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Mattoon
Memories Continued
Our House on
South 6th Street
9
South 6th
Street
My biological Father
and Mother lived on South 6th Street when I was born. I was
their first child. The house was a two story structure in the
400 block but very small; almost like a dollhouse for people.
Our neighborhood
stretched from Lafayette to Marshal Avenue with most of the
houses on the east side of the street. This neighborhood will
always stand out in my mind until I die because many of us
living there became family. Something I will explain in another
memory.
I am not going to
list all of the neighbors but only the ones who would be a part
of my life. I think Larry Shadwick whose family actually lived
on Lafayette near the corner of 6th was the only kid with a dad
because WWII broke out and most of the men in the neighborhood
were drafted.
Mrs. Betty Kerans
and her two children, Ron and Doris Jean, lived in the house at
the north end of our neighborhood near Lafayette. We lived two
houses to the south. I should add that my sister Cindy and
brother David Lee would be born while we lived in that house.
There was a woman
named Elizabeth who lived with her mother and grandmother to the
south of us. She had hair almost as dark as my Mother’s black
hair and never shaved her legs for some reason. I don’t think
she ever shaved them a day in her life and they looked like
hideous worms to us kids, especially when covered by nylons
after the war ended and nylons became readily available to women
again.
There was a
red-haired, freckle-faced kid named Ray who lived with people he
thought were his grandparents at the corner of Marshal and 6th.
I don’t remember how or when he found out they weren’t really
his grandparents but an older couple his step dad and mom paid
to keep him. That will be a memory in itself along with how he
quit being my friend.
The other person I
remember was a very reclusive woman that no one knew very much
about. She never left her house and had her groceries delivered.
My Mom somehow became friendly with her though not close enough
that Mom ever set foot inside her house. There was speculation
this woman’s husband had been killed in the war but no one knew
for sure.
I had my first dog
when we lived in the South 6th Street house but for some reason
Mom ended up giving him to this woman. I was allowed to visit
and play with him as long as I didn’t wear out my welcome. Mom
would call her and if it was okay I would go visit and play with
my dog. When I was older Mom said the woman would wait for me on
her porch, watch me and the dog play, and when I was leaving,
she would always give me a home made cookie. Mom also said that
when I visited this woman to play with my dog were the only
times the woman was known to come out of her house.
For some reason I
can’t remember the dog’s name, what he looked like, or anything
about the woman except she was friendly and seemed to enjoy my
visits.
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