Friday, September 30, 2016

That's The Life For Me


 I have said many times that I lived in very small towns when I was a child. They were idyllic places to be. Children had a lot of freedom to come and go without fear.

Everybody knew everybody else in town. Adults looked out for children. If there was a problem parents could be called. We were as safe as possible.

The best thing about small town living was the community. Everyone attended community events. I already told you about watermelon day. There is more.

There were pancake breakfasts.  I remember one especially. It was at the library. For a nominal fee you had all the pancakes with syrup that you could eat. Sausages were the meat that day. It was great fun eating with other citizens of town and the surrounding farms.

I of course did not realize it at the time but those breakfasts were fund raisers. The library (which my family used all the time), the fire department, the VFW... all the organizations that served the town needed a little boost in funding. Pancakes were inexpensive to make.

The library had other festivals. Some were fund raisers. Others were simply fun activities to remind us how much fun the library is. Sometimes we would have cleaning parties to dust the books and shelves. It was fun.

School sports programs were community activities. The whole town attended football and basketball games for the boys and volleyball for the girls. We cheered out team. We bought snacks from the concession stands that helped with funding. And we had a great time besides.

Speaking of school all the grades went to the same school. Kindergarten through 12th grade. Every grading period there was a parents' night when parents could discuss the children's progress.

The teachers were members of the community so they knew the parents and the children. So these were another social event.

What I liked most was that each classroom was expected to perform at each of these events. The lower grades had three grades to a room so there were not as many performances as you might think.

What was fun for me was that there were far more boys than girls in the school. If a room was doing a dance they had to borrow girls from other rooms. I got to show off again! I am a terrible ham you must know.

My teachers also recognized the ham. And they knew that I had a good memory. I was given long poems to memorize and recite as the stage was being redesigned for a new act. I still remember pieces of all those poems.

Halloween is second only to Christmas for me. The reason is the little town life. We decorated all over town. We dressed up in our costumes and made sure we had a good supply of large paper grocery bags.

When we were finally allowed we went out for trick-or-treat. Every house had a treat for us. Some of the treats were candy bars (full sized of course),  cupcake cups full of smaller candies (including the dreaded candy corn), coins (a lot of pennies and some nickels with an occasional dime), homemade cookies, cupcakes (and sometimes a slice of a real cake), and candied apples.

When our large paper grocery bags would fill we took them home and grabbed another one. We then went back out for more goodies. We did not stop until we hit every house in town.

By the time we were finished we were so tired that bed was where we wanted to be. That was when the older kids went out to pull their pranks. My favorite was the outhouse placed at the main intersection of town.

If a child had a birthday party every child in that grade was invited. Events were all-inclusive. My mother was a master at unique parties. Each of us had one party in our lives. Each party was memorable.

On Valentine's Day we all made valentines to give to the other children in our room. No one was left out. We also took a treat to share with everyone so there was a party. Fun.

May Day was another day we celebrated. My first was when I was 5 years old. Using huge paper cupcake cups we filled them with goodies and anything to make them pretty. A pipe cleaner was used as a handle to make a May basket. We made them for each child in our grade.

My mother explained to me that I was to take the basket to the door of the child that lived in that house, knock on the door, then run. If the child caught me they got to give me a kiss.

I followed her directions to the letter. As I jumped into the car my mother was laughing hysterically. She did not make it clear that I was supposed to leave the basket on the doorstep! I still had it in my hand. Of course Susan Otradostey gave me a big kiss on the cheek when I dejectedly got out of the car to give her the basket.

I love small town life.

24 comments:

  1. Lol. Love this post. Such great memories of life in a small town. I wonder if it still exists anywhere today?

    The cupcake paper basket idea is new to me. Clever!

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    1. I have not seen May baskets for years. A lot of community events have been abandoned I am afraid. What a shame. Cupcake cups are handy for holding smaller items. When decorated they can hold appetizers, after dinner candies, small gifts... well I guess you get the idea.

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  2. It sounds very like my childhood, in a small neighborhood in a big city.

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    1. That is probably where you get the loyalty you feel for the community you are in now.

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  3. If you got caught leaving a May basket you were suppose to get a kiss. Never did. My town has scouts doing pancakes this weekend along with the library having a garage and book sale for the 3rd time. I will miss it, going to KC for a Japanese festival.

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    1. That was the problem. I was not told I was supposed to leave it. There are community dinners several times a year here at the church. But so far no breakfasts.

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  4. You paint a beautiful picture. I could do a small town. It seems like a nice life.

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    1. I would not want to return to the city for anything. I am a small town girl.

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  5. Emma, you are such a wonderful storyteller! You remind me so much of my beautiful Aunt Bonnie, who told wonderful stories of growing-up in the country and small towns, when she was just a little girl living in Kentucky.
    Storytellers are almost a thing of the past. Thank you for this wonderful post and this lovely story from your childhood. Especially the part about Halloween :}

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    1. Thank you. This comment means so much to me. Telling family stories is important to me. An old Irish saying tells us we are who we come from. How do we know who we come from without the stories? If you have not done so before please start passing on your family stories to the little ones. I was visiting my two oldest grandchildren when they were small and of course telling family stories. As I was leaving my son said, "I don't know why you bothered telling the stories. I tell them and the kids don't listen." I looked and him and had only a soft loving reply. "I never thought you were listening wither."

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  6. Thank you, Emma, small town life sounds very sensible - giving children room to unfold. What is a "Ham" in the way you use it?

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    1. I am not sure of a dictionary definition. Basically a "Ham" is an actor who needs to be in the spotlight and perhaps will overact to be noticed. Of course I WOULD NEVER OVERACT. I do like being the center of attention. I have never had stage fright because I like performing (even if I give a bad performance).

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  7. Emma, thanks for the link. I will never look at the trees lost to erosion the same way again! I will follow that blog too. It looks interesting.

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    1. Ratty who is the author was in a terrible car accident a few years ago and has not completely recovered even today. He does not post as often as he used to. But I wish people who like what he writes would go back into some of the older posts and read them too. He has had some fantastic adventures.

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  8. You know, it always bothered me that on the Peanuts cartoon, that Charlie Brown didn't get any Valentines. You would give each person in your class a Valentine, didn't you?

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    1. Of course I did. Everybody did so that does not make me a more wonderful person. It is the way we were taught. Each person matters as much as every other person.

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  9. Living in a small town on the VA eastern shore for 12 years, some of the events ypu mentioned were also held in churches there. There is more a sense of community and we are glad to have shared in it.

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    1. You know what I mean. It seems a lot of you have enjoyed the small town experience. Yay!

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  10. This reminds me of where I grew up.
    R

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    1. It was a great time for children. Things are tougher for them now.

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  11. My Halloween was similar to yours. It was safer back then. For the older kids their "terrible" prank was to fill an old sock with chalk and hit the street and sidewalk with it leaving colorful chalk marks. It felt like we were doing something so bad. It all washed away with the first rain.

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    1. Oooooh. I never heard of the sock and chalk thing. I like it.

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  12. I do enjoy staying in a small town where everyone knows each other.
    And everyone helps each other when problems arise.

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    1. And they mind their own business at other times. We do not feel the need to know everything but we are there for each other when needed.

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