You would be amazed at the things that people living in my generation didn't have that you take for granted now days. But if you stop and look back, and one should always stop and look back to see what happened and remember, you too will find many things that you didn't have when you were growing up that is common place in your adult years.
I really can't remember the house we lived in but I do seem to recall that we were on a hill, the left side of the street going down the hill. Why can I remember this? Well for one thing I do remember that the school my brothers and I attended at that time was down the hill, across the main street and on a rather large plot of ground. I do have a recollection of a class room I was in but only another faded memory. It was typical for that period, small chairs and tables with the teacher's desk in the front of the room. I believe a blackboard was behind her desk.
You probably don't know what a blackboard is. You see, in my childhood, schools all had blackboards which were made out of slate. Slate is a black, natural stone of a dense molecular structure that can be easily split. Slate has many uses ranging from school blackboards to roofing. In the early 1900s, slate was the material of choice for writing surfaces for schools, hence the name, blackboard. You wrote on the blackboard with chalk, which generally was white. At least chalk was always white while I was a kid. Later on, high school and college, chalk became colored, which greatly enhanced the visual effect. Schooling was always important to my parents and then pasted that on to me. It was clearly understood the my brothers and I would go to college after high school. There was never, ever, any discussion of us not going to college. Schooling ended upon graduate from college. This I passed on to my son, Chris. And he is passing this notion on to his two boys - college is the key to a better life.
One incident that I clearly remember is the "telephone pole incident". Unlike today's neighborhood, well at least the newer neighborhoods, there were telephone polls everywhere. Not only were there telephone lines on the polls but electrical lines too. I am not exactly sure how far apart the polls were but there always was one on each corner or intersection of roads. Naturally, there was one at the bottom of our street on our side of the main street across from the school.
One day, I for some reason decided that I was not going to school. I believe I must have been in kindergarten at the time. Not a difficult time for most kids except that it probably was the first time that kids are away from their brothers, sisters, and parents. This is not true today. A large percentage of kindergarten and younger aged kids today spend more time away from home and their parents that they do with them. Why? Because the parents want their kids to have everything and, to obtain this level for the kids, both parents work. This allows the parents to "have more stuff" for themselves and their kids. "Stuff" is anything that is not necessary for living other than food, housing, clothing and medicine. I really shouldn't talk as I have more "stuff" now than I ever have had. But I am digressing from my store.
Here is what happened or so I am told. On the way to school one day, my brother Jim and I was walking down the hill towards school. Crossing the main street was not a problem or so I assume now as most schools in my day had crossing guards, generally older more responsible kids whose job was to insure that the young kids got safely across the street. About the time we reached the main street and crossing corner I decided that I was not going to school. Why no one seems to know. To make sure that I would not go to school, I wrapped my arms around the nearest telephone poll and hung on for dear life. Jim first tried to talk me in to going to school but when that failed he resorted to physical measures, i.e. hitting my arms and hands and trying to pry me away from the poll. Alas, his attempts failed, why I am not sure but perhaps because at that age, I was probably five and he was only six, we were evenly matched.
After repeated attempt to get me away the poll met with failure each time, Jim had no choice but to run back up the hill and get Mom. I am not sure of the outcome but I have been told that I didn't go to school that day. Maybe I didn't site down for a bit after my Mom fetched me back up the hill. I lived with that "pole" memory for quite a few years after that and my brothers constantly reminded me of the incident. Shortly after this incident the family moved once more. Since Dad was in retailing and for some reason he seemed to be moving around quite a bit.
