem to love to eat everything. In that little town in which I grew up we had so many opportunities for playing. We dug foxholes and fought wars, ran around the neighborhood all day, played tag at night, rode sleds in the winter, built forts in the summer, rode trains as they went into the rail yard and, yes, we fed coal to pigs.

Coal, you ask? Yes, coal. Many coal trains passed my house each day and, of course, coal would fall on the rails. Now we didn’t need the coal for heat, but didn’t want it to go to waste. So, the boys in the neighborhood learned that pigs love to eat coal. In the hills above our town were several pig pens. Since we had pigs and coal and a lot of free time we naturally combined them into one fun adventure.

We also fed them sandstone, but that wasn’t quite as easy since we didn’t have any sandstone trains. I guess they liked the coal. They ate it. But they ate everything. I wonder if they ever got indigestion. Did it hurt their teeth?

Don’t get me started on how they “harvested” the hams and roasts and bacon and such from these pigs. I also got to watch that in the alley behind my house. I wonder if they tasted like coal.

Posted in childhood, coal, train | 3 Comments »

David Letterman and Cracker Jacks

Thursday, August 7th, 2008


I made this note one night when I was watching Letterman. I no longer remember the connection to Dave but that doesn’t matter. Did you know that Cracker Jacks were first sold at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago’s first world fair, in 1893. Now, that statistic comes from the Cracker Jack website so it must be right. It wasn’t really marketed and trademarked as Cracker Jacks until 1896.

Did y0u know (sorry Elliot) that Cracker Jacks were immortalized in 1908 when Jack Norworth wrote the lyrics to “Take Me Out To The Ballgame.” Of course you all know the phrase “buy me some popcorn and Cracker Jacks” in that song.

Even I’m not old enough to remember when these things happened (I’ve heard John McCain may be, though.) Here’s what I do remember – OK, this is going to be an Andy Rooney moment.

When I was a kid Cracker Jacks came in a tightly sealed and waxed box. I can remember how difficult it was to tear through that waxed paper without a knife. Teeth just slid across the wax. The seal on the bottom of the box, where the toy was hidden, was even worse but the toy was worth the work to retrieve it. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Cracker Jacks, but the toys back then were the best (whatever they were.)

So, why is this going to be an Andy Rooney moment? Simple. Those marvelous toys of the past are gone. What do you get now? Something made out of paper. They aren’t toys, they are throwaways. I still eat Cracker Jacks but I surely don’t eat as many as when I was a kid. What’s the point? They are only candied popcorn and peanuts. Where are the toys of old (whatever they were.) What’s more, Cracker Jacks now come in bags! Where’s the challenge to opening them?

Posted in Andy Rooney, Cracker Jacks, childhood, elliot barnes | 2 Comments »

Double, Double Toil and Trouble

Friday, August 1st, 2008


Do you enjoy Macbeth? Neither do I but the title fits. Picture Shakespeare’s witches stirring a huge, black, iron cauldron over a large fire. That’s what I used to see almost every year in my neighborhood. The differences from Macbeth were significant, however.

It was a huge, black, iron cauldron. It was over a large fire. There were no witches, however. Instead there was one sweet old (probably in her forties or fifties but everyone is old when you are a kid) lady tending the cauldron. I don’t know what Macbeth’s witches were stirring up but I sure knew what this lady was stirring and even though she was using a cement hoe, it wasn’t cement.

All of the kids in the neighborhood looked forward to this spectacle and its result. She would build the fire in her front yard (this was sort of country, after all) and somehow the cauldron got put on the fire. I never saw how that happened so maybe she was something of a witch. Next came the apples – lots of apples. Yep, she was making apple butter. The best apple butter I’ve ever eaten, before and since. She spent an entire day cooking each batch and we all looked forward to the samples. She never forgot to let us taste her special brew. One more sweet memory of growing up in Kenova.

Posted in Apple, childhood, love, neighborhood | No Comments »