Two Pretty Girls

Two pretty girls moved into a house across the street and "good grief," I was in love again. They were twins, I think and they were always smiling. Now I was in love with 3 girls and my teacher. I wondered if anyone else had the same problem, I never asked.

A girl from up the street started coming around and she would always sneak up behind me and give me a good shove. I mentioned it to Mother one day and she said it's because she likes you. What a strange world, I didn't think it would be wise for me to start pushing the girls I liked around.

One day the girl invited me to go on a picnic with her to black hill. I went expecting some good sandwiches, but the sandwich was white bread and ketchup. As soon as I got the chance, when she wasn't looking, I buried it in the sand. She was so happy that I ate the whole thing.

My Own Little Business

When Lois and I went home from Wildwood each year, we had a few weeks to do what we had to do at home, and then it was time to go back to school. I use to go to the farm down the street with Grandpop (My Dad) We would help clean the horseradish. That smell went up my nose, burnt my eyes and made me want to get out of there, and still I went back. Mr. Green always had his radio on. I think it only had one station. Right after we got there each day, the man on the radio said, "This is singing Sam, your sunny smiling man." Daddy and Mr. Green would talk man talk as they worked And I would wonder off to the corner in the hay to play with the little kittens.
Lois and I would walk through the Corn Field to go to the store with Mother's list
of groceries . I had a Goat cart with two large wheels. It had two handles that looked like sticks to pull it with.
One day a lady asked me it I could take her groceries home for her. I did, and she gave me money. Wow, That gave me an Idea. I could do that more often , So I started my first little business.

The Boy Next Door

The boy living next door to us on 4th ave. was named George Darnell and when Aunt's Lois and Wilda were down for 2 weeks, they teased him by playing a popular song at that time. I believe it started out like this, "georgie porgie pumpkin pie, kissed the girls and made them cry." There was as old piano in the garage and they played that song over and over. I heard him saying, "I'll be glad when they go home, I'm sick and tired of that dumb song."

Crabbing

There used to be so little traffic on the road leading into North Wildwood, that it was a pleasure to crab and fish from the small bridges. We used to get quite a few crabs off them. I guess Dad didn't know about all the clams about there, because he never took us clamming. There were no closed waters in those days.

I liked the salt water fish much better than the fresh water fish we used to get in PA. They didn't have that strong fish taste. My favorite was flounder. Fried flounder on rye bread with coleslaw and tarter sauce was my pick of all fish. Add fries and it's fit for a king.

A Peck of Dirt

Uncle John was down visiting us and had to get some work done on his car at the garage. He took Jim and I with him and while we were waiting, he took us into a bar to get sodas for us and a beer for him. He also got me a little box of hard candy which I spilled all over the floor when I was trying to open it. A lady at the bar said "don't worry kid, you have to eat a peck of dirt before you die." I didn't know what a peck was, but I figured I was safe and put them all back in the box for later.

We got a lot of visitors from PA in those days, I guess they all wanted to see what Wildwood was like.

Our Church

Mother and Dad made an agreement that we would go to the church nearest to our house. It happened to be a Methodist church, so that is why we became Methodists. I liked it and our Sunday school teacher was very nice. I also got to see my girl Cookie more often, she also was a member.

It was getting close to Christmas and the church gave each of us a great big stocking filled with all kinds of good things. Mother made a chalk drawing of Santa Claus and we took it to school. The teacher was thrilled with it and hung it up in front of the class.

Our Teacher

We got a new teacher, fresh out of college and she was the only pretty teacher in the whole school. I don't know if she was aware of it, but every boy in the class was in love with her. I saw in the newspaper a few years ago that she died and she never got married. That was very surprising to me.

She actually spoiled me, because I thought all teachers would be as nice as her. I didn't have a nice teacher again until the 7th grade. That's one of the reasons I never cared for school.