The old days and getting older

Today is one of those days that looks real good from inside the house. The wind is up. The temperature is down. I think I should have worn a hat. I have had that thought at least twice today.

It appears that this year has been predominately a cold Winter for most of the U.S. That is "good" for a year when gas prices are up. When I was little, we lived in Indianapolis. In the Winter time, the gas companies would come and deliver heating oil to the houses. We had a little spigot on the side of the house. I don't ever remember being at home and watching the delivery of the heating oil, although I am sure I was there for the deliveries. Its just not a memory I have stuck in my brain.
I do know that little brother Frank and his next door buddy put dirt clods down the oil line one time. I don't remember it specifically, but my parents do. I guess they had to clean out the oil line.

I remember sledding down some of the hills on the street upon which we lived. I vaguely remember my friend Eddie Hague pulling me on the sled up the hill. I don't know why he was pulling me, other than the fact that he was much bigger than I was at the time. I remember playing with Janice Costin down the street, and going to her birthday party one year. My mother has reminded me that I hid from the other birthday guests. I was pretty shy back then. Janice had a 'paw-paw' tree in her back yard.

I remember getting into a "debate" with some of my friends, as to who was the better president. Some of my friends liked Eisenhower. My friends and I like Kennedy. We threw mud at the side of a culvert to the yells of "I like Eisenhower!" "I like Kennedy!" Indiana has always been a place where both parties were equally strong. Being the son of former Southern Democrats, and part Irish to boot, it wasn't hard to figure why I liked JFK.

We had a beagle when we moved to the house on the north side of town. He was run over by a car and my dad replaced him with another beagle named Jinx. Later my dad tried to breed beagles and bought a female we named Roxie. Whenever Roxie got in heat, she would hide under the car in the garage. Jinx would put his head on the concrete floor and bay at Roxie. Roxie would have nothing to do with Jinx during that time frame. Poor Jinx. Jinx later ran away from the farm in Tennessee, when we were moving to Huntsville, Alabama and had no fence in the backyard for Jinx.

Jinx was a good dog. He came back to the farmhouse after he had run away. He stayed for a couple of weeks and then disappeared again. I guess the food was better wherever he had wandered off to. I swear I remember seeing a young beagle coming to the farmhouse later, like one of Jinx's puppies from a second marriage. Good for Jinx.

In Indianapolis we had an albino cat, named Holly. Later, another albino cat came around and we adopted her too, named Bones. Later, much to our surprise, Bones had kittens. They were all calico. I later found out that albinism runs in calico cats. The big surprise was that Bones was with kittens. She was so skinny.

When I was little, and living in Indianapolis, I used to wait for the milkman and see if he would deliver chocolate milk. I remember waking up early in the morning and sitting out on the front porch, covered with the welcome mat from the cold, waiting to see if the milkman had chocolate milk. I don't remember him making such a delivery. But I loved chocolate milk. I also realize that I have aged myself by talking about the delivery of milk. That was about the last food item I can remember that was delivered door to door.

When we moved to Huntsville, everything seemed different. First of all, the whole space industry was amazing, and we were right in the middle of it. When the Mercury Seven and Gemini astronauts were circling around the globe, the scientists at Redstone Arsenal were building and testing the rockets which would launch us to the moon. I remember that they would test the Saturn V booster and the glass in the windows would shake from the power of the rockets. We didn't live in Huntsville long, moving to Dunwoody in 1965 (I think). Maybe 1966.

In Dunwoody we lived way out from Atlanta and Decatur. Right on the edge of development. There was a little country store down the road from Dunwoody Elementary where we would sometimes stop before we walked home. Dunwoody just grew up around us and became rather hoity toity as it went. We went from station wagons and little league football to foreign cars and country clubs. Its hard to imagine a herd of little kids stopping at a country store, buying cokes and candy and walking home from school. I don't think kids do that much walking these days.

Boy, do I sound old.