A Blast From The Past

Maybe it started with the old doo-wahs that Richard, our good neighbor and helper on 31st Street gave me. I was instantly taken back to Gary, Indiana's hot sultry nights when the street lights came on and we were required to be on the porch. Oh those long nights--too hot to go to bed (pre-air for most folks) and nothing else to do except radio--Living with Vivian (Vivian Carter of Vee Jay records fame--the Spaniels, Goodnight Sweetheart and many more) and on a good night, Randy out of Nashville, Tennessee, I believe. Oh what nights. I was a tween and my friends Maxine and Margie could think of so much mischief to get into from that porch between the time the street lights came on and maybe 1 am, depending on how impossible it was to get comfortable in our tiny apartments. Those were the days--sweet innocence. Vivian called those of us under 18 powder puffs and everybody else sponges. I guess we were soft and tender not yet having absorbed life's lessons and toughened by God knows what. I listened and remembered. My how far the journey, away from Gary (It had become foreign to me) to our neighbor to the West-- Chicago and back to the Dunes country and now Kansas City--31st Street. Many things to remember--some happy, funny, some sad but all a part of who I am now--all a part of my relationship to the many people I meet on 31st Street.

I found some pictures stored away in a drawer since movin g to Kansas City. There's my brother 1st Lt. Ronald, lean and mean in January 69, securing Highway 1 between DaNang and Chu Lai and another in Jump School always confident and brilliant. Dance books are passe but I found mine from the sophomore class party of Tolleston High School. Pardon me if I say I was stunning in my sister's pink sheath dress with black suede spike heels. I can tell from the guys recorded that I dance the night away 7-9:30 p.m. And I have the commencement announce--the first of new beginnings and pictures of U of I at Chicago commencement procession. No one would have bet a plug nickle that I'd make it past Tolleston.

I found Mama's evangelist license and a newspaper announcement for State Sunday School Superintendent Piggee's week long Sunday School Convention. Now, I am beginning to see the light and understand what makes me tick. There are scads of pictures of kids with salutations on the back to Mrs. Piggee, counselor Lake County Children's Home. I remember that she'd bring two or three kids home to our tiny ranch style home for Christmas. They had no one to pick them up for the holidays. I got a double or triple whammy--daddy's call, mama's caring and Ronald's determination. I'm a SPONGE now Vivian, but the girl on the porch, the sophomore, the mischief maker is just a doo wah or two away.