I grew up on a dead end street. At the end of our street was a block size field of alfalfa owned by the College. Sometimes it felt like we lived in our own little world. We could play in the street without fear of cars. For many years only the middle of the road was paved. The shoulders were gravel and dirt. When it rained or in the winter there was mud. Eventually the City paved the whole street that was a great day.
We had a whole street full of kids. When we lived in Aunt Inezes’ house I remember waking up in the morning to the sounds of kids in the street or the sounds of my next door cousins calling to one another. Or their mother calling them to breakfast. We had no air conditioning so in the summer windows were opened all summer long. Laying in bed to the sound of the crickets or the smell of newly mowed grass. Or the smell of the lilacs in the spring and the other flowering bushes in the summer that grew around our house.
Mother making breakfast and singing in the kitchen. We often had cooked oatmeal or cream of wheat and sometimes cornmeal mush. She often made pancakes or french toast. Some of my favorite breakfasts were when Dad would make poached eggs. He would poach them in cream until the whites were cooked but the yolkes were still runny and then they would be searved over toast made from Mothers home baked bread. Served with bacon or sausage. The toast soaking up the hot cream and butter. I can almost smell and taste it now.
Each summer the street Mothers would get together and try to set up some rules for the kids. Kids had to get their chores done before they could play. Kids could not go to each others houses until 10am. They had to be home before dark. Kids were not to leave the street without telling. Mothers needed to know where the kids were. Well these rules lasted maybe a week or two.
Summers in Cedar City were hot. We would turn on the sprinklers and get into our swim suits and play in the water. The city swimming pool offered swimming lessons in the summer and Mother would take us to the pool in the morning and drop us off. The water was really cold but it was fun to learn how to swim and be safe in the water. Sometimes my Brother Doug would pump me on the bicycle and we would go to the pool by ourselves. After I learned to ride a bike I would pump Richard and we would go to the pool and the park.
There was a dirt ditch that ran south of our street that was used to water gardens. When water was running in the ditch we would wade and play in the water. We would race sticks and pretend to fish. We would try to make dams but then we would get into trouble because someone down the line was trying to water their garden and we were slowing the flow.
We would all get together and sleep outside in our sleeping bags either in Uncle Reids yard or ours. Uncle Reids yard was better because it was away from the street and the street lights. It was great laying there at night and looking at the stars and trying to pick out the big and little dipper and wondering if God was looking down on us. Cedar was still a small enough town that you could see the stars.
There is just too much to talk about so I think I will end this for now and write more later.
Hi Barbara, I had a fun trip down memory lane reading your blog today. I think Mackelprang is the correct spelling for our neighbors. You are right about the girl who died. It was a really nasy case of flu and it happened in the late fifties. I was a junior in high school when I got it and was sick for two or three weeks myself. I think she died in the fall of my junior year and I caught it just sbefore our junior prom that spring. She probably got pneumonia that caused her death. She was Lyona’s age, I believe. It was very sad. I liked your comment about was God looking down on us when we slept outside. A few years ago when my oldest granddaughter, Deann’s girl, was about 5 years old she was saying her prayers one night when she suddenly asked her mother if heaven was above us or below us. Deann thought a minutes and said, “I think it is above us, Why?” “Well,” said Karin, “if heaven is above us then when God looks down on us while we are praying all he sees is a lot of hair!” Interesting thought isn’t it?
This post reminds me a little of my childhood on Walnut Hill Ln in Provo. Those were some difficult years for our family but I do have lots of good memories of teh summer just like yours. I remember one day in particular I went to my friend Hillary’s house and we played outside ALL day. I remember walking home at dusk and noticing my legs hurt where my shorts were rubbing and my shoulders felt really hot. I came inside and you gasped, I guess I was red as a lobster. You gave me a big glass of water and sent me to bed. When I woke up the next day it felt like my skin was thick and hot and it hurt to move and to touch it. You smeared aloe all over me and after a few weeks it was kind of fun to peel off the burnt skin. Sounds kinda gross, but you did it too!!!
We used to pull our red wagon up the hill and ride down to the corner; I think we must have been going about a million miles an hour, I’m suprized I never broke a bone.
We all had bikes and rode them everyday during the summer. Do you remember my bike with the bananna seat and the u-curved handlebars? Lydia used to sit in the handlebars and I would pump her around everywhere.
We were friends with all the kids on the street, except for that one little blond girl whose house was down by teh irrigation ditch. I think her name was Tara’ as I recal she was kind of a girly-girl and didn’t like to get dirty, so we didn’t play with her.
I spent lots of time at LeeAnn’s house, it seemed like she always had new kittens. Her mother also kept fresh milk in teh fridge with cream on top, I thought that was really gross.
I remember climbing the big cherry tree in the back yard and reading and eating cherries all day. I must have eaten at least a bushel of cherries each summer while we lived there.
We (Lydia, Hillary, LeeAnn and I) used to ask Brother Huges if we could sleep in his yard in our sleeping bags and I used to look at the stars too and wonder if God was watching us. It seemed like whenever I thought about that a ladybug would crawl on my hand. I’ve always thought about God when I see ladybugs, isn’t that funny?