Bob's Bright Fragments of Childhood

At random. The neighbors: The Johnsons, Tom, Ruth, and Billy, Ray Rohrer, The Vergaine kids, The Reichenbergs, The McFarlands. Burning my hand while playing with gasoline. I was trying to make smoke come out of the smoke stack of a toy steamshovel. (Mom cried and Dad was mad!) The gardens. Barbara getting spanked because she wouldn’t take her medicine. Bernie’s broken arm while ice skating. Trips to Cordova to visit the Rodgers and playing slot machines in a bar there. The Petersons. Tom Johnson cutting down a tree and knocking out the power lines. Mr. Rohrer killing chickens by pulling off their heads. (They ran around with no heads for a while.) The orchard and spraying. Camping out in tents in the orchard. The outhouse! Gathering nuts and Grandpa’s black hands from shelling walnuts. Swimming trips to Campbell’s Island. Iris’s wedding. The Erector Set. Tinker toys. Cap guns. Homemade kites. Annual picnics at Riverside Park. Mom’s luck at cards. Poker games with Art and Eileen Cordingly. The well, and hauling water when it went dry. Making ketchup. Watermelon pickles. Fried mush. Home-made French fries. Gramp’s coffee can under the bed. My first pair of Levi’s. M-80s (now illegal in the U.S.) Bike trips to the fireworks stand on 23rd Avenue. Building the addition onto the house. Living in the basement during hot weather. Two feet of water in the basement. The coal bin. The coal stoker. Sitting out back with a salt shaker eating tomatoes. The home-made tree sprayer on wheels. The Chinese Elm in the back yard. The mailbox millstone. (It’s still there. It can be seen in a picture in Carol’s memories on page 174.)