Early Memories

My first memory is of standing in the dining room watching Mother iron. She would sprinkle Pop’s shirts with water, roll them up then begin to iron. She did this in the kitchen with the ironing board sticking into the dining room.

Another early memory is picking out colored baby marshmallows for snack for Joanne’s and my birthday celebration to Star King, the nursery school we attended.

We had to take naps, Joanne and I weren’t allowed to nap together so many times I would be relegated to my mom’s bed. I remember having my eyes covered and having to stand while she tried something on me. I think it was a nightgown and bathrobe that she was making as a present.

In the mornings when we were young we would take our clothes to Pop and Mom’s room and get dressed sitting on the bed.
One time Joanne threw up on the way to the bathroom and rather than have her step in the throw up Mom told her to stand still, where she proceeded to throw up again. I am sure Mom would have liked her to get to the bathroom and the toilet instead of throwing up again on the floor.

Growing up on Margo Street was great. There were plenty of kids and we were very creative in our activities. My parents cut a large metal barrel in half and let us burn anything we wanted in it. We loved to watch model airplanes shrivel up and burn. We rolled paper up and pretended to smoke. There were a few empty lots in the neighborhood and we made bike trails on them with jumps. Since two streets came together in front of our house it was perfect for playing baseball. There were some major hills about three blocks away and we built a couple of forts there. Pop had built an “open” playhouse in the backyard and we created many different things out of it. One of our favorites was to hang blankets then sleep out in it. Sometimes it was a ship since we could climb on top. Nancy was great at making costumes and Debby Olson had a camera so we would make plays. We even liked to play “school”.