Fun Times

Memorial Park

The park included the football and baseball fields, a swimming pool, swings, a slide, and a pavilion where tennis courts were eventually built. Even before the first pool was opened we played many times at the park on the swings and slide as kids. Once the pool opened we spent even more time there. It was a short walk of about three blocks up the back ally to the park gate.

A local handyman, Buddy Bucklew, made a very nice, and pretty large, concrete dance floor in the Memorial Park, not too far from the swings. He built a wooden shed and had a jukebox inside. If I recall correctly, it had a door that was kept locked and Buddy had to open it to get to the jukebox. I actually spent quite a few nights up there dancing, probably around 1956-1957. I don’t think the shed lasted too long but the concrete pad did. It was real nice of him to do it. One of the song’s I remember dancing to was Allegheny Moon by Patti Page.

The Willows

I played in the Willows and the stream that ran from Center Street down past where Herb’s lived on Chestnut Street. It’s funny to say now but they lived right above the dump and it never seemed to be a problem for anyone. We climbed up and down that dump so many times and never gave it a second thought. We used to dam up the stream below the dump and float rafts on it.

There was a swamp right next to the Willows. That’s what it was called then. I remember thinking the Willows and the "swamp" were really great places to hang out.

Copperhead

Once I was on my way to a Cub Scout meeting and took a shortcut through the Willows. I was with another Cub Scout and we saw a snake. We picked it up and it curled around my arm. We just thought it was kind cute so we took it with us to the Den Mother’s house for our meeting. The was an older man there, maybe the Den Mother’s husband, and he got real excited and told us to be real still. The man got a jar of formaldehyde and put the snake in and closed the lid. A few seconds later it was all over. It turns out it was a poisonous copperhead! Then I got real scared.

Ball Field

There was a big field down at the bottom of Second Street. We played many games down their including football and baseball. I played there a lot over the years. The one memory I have that stands out the most was when I was about 10 or 11 years old. I was down there when I had my appendicitis attack. I couldn’t stand up without hurting real bad. I remember Dad was home and took me up to the doctor. They laid me on a table, pressed my right side, and I screamed. The next thing I knew I was in the ambulance headed for the Ashland Hospital. I was in there for several days recovering, not like today. There were no private or semi-private rooms. There were many beds lined up next to each other with cloth screens if privacy was needed.

I had been in the hospital about six months earlier to have my tonsils removed. I was given ether and it was a very bad experience. I had terrible dreams and never wanted to experience them again. When they got me into the operating room and laid me on that same table, I fought back. It took several people to hold me down but they finally got me put under, with ether. I had the same bad dream again. I was caught in a swirling tornado-like cloud that kept pulling me down. I held onto the back porch steps as long as I could but I finally went into the ground. That’s all I remember. Now that I think of it the cloud looked exactly like the patterns of overlapping circles we drew while practicing the Palmer Method of handwriting. Weird.

I was in the hospital for about five or six days. The day before I was released they came by to take out my stitches. That hurt a lot. For all my suffering my parents bought me a Howdy Doody puppet to keep me company.

Wagner’s Dam

I think it was down by Arch and Balliet Streets. I went there many times to watch them fishing. I remember it being kind of smelly with slime around the edges. It was filled in later and I remember seeing all of the catfish squirming around after it was drained. It seems like there was a horse riding stable right near it but don’t remember much about it.

Games

Boy we played a lot of games in our old neighborhood. We spent a lot of hours doing nothing more than having fun. In a way, some of the things we did as kids reminds me of the movie "Stand by Me." If you haven’t seen this one you’ve got to look for it.

Some of the games were Kick-the-Can, Red Rover, Hide & Seek (of course), Ring-o-levio, Simon Says, King of the Hill, Marbles, and Mumbley-Peg.

Mumbley-Peg

Wikipedia says "The term "Mumbley-peg" came from the practice of putting a peg of about 2 or 3 inches into the ground. The loser of the game had to take it out with his teeth. It was very popular as a schoolyard game in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries, but with increased concern over child safety the game has declined in popularity. It is generally played between two people with the aid of a pocket knife. The opponents stand opposite one another with their feet shoulder-width apart. The first player then takes the knife and throws it to "stick" in the ground as near his own foot as possible. The second player then repeats the process. Whichever player "sticks" the knife closest to his own foot wins the game. If a player "sticks" the knife in his own foot, he wins the game by default, although few players find this option appealing because of the possibility of bodily harm."

I had an unfortunate accident once playing this game. I reached for something on the ground just as the knife was thrown. It cut my finger pretty deep, close to the bone as I recall. I knew I couldn’t go home so I went to a doctor’s office and he taped it closed. There were no stitches so he said to be careful and not bend it. There were no charges for doing this. Just another example of how friendly the town was. I don’t recall the story I told my parents but I can assure you it didn’t involve a pocket knife!

Halloween

I remember one Halloween in particular that we gathered in the Shadel’s kitchen for a Halloween party.

Pictured in the front left to right are Glenn; Billy Giba; Mary "Cookie" Shadel; and Mickey Sukana. Back row, Ann Shadel; Shirley Heckard; and Harry Shadel. This picture was taken by Mr. Giba and has been one of my favorites over the years.

Back then you actually had to perform a trick at Halloween in order to get a treat. Somehow that changed over time to mean if you don’t treat me I’ll trick you.

I used to memorize a poem and recite that. Harry Shadel could play the guitar and sing. We went all up and down several streets and by far the best place was a local beer garden two blocks north. All of the patrons would give you something so it was a very popular spot for all the local kids.

Orange Crate Race Cars

Back in elementary school days during the Summer, we played in the entryway between our house and Giba’s, the house to the South of ours. I recall going over to Anthony’s store to get old orange crates so we could build race cars. We only had one dull saw and a hammer. We pulled nails from everywhere and straightened them on the pavement using the hammer. If I remember right it was me, my brother Jimmy, Billy Giba, and young Mickey Sukana. I really can’t recall ever completing one but I know we did this more than once. Fun times in the old entryway.

Catch

We played catch with our dad with a sponge ball right in the middle of the street in front of our house. Cars were parked on both sides and we threw the ball really high. We also played a game of baseball by throwing the sponge ball against the lip of the curb. The fielder was on the other side of the street and tried to get the batter out. We had rules for what was a single, double, etc. up to a home run. I don’t remember what they were anymore. We played these games often and nobody seemed concerned that we might get hit by a car or hit a parked car with the ball. Another example of "Small Town, USA."

Tennis Court

We spent many hours playing baseball at the "Tennis court" at the Northeast corner of Second Street and Chestnut Street. We called it the tennis courts because that’s what had been there one time. It was a dirt court, no asphalt or grass. The iron posts that held the nets were there for many years. I remember Frank Prenetta hitting a foul ball right into old man Morgan’s window just North of the field. We all took off running but somehow Ralph found out who it was and I remember Frank putting in the new pane of glass.

It was at the southern most end of the tennis courts that we played King of the Hill because it was the highest point.

War

We also played a game of war where we used inner tubes (remember them) and cut them into strips for ammunition. We made a gun out of a wood stick and a pinch clothes pin. The ammunition was stretched from the front of the barrel back to the clothes pin. One at a time was loaded into the mouth of the "trigger" and released when you saw the "enemy." We ran all through the neighbor’s yards hiding and seeking out the enemy. No body complained about all of the activity and noise in their yards.