29th Street West...

Enjoying a handful of dirt in the cabbage patch - 2yrs.
Mom and I at the front door....4 yrs.

Standing by dad's new Hilman....3 yrs.

Showing off new doll....4 1/2 yrs.

Same house today......nearly 60 years later....

The 100 block of 29th Street West was a good place to live. My dear "Auntie" lived next door with my Uncle Jock and cousin Eddie. He was their only child.....making ME their "next door daughter". With the pictures above, my Aunt was the designated photographer most of the time.

I remember more things at their house than my own I think, because I was spoiled, and there, I could do whatever I wanted. It was nothing to find me out in the garden with a handful of dirt, eating away. I can still feel the grit in my mouth when I think of it now and I remember thinking how good it tasted.

Mornings would find me entering their back door where Uncle Jock was making toast over the open wood stove. I would sit and have wonderful burnt toast with him....which I love to this day.... and maybe a dish of Auntie's canned peaches/pears/cherries, etc. Then off he would go to his work at the P.A. Jail as a guard just a half a block away

Uncle Jock smoked a pipe! Off I'd go to the living room where I'd check out all the ash trays for burned match sticks....which I would gobble whenever possible.....the blackened ends...not the whole stick. I'd try and get them into my mouth before Auntie would come and take them from me and wash my face!!

I'd make my way to my cousin's bedroom (if he wasn't there at the moment) and I'd look for the "View Master" in the bottom drawer and gaze into the wonderful three dimensional pictures of animals and flowers and "Mickey Mouse" and "Pluto". There was one picture though, that scared me to death....a huge Grizzly Bear standing on his hind legs with his teeth bared. I wanted to look at it, but every time I did, I remember screaming and dropping the whole viewing gadget and running like mad....every time. I was deathly afraid of that picture and yet, I was drawn to it like a moth to the flame....with the same consequences. Strange.

Auntie had a porcelain cat with a huge red bow sitting on the floor by the front window. It would get my full attention every visit. When I finished with the cat, I'd sit on the piano stool and call for Auntie to come and play and we'd both sing. She enjoyed playing Nat King Cole songs the most and we would sit and sing together........ "Mona Lisa", "Unforgettable", "Answer Me, My Love", "Stardust", good songs.........Both she and my mom sang all the time, all day long. Guess that's how I got to know all the old songs and learned to love singing.

One night in late fall we had a huge bonfire out back....those were the days when you could! Like the desire to view the bear in the View Master, I saw all those beautiful red coals and was drawn to them. They glowed so beautifully. I grabbed one. All I remember is my throbbing fingers and crying while mother attempted to put something on them....can't remember what but I can still feel the pain of that too. Strange.

Sundays I was taken (dragged) by cousin Eddie and brother Garry down the back alley to the Free Methodist Church where I was met by the pastor who helped me with my coat and mitts and boots. I recall telling him that I couldn't open my hand because my pennies for the offering were in there and I didn't want to drop them. Into the sanctuary we'd go, where people would be singing and clapping. I remember standing on the pew between cousin and brother and when we started clapping, I got so wrapped up in the rhythm that I forgot my pennies were still clamped shut by my fingers. So, while we sang, marched and clapped to "Onward Christian Soldiers". my several pennies rolled to the floor in time to the music. Such fun.

When I was 5 we moved again. This time to 25th Street West, same block. I was about to have a younger brother and we needed more room.

Maybe tomorrow I'll talk about "The Shack"....and I don't mean the book I've been reading either!!!

These tales are most likely boring you to tears...but I've never really written anything down about my childhood. Perhaps this will be the place to do that.....for a time, at least.

Have a good night.