Other Neighbors

We had other neighbors as well as the ones I've described.  There was the Grover Adams family that lived on Highway 25.  Mr. Adams was a carpenter by trade and one of the most precise individuals that I ever knew.  He wore his work clothes as if he were ready for church at any time - not fancy duds, but clean and ironed and carried well by a gentleman.  Mrs Louise Adams was one of those little ladies that you just had to love.  She referred to her husband as Mr. Adams and would go out of her way to make you feel at home - even if you were a little kid.  Their daughter, Elizabeth was quiet and stately.  She was a physics and chemistry teacher at our High School and a brilliant individual.  She taught me to develop and print photographs and tried to teach me physics.  I was not capable of physics in my teenage state and regret dropping her class to this day.

There were the Lathrens, the Murphy's, the Purvis' and the Mitchells whom I visited at various times.  Mrs. Murphy (Florence was her name) tried valiantly to teach me to play piano.  I really hated piano and eventually just refused to go back to her house.  I don't think that Mrs. Murphy was upset about my decision.  There's just so much patience in a woman!

For a couple of years I tried to sell GRIT newspapers.  If I worked hard enough and long enough, I could sell about 24 papers on a Saturday.  That amounted to about 48 cents profit.  There's no regret there, just wonderment that a 10 year old would pedal a bicycle for 10 miles for less than a half dollar.  Maybe a lot of those stories about my elevator not going all the way to the top were more factual that many thought!

I never broke a window in anyone's home with a baseball nor trampled in their flowerbeds, but I did sneak on their land from time to time to purloin watermelons, cantelopes, an ear of corn here and there and of course apples and pears when they were ripe.