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Growing up with Don and Duane, by Kay

(Photos provided by Kay)

Able Street

Dad trading in the '53 Chevy for the '54 Olds was a nice benefit for me.  Don's best friend Jim Nelson's parents set Jim up with his own business while he was still in high school, thus the beginning of Jimmy's Drive-In on Hwy 10, one of our high school hangouts.  That gave me an in to working for Jim.  I only had a driver's permit and I planned to walk to work.  After all, us kids had never had a problem walking to get somewhere.  Dad didn't like the idea of me walking that far to work, so he gave me the '54 Olds to drive for the whole summer.  He said just drive the speed limit and take the back road, not Hwy 65. And, I was to only use the car for work.  I never broke any of the rules.  I don't remember for sure, but I believe Dad had the Morris Minor and a motorcycle at that time. So he had others means of transportation.  Dad was quite strict in many ways but had a soft spot for making us kids' lives a little easier, even when it was the wrong thing to do.  

Our other hangouts while in high school were the bowling alley and the roller rink.   Those were truly “Happy Days”.  



Bemidji

I remember those days when the men went to the bar while the ladies went shopping.  Having grown up with two brothers and mostly boys in our neighborhood on Bronson, I was always "one of the boys".  I remember wishing just once I could go to the bar with the guys, but never expressed it.  Mom and Grandma would not have approved.  So I never got to taste what a Stite's was like.  



South Minneapolis (Snelling Avenue)

Kay - First Grade

Charles, the black sixth grade boy next door, also gave me rides in the little red wagon.  He liked taking me to the little local store and buying me candy.  As with Duane, Mom was very nervous about that, perhaps more so because I was a little girl.   Now Mom never gave permission for me to go off with Charles.   Us kids would be outside playing and Charles just wanted to be friends with us.  I'm guessing the rides may have stopped when Mom found out.  



Bronson Drive





In addition to building our house with recycled lumber, Dad made us a swing.  I remember being in awe of how tall it was.  Being only seven it looked like it went into the sky.  After much use the rope which was wrapped around the wood cross-bar had frayed.  One day I got to swinging high when the rope broke and I flew through the air.  I wasn't hurt and remember laughing about it.
I still remember that exhilarating feeling of flying through the air.  

In addition to building our fort, us kids also built stilts from the left-over lumber.  We never became experts on them but kept trying.  

Audrey and Trigger.
The double story fort is in the background.


The three of us often went to Rice Creek.  There was a swimming hole there where we would meet up with other kids.  The new Highway 65 was being constructed and there was a bridge that went over the creek.  The underneath construction included a concrete base in the water and there was a current there.  This was located a ways west of the swimming hole.  One day the three of us walked up to where the bridge crossed the creek.  We sat down in the water and let the current take us for a ride on the cement base of the bridge.   It was really fun, so we did it several times.   And then Don and Duane observed a hole in the butt of my bathing suit!   So we walked back to the swimming hole with my brothers walking close behind me so the other kids wouldn’t see my butt, and continued on home.   I think that was the first and last time we rode the current at the bridge.  

We also went to Rice Creek to fish for bullheads.  Don was always the one to teach Duane and me how to do stuff.   He taught us the proper way to bait our hooks with a worm and we would sit on the edge of the bridge with our lines in the water (the bridge was not yet in use for traffic).  I don’t remember if Duane took his bullheads off his hook, but I never could get up the nerve to ever even touch those things.  No worries...   Don always willingly took mine off the hook.   Then we would walk back home where Don cleaned them so Mom could cook them up for us.  


Mom The Doctor

Besides softball and the other things Don and Duane mentioned, we played croquet.  One time Duane used a claw hammer to pound in a stake.  That did not go well and he wound up splitting his head open.  Walt and Lil were there and Mom and Lil cleaned the wound, put our old standby Unguentine on the wound and wrapped Duane's head with gauze.  

When we played softball I most often was the pitcher.  At one game someone hit a line drive right at me.  I instinctively put up my left hand and the ball hit my hand hard.  My wrist went limp.  I held my wrist and hand with my right hand and went to Mom.  She wrapped my wrist and hand in gauze and made a sling with a dish towel. This was in early fall and school had started with me entering 4th grade.  So for a couple of weeks or so I, being a lefty, was excused from having to do any homework.  

We also played football.  I was a skinny girl, but strong and tough.  So I willingly played it the right way with the boys - tackle football.  






School Days


The Arsenal

Kay - Third Grade

The Arsenal was a whole different kind of school experience.  I have never forgotten the food poisoning experience.  I never liked rice pudding and always turned it down.  That day though I decided I would go ahead and give it a try.  I was one of those kids who tried to eat everything.  Boy, did I regret that choice.  I have never been so sick in my life.  To this day I have not eaten rice pudding again.  

And that first time we went to that school? When the bus did not turn where it would take us directly home, I panicked.  We were familiar with that road so we knew it well.  I insisted we get off the bus.  Don tried to convince me the bus would get us home, but I would have none of it.  I said I was getting off and headed to the door (I could be a pretty stubborn little girl).  So Don said, "Come on Duane, we can't let her walk home alone".  

There were lots of lizards all around that school yard and the boys would catch them and chase the girls down the outdoor stairwells that lead to locked doors.   There was a lot of screaming.  

At the end of one of the two school years that we attended the Arsenal they served us ice cream outdoors. It was a hot day and they kept the ice cream on dry ice. They warned us not to touch it.  But Shirley just had to test it.  I begged her not to but she would not listen. Worse yet, she put it in her mouth.   That did not end well and she needed medical attention.  


The Little White School House

Kay - Second Grade

Don, Duane and I attended the Little White Schoolhouse when we were in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade.  We all sat in one room, with each class having about three rows of students.  In the cold winter days when the big furnace in that room was running, Ms. Hennessy let us bring potatoes to school.  She put them on top of the furnace and by lunch time a tasty baked potato awaited us.  And they made the room smell so good.  

I think Don was a bit upset with me when I insisted getting off that bus on Hwy 10.  But at this one-room school I embarrassed him (and myself).  We all went outside for recess and Ms. Hennessy asked if anyone had a game they would like to play.  I was a shy child, but after Ms. Hennessy did not punish me for being left-handed I got a little brave.  I put my hand up and she called on me.  She asked what I would like us to play.  I had no idea!   So my mind scrambled for something and I blurted out, "Jack Jumped Over The Candlestick".  She asked how the game was played.  I had to say something!   So I said we all jump over the candlestick. Ms. Hennessy handled it well.  She helped me find a stick to play the part of the candlestick.  We stuck it in the ground and Ms. Hennessy had all the kids line up and we all jumped over the candlestick.   And I got to go first! Don and I reminessed about that at one of Mom's birthday parties at the Old Country Buffet.  He told me that when I put my hand up and was chosen, he said to himself, "Oh no, she's going to say something stupid!" We had a good laugh over that.  



How did Mom spend her days at Bronson Drive when the kids were out of school for the summer? She did laundry a lot.  

Yes, she did, and she had a helper.  After Don and Duane filled the tub with hot water and took off for the day, it was my turn.   Once the clothes were washed, I helped Mom put the clothes through the ringer into the big wash tub that was filled with cold water.  We then pushed and squeezed the clothes around to force the soap out of the clothing.  Then back through the wringer.  Then I helped Mom hang everything outside to dry.  

Now I had some free time.  I would play hopscotch, jacks, twirl my baton, jump rope.  I also threw a ball on the roof of the garage so it could roll down and bounce once before catching it.   I would challenge myself to see how many times I could do a trick before catching it.  I would start out doing the trick one time.  Then each time I threw the ball I would increase my trick by one more.  

Our clothes dried pretty fast on those hot summer days. So then Mom and I took the clothes in and sprinkled them, wrapped them in dish towels and let them sit for a couple of hours.  Then it was time to iron.  Mom taught me how to iron everything.  Dad's uniforms, shirts, the boys' jeans, dresses, even t-shirts.  We ironed just about everything.  To make chores more fun I viewed them as works of art.  I would think about how everything would become pretty and new again.  

Laundry in the winter was interesting.  We hung the clothes outside then too.  Guess we needed to get that fresh air smell to them.  They froze solid like boards. Then we'd take them in and hang them in the utility room to drip dry on newspapers spread out below them.  

And that big wash tub?  Before we had a bathroom Don, Duane and I took baths in it.  There was no changing the water for each of our baths because it was a lot of work to get it ready.  I always got the first bath because Mom said girls go first.   Then Don and Duane got their baths in used bath water.  

One year we had a total eclipse.  Don learned what we needed to do to view it without harming our eyes.  This was the old days, so it involved using negatives.  The three of us climbed onto the roof to get the best view possible.  We were in awe.

One day Don drove the motorcycle with me on the back. I just sat there very casually not holding on, when we hit a bump in the road.  I went up and came down standing in the middle of the road.  Don went a little ways before he noticed I was missing.  







We played a lot of games on a card table set up in Don and Duane’s room.  We also put puzzles together, and not little kid puzzles.   Don had a rule that we could look at the picture on the box one time and then do the puzzle without looking again.  Duane and I did not like that rule and we would beg and badger Don to let us see it again. Duane and I won that argument.  

Like Duane, my favorite game was caroms.  Was glad to see Roger post it in olden days stuff.  Brought back happy memories.  

We learned to ride a bike on Bronson Drive.  As with pretty much everything, Don taught Duane and me how to ride.  Don, being the oldest, got a bike first.  So we learned on his.  Don got Duane going on Bronson and he turned into our driveway at a pretty good clip.  Just before hitting the garage door, Duane bailed off.  I remember Don and I standing there watching in disbelief. No one told him how to brake.   Guess we assumed Duane knew how.

I guess it's no surprise Don became a school teacher.  He prepped for it his whole life.  

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