Friday, June 18, 2004
BUSY DAYS IN 1964....
We had a very busy 1964. Spring came early and John wanted a clown cake for his March birthday. He was finishing the first grade and was now seven years old. The clown cake was achieved by a 3-layer cake and a round Styrofoam ball the size of a baseball made the head. I used aluminum foil to make a ruffled collar, placed the head on the collar (which had been already made into a happy clown face) and put a party hat on top of it’s head. It looked like he just popped up out of the cake and John loved it. A birthday greeting was written around the sides of the cake. Doug and Janice Fowler came over to help him celebrate the occasion.
We had the kitchen linoleum replaced that Spring along with new counter tops. A friend of ours, Bob Simmons, did the work. We met Bob through one of my Avon acquaintances (who was Bob’s wife.) The improvement was just as I’d hoped it would be.
When Becky’s birthday rolled around mom wanted us to come to Willow Springs to celebrate with grandma Stricklett who rode down on the bus to visit. This time the cake was delivered as promised. It was a combination wedding anniversary for our fourteenth and Becky’s tenth birthday cake. Mom was a wonderful baker and the cake was a work of art. The top was decorated with large colored marshmallows cut into petals of flowers and stems/leaves. It was beautiful on her white milk glass cake stand. We drove up to Cabool and brought Grandma Strain down to celebrate with us. I think it is the only time that the three living grandmother’s were together at one time. I treasure the picture of them.
George was initiated into the Order of the Arrow along with Roger Bartlett in May. Only two boys were chosen every year from each troop so it was a coveted honorary membership. It was a pretty harrowing 3-days but both came home proud and happy. Every time the boys and their dad went off on camping trips I hated to clean up their camping stuff on return. It was immediately taken to the garage to await laundering….the smell of campfires was a little too pungent for the house. Oakie loved to sniff around the things in the garage….it took her hours to decipher the different odors and relish them. She was always at the door wagging her tail when the guys came home.
In June when George and George Jr. were heading back to Philmont and Becky was going to Camp Towanyak with the Campfire girls, I decided John and I needed a break since we were usually the two left at home. We needed a little trip to spice up our week without the others so we packed our bags and headed for gramma and grampa Andersen’s. Dad had newly retired and they had sold their home in town….they were now living at the edge of the city limits in their new mobile home.
It was a great time for John because there was a boy across the road from the folks that was just a few years older, Mike Crudgington. He played ball with Mike the whole time we were there and the folks didn’t have their stove connected yet so we went up town to eat our meals at Joe’s. John loved eating there because if there ever was a real live ’Wimpy’ he was it. Dad had fun telling John if he could do so many “chin ups” he would buy him a burger……..the equipment was the clothes line. Dad would hold him up to reach the cross-bar and then John would try to do the prescribed number of chin’s. He never reasoned that dad would buy them anyway and so before every meal John would perform until he dropped off the pole from exhaustion.
Along with that John and Mike would whiz around the gravel road on Mike’s bike. John held on to the back while Mike did the pedaling. On one of the curves John slipped off and dug a groove in the gravel with his chin. He came home with his chin hanging in shreds and dad hurried him off to the doctor. When they came back, dad was bragging on John and what a tough little nut he was. He said the doctor looked at John and said, “well I’d better patch him up because he looks like a pretty good fisherman and it would be a shame to miss fishing for a while.” Dad couldn’t believe how John was sown up without deadening and never winced or cried. You guessed it……a trip to Joe’s for a root beer float was the reward.
When our week was up we headed back to Shawnee where dad, George Jr. and Becky would be arriving from camp. It was a special time for all of us……I can envision my dad holding back his laughter as John struggled to get his chin over the bar. He would have killed himself to please grampa…and of course….for a hamburger………
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
We had the kitchen linoleum replaced that Spring along with new counter tops. A friend of ours, Bob Simmons, did the work. We met Bob through one of my Avon acquaintances (who was Bob’s wife.) The improvement was just as I’d hoped it would be.
When Becky’s birthday rolled around mom wanted us to come to Willow Springs to celebrate with grandma Stricklett who rode down on the bus to visit. This time the cake was delivered as promised. It was a combination wedding anniversary for our fourteenth and Becky’s tenth birthday cake. Mom was a wonderful baker and the cake was a work of art. The top was decorated with large colored marshmallows cut into petals of flowers and stems/leaves. It was beautiful on her white milk glass cake stand. We drove up to Cabool and brought Grandma Strain down to celebrate with us. I think it is the only time that the three living grandmother’s were together at one time. I treasure the picture of them.
George was initiated into the Order of the Arrow along with Roger Bartlett in May. Only two boys were chosen every year from each troop so it was a coveted honorary membership. It was a pretty harrowing 3-days but both came home proud and happy. Every time the boys and their dad went off on camping trips I hated to clean up their camping stuff on return. It was immediately taken to the garage to await laundering….the smell of campfires was a little too pungent for the house. Oakie loved to sniff around the things in the garage….it took her hours to decipher the different odors and relish them. She was always at the door wagging her tail when the guys came home.
In June when George and George Jr. were heading back to Philmont and Becky was going to Camp Towanyak with the Campfire girls, I decided John and I needed a break since we were usually the two left at home. We needed a little trip to spice up our week without the others so we packed our bags and headed for gramma and grampa Andersen’s. Dad had newly retired and they had sold their home in town….they were now living at the edge of the city limits in their new mobile home.
It was a great time for John because there was a boy across the road from the folks that was just a few years older, Mike Crudgington. He played ball with Mike the whole time we were there and the folks didn’t have their stove connected yet so we went up town to eat our meals at Joe’s. John loved eating there because if there ever was a real live ’Wimpy’ he was it. Dad had fun telling John if he could do so many “chin ups” he would buy him a burger……..the equipment was the clothes line. Dad would hold him up to reach the cross-bar and then John would try to do the prescribed number of chin’s. He never reasoned that dad would buy them anyway and so before every meal John would perform until he dropped off the pole from exhaustion.
Along with that John and Mike would whiz around the gravel road on Mike’s bike. John held on to the back while Mike did the pedaling. On one of the curves John slipped off and dug a groove in the gravel with his chin. He came home with his chin hanging in shreds and dad hurried him off to the doctor. When they came back, dad was bragging on John and what a tough little nut he was. He said the doctor looked at John and said, “well I’d better patch him up because he looks like a pretty good fisherman and it would be a shame to miss fishing for a while.” Dad couldn’t believe how John was sown up without deadening and never winced or cried. You guessed it……a trip to Joe’s for a root beer float was the reward.
When our week was up we headed back to Shawnee where dad, George Jr. and Becky would be arriving from camp. It was a special time for all of us……I can envision my dad holding back his laughter as John struggled to get his chin over the bar. He would have killed himself to please grampa…and of course….for a hamburger………
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
