Category: Childhood Memories

We had a milk chute at our home at 500 North Edgeworth.  The entire neighborhood had one.  Ours was an opening on the side of the house near the side door.  The opening allowed us to place empty milk bottles inside the chute and the milkman to deliver fresh ones through the outside.  A few …

I’m not a big fan of Halloween.  When I was young I liked the getting free candy part, but I never liked getting scared to death.  I’m Ok with funny, but choose to avoid scary at all costs.  I appreciate a good joke and laughter, but hate feeling  like I should pull the covers over …

I contemplated becoming a race car driver in my early teens. If I made the move, I would have favored road races.  I didn’t see the point of racing around an oval track.  I saw it as a series of left hand turns. Road races were more my style.  You made right as well as …

The kids in the neighborhood played cowboys and Indians.  Sometimes we were just cowboys, and if we played that way, there were good and bad guys.  Good guys protected damsels in distress, guarded the cattle from rustlers, warded off swindlers, and made sure the stage with the strong box got through.   When we played …

I’ve been a Detroit Tiger fan for as long as I can remember.  When the kids in the neighborhood played pickup games, we often adopted the name of a Tiger.  For several years, I was Frank Bolling.  Bill Graham was Charlie “Paw Paw” Maxwell.  Bill and Charlie were both lefties. Charlie was from Paw Paw, …

With little sports action on TV these days, I’ve been revisiting my youth and what we “watched back in the day”. There was a weekly televised event in 1960 called the Home Run Derby.  The Derby ran for twenty-six episodes. Each episode featured two current, high profile, baseball stars.  One represented the American League and …

Sixty-six years ago, I was a Polio Pioneer.  I still have a certificate and Polio Pioneer pin to prove it.  I was seven years old and in Mrs. Davies second grade class at Lincoln Elementary.  Being a “pioneer” was a big deal.   Polio, short for poliomyelitis, or infantile paralysis, is an infectious disease caused …

Ruth and I traveled to the upper peninsula the first week of August.  All the kids were there so we joined them.  Sutton and Elizabeth were making one last stop in the mitten before heading west.  David and his family joined them to go camping. Mike and Kate flew in from California and camped a …

My discussion with my mom about my artwork was short lived.  I had been ill  and home from school a couple of years prior.  While I was home she tossed a couple dozen “your body is changing” books on my bed and told me to read them. “If you have any questions, just ask.” I …

The day after the fire Mom and Dad had to find us a place to live.     Grandpa Barner had an open flat above his Detroit home on Troester, so we moved in there.  It was a simple apartment.  It had a couple of small bedrooms, a  kitchen, living room and a bath.  We …