A Time Remembered

Well here goes. I am going to attempt to write some of the memories from my childhood. Maybe some day my grandchildren or great-grandchildren will put them in a book. Most of the stories that I will write took place in the 1940's and 50's. That was a time when a dollar would give you a half tank of gas, five cents would buy a Hershey bar that was twice the size of the Hershey bars today and you could go to the movies for 25 cents and see a cartoon, a serial, the weekly news and a full length film. You could even stay and watch the whole show over again if you wanted. These were good times for kids. We didn't have TV so we spent our time outside, playing in the woods, running in the fields, riding our bikes and just having general good fun.
Our family consisted of mom, dad , my sister (who was 4 years yonger than I) and myself. We lived in an apartment on the second floor of a house owned by my grandparents. Grandmother, granddaddy and an invalid aunt lived on the first floor. There was a room in the attic that was inhabited by several folks over the years. The first I remember was a nurse we called Aunt Bert, who was not really a member of the family.

Through the years several family members lived in the house. Jean, a cousin, who was the product of a broken home, an aunt and uncle and their three boys, my great-grandmother(Dad's grandmother, my other grandmother(Mom's mother) and various other visitors. It seems that grandmother's table always had at least 10 places set at one time, many times there were more.

Our Aunt Gladys, who had MS for years and coiuld not walk, was confined to a rocking chair in the front room of the house. That was where everyone congregated. My sister and I loved to go downstairs to her room and visit with all of the friends and relatives there. There is something positive to be said for an extended family living in one place. There were good times and bad times in that house. I hope that over the next few weeks or months I will be able to make you understand what wonderful things happened there.