Sunday - childhood nostalgia day

Dad is doing much better today. The incision sites are less painful and he had a pretty good night's sleep...mostly in bed and only a few hours (from 5:00 to 7:00) in the recliner. He's going to attempt a shower soon...with the catheter in place. Hopefully the dressing will keep it from getting wet. If it does, they can change it when he goes in for more shots this afternoon.

So now for the slide show from places yesterday...Dad's childhood neighborhood:

Here's the house on Walnut Street where Dad lived from the time he was born until after he finished second grade.

This, again, is the house from a different angle. If you look between the two houses (the family house is on the left) there is a bumped out area on the right side of the house. Just to the front side of that is where the "hanging tree" was. For those of you who are not family, here is the story: One day, Leo and his older brother, Larry, and his younger brother, Lenny, were outside playing "elevator". Well, Leo and Larry, being older, decided who would be the passenger (I'm sure you're starting to get the story). So the only apparatus they had available was a rope and Lenny was the designated passenger to go "up". So they put the rope around Lenny's neck (they really didn't think they were doing bodily harm to him). Then the decision was made to send Lenny up the elevator. While this was going on, their mom was in her bedroom (the bump out area) cleaning, or whatever. She happened to look out the window (you can see the window on the right side face of that bump out area) and sees her youngest son dangling in the tree with his tongue sticking out (or so says Leo). Think of her situation...she has to get from that window, out the door, and around to the tree. Apparently she was a fast runner, and needless to say, Lenny is alive today. We won't get into what happened to Leo and Larry, but it wasn't fun. So that's where the hanging tree USED to be. Leo thinks his dad cut the tree down shortly thereafter. Larry, do you remember anything about that? Leo said that Lenny wouldn't remember anything about it since he was still oxygen starved (just kidding).

Here's Walnut Street. On the far right...the red brick house...that's Mrs. Sessinghouse's house (see the story on the April 4th blog post). The house to the left of that is Marty Hyman's house (again, see the April 4 post), and to the left of that is the Sawatzki house.

Here is Ribby Bassett's house. Ribby was a friend of Lenny's and he's the one who along with Lenny, one day, they decided to hide out. So they took Lenny's red Roy Roger trail lantern and off they went into the closet in the bedroom where the 3 boys slept....this was in the Sawatzki house, not Ribby's. It was the bedroom of Leo, Larry, and Lenny. Well, at some pointthe rest of the family realized that Lenny was missing. They looked in the usual places (which apparently was not the closet) and all family members started combing the neighborhood. They soon found out that Ribby was missing also. Leo's grandparents lived in their house also (the Sawatzki house), so everyone was frantically looking all over for Lenny & Ribby. Leo's grandma stayed in the house and manned the telephone. When they couldn't find them anywhere, they called the police and they came out in full force and continued to scour the area. By this time everyone was frantic. Leo's grandma at some point was in the boy's bedroom and heard talking coming from the closet so they were found and the search party was called off. Everyone was relieved, except Lenny, who was in hot water. Leo remembers that Lenny's Roy Rogers lantern was taken away for a good while.

Again, here's Mrs. Sessinghouse's place and a bit farther to the right there used to be some bushes that Leo, Larry, and other neighborhood boys used to hide under. They belonged to what they called "the Dirty Word of the Day Club" and while in the bushes they discussed...well...words.

Here's down the street, on Twinridge Blvd. It's where Leo, Larry, and other neighbor boys (Lenny was too young) used to play baseball. It's where they would stand silent, with hats off, as a funeral procession passed by, too (I think that's on the April 4th post also).

Larry, this picture is for you. Leo insisted that it be taken. It's where many a baseball was lost while playing ball on Twinridge Blvd. They refered to it as "the ball eating sewer". When they were gone...they were gone.

This is the school where Dad went for K-2nd grade...Holy Cross School. It's where he learned right from wrong. If you don't see the humor here - re-read this entire blog post from today!