Another installment from my journal that my daughter Meghan asked me to keep.
What were your neighbors like?
I grew up from birth to college in a small town called Knowlesville. Actually, it was not even considered a town, but a hamlet, composed of just three streets. And one of the streets was not a street at all and had a fancy name of West Avenue. But we called it Back Street instead. We knew everyone and everyone knew us. It was the kind of place where if you didn’t hear your mother call you for dinner, someone else did, and told you. We were neighbors. Being a very shy girl, I did much more observing than socializing. But some of the strongest bonds that I had were with a few sweet neighbors that are significant to me to this day. It’s funny now that I think about it, they were mostly of the grandparent type….a perfect fit for me, being grandparentless!
I can see their faces and with fondness remember Esther and her tatting, knitting and crocheting. The pastors who had young wives and babies that I could play with. Sealy Palmer and his wiener dog, who was, in our childish minds, the one that was most scary and mysterious. Audrey, like a second mom to me ( who always cut the crusts off sandwiches, which was very swanky, in my opinion), taught me how to love and protect her disabled daughter,Joanne. Joanne still calls me every year on my birthday to sing to me! And Jan, another of the women who was so influential in my life…always involved in a creative project or three or seven!
God lived next door to the south. It was the
Judge Anderson and his wife lived to the north, our properties separated by flowering shrubs, and row of hollyhocks. They were an older couple, and I loved when Mrs. Anderson would invite me for games of 500 Rummy on their big front porch. She’d serve up peanut butter sandwiches on Monk’s bread, and root beer floats. They had a splendid, somewhat secluded backyard with a big rope swing, and a huge carriage house where her grandchildren and I would spy on a great horned owl that slept there during the day.
Interesting that with God on one side and the Judge on the other, I still found myself in trouble a lot.
On the other side of the church, Bessie and Harry lived. She cut my hair every month into a pixie, right there in her own little beauty shop that was at the back of her house! I was so shy that I could hardly say hello to her as I would walk or ride my bike past. She would inevitably give me a kind-hearted teasing about it. I knew Bessie was good people because she always had treats for our dog, and allowed me to play in her huge, expansive back lawn that stretched all the way to Back Street. I would imagine it was a great wide prairie and that I was Laura Ingalls.
Buelah and Bill lived a few houses further down from Bessie, and if I was riding or walking by Bessie’s house, it was in all likelihood to go visit with Beulah and Bill and their dog Lady. What can I say about the Suttons? I loved them. I loved being with them. They had such a fond affection for one another, and for Lady, who, much to my surprise, got a Christmas stocking under the tree every year! When my mother worked, I would go to Beulah and Bill’s house before school to catch the bus. Beulah always offered a snack, and showed my through her gardens, and how to squeeze the snap dragons so their mouths opened and closed. We read together and listened to music and they were always interested in my schoolwork. In their home, I was their honored guest. I felt important and loved, which was not always how I otherwise felt as an awkward, shy and chubby kid.
I still think of the day that Bessie comforted me when I learned that Beulah had died. It was what neighbors did.
They all shaped me in some way or another. I wonder if any of them realize the impact of their being good neighbors and loving friends....the influence they had on my life.
