MEMORIES OF SUMMERS PAST
by JEAN BRIDGES
A recent article in the State Newspaper about Summer Stories brought back memories of summers when I was a child. Life was simple back in the 30s, so we had to make our own entertainment when school ended for a few months.
As children, we could not wait for May 1 so we could go barefooted. It was an unwritten law just like you did not wear white shoes after Labor Day, you did not go barefooted until May 1! We knew that it would not be long until school would be over for three whole months when our shoes came off!
In my very early days, no one took expensive vacations because it took every penny just to provide food for the family. My thoughts wandered back to the times that Vacation Bible School was one of the events most of the children took part in while they were out of school for the summer. We had to walk many blocks to get to the church, but everyone walked wherever they went, so it was very natural to do and not even think about it. We heard Bible stories, memorized verses, sang songs and did crafts. I remember one year we were given panes of window glass to paint pictures on. I was so proud of my artistic work! We did not frame them and when we finished, we just had a pane of glass to take home and to show to our parents. It is a wonder that some of us did not cut our hands, but I got mine safely home and my mother said, “This is so beautiful!” Another time we took a bar of Ivory soap and a wash cloth to make a puppy. We rolled the cloth and secured it around the soap, took some pipe cleaners to add a tail and used some pins to make the eyes. I never took mine apart to use the soap and wash cloth because some things you just want to keep to look at. We did many crafts in Bible School over the years. It was something to look forward to each summer.
Some of my friends had relatives who lived in the country so they got to spend a week or two on a farm. I was not that fortunate and I did feel that I missed a lot by not helping with the chores. I have never milked a cow, but I did help churn butter at Mrs. Long’s house. One summer my Mother, brother and I did go to visit a relative in Hillsborough, North Carolina. I don’t remember a lot about that visit, but I do remember there was a twelve year old boy who smoked cigarettes and who really thought he was grown up when he blew smoke rings. He would light one and would try to talk with the cigarette dangling on to his lips. He probably did not live to be an old man. One thing I do remember from that visit was that someone in the family took a wooden box and covered it in maroon plastic to make a foot stool for my Mother. We brought it home and she used it for many years, In fact I think she still had it when she died. So far as I remember we never went to Hillsborough for another vacation.
My best childhood friend, Mary Hughes, and we entertained ourselves with no problems. There were several chinaberry trees in my Grandmother McInnis’s front yard. Mary and I would gather as many berries as we could, then string them to make necklaces and bracelets. We would pull flowers off the bushes to make bouquets and imagine we were in a wedding. I don’t know who had the best imagination, but we were forever pretending we were someone from a fairy tale or were a movie star. I liked to be Shirley Temple.
One of our favorite summer pastimes was to go to the Saturday movie at the Gem Theater. It only cost nine cents for a ticket. We got to see the previews of coming events, the world news, a cartoon, and a serial which always had something terrible at the end to keep you in suspense until the following Saturday. The main event was the movie, of course. Movies in those days left a lot to be desired. The cowboy actors weren’t that good and the plot was almost always the same. Since no one had air conditioning at home, it was a good place to go to keep cool for a few hours.
I remember one summer when the Girl Scout troop cleaned off a bank by the railroad track and we used big stones to form G S, so people would know the Girl Scouts did the good deed of pulling weeds. Another time when I went to Jackson Park, a nice sub division where my aunt and uncle lived, my aunt wanted to pick blackberries to make a pie. She and I found a good patch along the railroad, so we got as many as we could in the pan we took with us. She made a delicious cobbler. I began to itch and my legs turned red. I had picked up chiggers along with all the berries we picked! I still like blackberry cobbler and I still remember what happened that year when we picked the berries!
Some of my happiest childhood years were spent in Charleston. We could not have lived in a better location and we were so near every place I needed to go. I can still hear the old gentleman as he came rolling his cart down Broad Street, yelling, “Fresh vegetables, come and get them!” He called them “vegetubbles.” He had all sorts of greens, turnips, squash, tomatoes and whatever else he had in the garden at the time. People used a lot of onions when they prepared meals and you could smell them in the air because the windows were open. I remember that people ate of lot of rice. also. Those were wonderful days. I loved my fifth grade teacher so much. Her name was Mrs. A. B. Hassell and I thought she hung the moon. I still think of her even now.
When my Daddy’s job took us to Columbia, I was heartbroken. You would have thought the end of the world was about the take place. I cried until there were no more tears to flow. I did manage to survive and made new friends in Columbia, but I did cry for three weeks straight when we first made the move. My Daddy promised I could go back to stay with the family I had learned to love so much, the Dantzlers, when school ended. I took my first big plane ride to Charleston on Eastern Air Lines, which was exciting. It seemed like the pilot had to start putting on the brakes as soon as we got in the air, it was such a short flight. The Dantzlers met me at the airport and we went to what was to be my “new” home for a while. Mrs.Belle Dantzler let me help with all the chores, like dish washing, sweeping, hanging clothes on the line, dusting the furniture and all the things I would need to know in later life. Joyce and C. M. were their children. They felt like my sister and brother! Mrs. Dantzler was getting a little fat and she did not tell me why. You just didn’t not discuss some things with children back then. Months later I got a letter from her telling me they had a new baby girl in the family! Many years later, I met the “baby” when she was grown and had just come to work at the same place I did. When I introduced myself and asked her if she was kin to the Dantzlers I knew. She said, “So you are the Jean who did all the work without being asked when you spent the summer at our house?” She told me her mother had talked about me so much and had always used me as an example to make her feel ashamed when she did not want to help her mother. You just never know how your reputation will follow you!
My Daddy had a friend who lived in Landis, N C and whose wife invited me to come for a visit one summer to play with her little girl and to give me a chance to do something different. I could help her by being a baby sitter at times. They must have been rich because the house was very nice. We did lots of fun things. I remember Mrs. Corriher taking me shopping and me buying my Mother a blue hob nail vase as a gift to take to her, when I went home. I still have that vase in a cabinet at my home today! Mrs. Corriher gave me an evening dress she no longer wanted. I took it even though all I could do with it was to dress up and pretend I was going to the ball like Cinderella did.
The more I think about the time I spent during summer breaks from school, the more I have to write about. After we moved from Kannapolis to Charleston and later to Columbia, our trips to the town I was born in became less frequent. For several summers I was put on the Greyhound Bus to ride from Columbia to Kannapolis to stay with my uncle and aunt for at least three weeks. I got to see old school friends and neighbors because they still lived in the house where I was born. I got to sleep in my old bedroom, which was a treat! My uncle had a lot of dry wit and kept us laughing all the time. My Aunt Viola was the best cook, ever! At least to me, she held that honor! One of my favorite meals at her house was fresh string beans with thinly cut Silver Queen corn cooked together with some fatback to season them. She made delicious corn bread and we had onion to eat with the vegetables. For dessert she made the most delicious banana pudding in the whole world. It was heavy with real whipped cream. Back then I did not have to worry about gaining weight like I do now! I never wanted to go home when I went for my annual summer visit with the McInnis family. My aunt was a practical nurse. She saved all the money she made so she could buy a certain bedroom suite she wanted so badly. The day came when she had the money. She always wanted to pay cash for what she bought. The furniture was delivered and was placed in “my” old bedroom, which was now the guest room. I gave her a set of lamps she liked in appreciation and because I loved her so much.
I have not scratched the surface of the summer adventures I had while growing up. Even though there was no money for a “real” vacation to the mountains or to the beach, I don’t think I could have had better times than I did just doing simple things with family and friends.
I hope this account of my summers in by gone days will entice you to think back about your favorite summers and to write about them for your children and grandchildren to enjoy!
Happy Summer!
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