Ain't it the truth! We spent a lot of time with those kiddos. And it was post World War 2. There were a lot of us - the birth control pill hadn't yet been made readily available to families. All you need is love.
My parents were married in 1950, and graduated from the University of Iowa that next spring. Dad was a ROTC and he could see the writing on the wall - with the Korean conflict, he was likely going to be shipped off soon. The stork evidently tracked them down and a little thing called Susi appeared a year after they were married. Mom and Dad headed to Georgia for Dad's basic training. Afterwards he spent time in Korea, desperately trying to get back to his wife and daughter. Dad was a 2nd Lieutenant and he had something to do with procurement. He said it was miserable.
I have a copy of a menu from a Christmas Dinner that Dad put together for the guys stationed with him. I little bit of Mash...Dave Bullock style. In the meantime - what was Pat doing? I saw videos (8 mm film) of my mom with little Susan, my big sis, visiting mom's sister Dorothy and family at Easter in Sacramento, CA. I'm sure she was pining for her honey.
When Dad got back they headed back to the promised land - my Pop's hometown, Atlantic, Iowa. Three prior generations of Bullocks had raised families there. Though Adnah David, Dad's great grandfather really hailed from the 'burbs - Anita/Wiota. Did Mom really want to go there? Society girl from the big town of Cedar Rapids? She ended up living in A-town a lot longer than she ever did CR.
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| Herbert Leslie Morehead |
My mother's dad was a contractor. I don't know the story about how my folks picked the lot they built their home on. And then my grandpa, Herbert Leslie Morehead designed and built the place. Right down to the little playhouse in the backyard. Betsy tells me people she went to school with called where we lived...Snob Hill. I'm not sure why. It was definitely a hill - terrible to ride your bike up! Or trike down - with no feet on the pedals.
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| 202 Crombie watercolor by Marilyn Van Ginkle |
Below Snob Hill sits the neighborhood known as Fairlawns. For the most part it consists one story, one car garage homes - a tract built after World War 2. We have a picture of the area when it was mostly undeveloped. It was a flat area close to the newest elementary school - perfect for
My sisters and friends knew nothing of stalkers and perverts in th e1960s. The world (and our neighborhood) was our oyster - and a lot of good (and some not all that great) families in our world. It takes a village you know - look how good I turned out! When we needed to be chewed out, usually one of the moms or retired folk provided the words of wisdom.
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| Some of the neighborhood kids right after my grandpa remodeled our house |
A few of the caste of characters:
The Rechtebachs, Youngers, Heplers, Graysons, Bucks, and the people next door who gave out quarters for Halloween, Fausts, Smiths, Van Nostrands, Buckinghams, Fiefs, Smiths, Thompsons, Mallons, Drakes, Hensleys, Kinens, Wereshs, Grotes, Bredensteiners and some others I can't recall. Maybe you fine readers can assist. What was Sheila's last name...Louie Reinig's sister. Plus those people that lived next to Robyn. I didn't know that block as well.
The neighbors on Snob Hill (Crombie): I saw in the obituaries recently that Phyllis Otto Germain passed away at age 89. They were our first next door neighbors. I'm not sure if I actually remember them or just the stories - such as Susi and Johnny burning the lilac bushes down. Phyllis's parents the Ottos lived up around the corner (on the way to Tyler's house). So even after they moved away to North Carolina they'd stop to see us. I wrote a paper once about how she once beat Babe Didrikson in golf. Her daughter Dorothy was a pro golfer too. When the moved another fam briefly lived there. The son tried to burn me with a car cigarette lighter and Dad slugged him. Good thing they were gone quickly!
Reinertsons were the bestest! One kid for each of us to hang with. Except poor Donnie - we didn't have a boy to match with him. Cindy/Kathryn, Laurie/me, Betsy/Annie. We had fun with their cousins from Chicago and spend countless hours at each other's homes. I'm so glad Don (the dad) has gotten together with Betty Gee after each lost their spouse.
Baxters, neighbor who lived across the street, were my special friends. They lived in an old farm house that was encroached upon by the town. (Snob Hill - ha!) They were around my grandparent's age. Before I got too old to be self-conscious I'd pop over when Harley was outside and bug him. His yard was big enough that he had a big garden with sweet corn and potatoes etc. I still remember eating a raw potato there with salt! Of course we treated their yard like our own and would cut through on our way to Tyler's neighborhood. Baxter's back featured a tree that was so slanted that our dachshund Jud (yes my son is named after my dog/and dad) could "climb" it.
What was the name of the people who lived on the corner? The dad rigged a pulley thing so he could let his dog - a lab, out of the outdoor kennel into the fenced back yard - all from the house. Did they adopt a child and move away? Later Schraders moved into that house. Eddie and Bev Freese - very good friends of my parents lived across the backyard from our house. I loved playing with their son Kent's electric football game. Barb was a cheerleader. Paul Mormon and wife lived next to them. Their son Paul was older but they adopted two children when I was in junior high. The Hayes fam lived around the bend. Pat was usually out causing trouble on the Schwinn.
We knew where all the kids were. If bored in the summer I would just tool around on my bike to drum up some action - someone was bound to be doing something in their yard. There weren't many fences (except Mrs. Dutton who had buried her husband in the backyard - myth). Sardines, kick the can, dusk games with the locusts shrieking in the background. In the winter - if you had a hill, you might find us sledding down it. We didn't need no stinking permission! Fond memories for this small town girl.
