Autumn is the perfect time for some porch sittin’

Sometime around the age of seven or eight we moved from Bethel to the little house on Montgomery Street in Sharpsburg.

It seems like we had a lot of fun in those days and boredom was rare indeed.

We had a huge tree that stood in the corner of the yard that we loved to climb and sit on the high branches.

Sometimes we would pretend we were pirates and the tree was our look-out post.

One day I sat down on a branch of that tree to rest before I went any higher, and suddenly I heard a cracking noise, the next thing I knew April was standing over me saying “are you dead”?

One of our favorite places to play was the outbuilding where mommy had her wringer washer.

The washer building was where I saw a huge spider climbing up the wall.

I was scared to death of spiders, so I scurried as fast as I could up on an old dresser and jumped through the window to get away.

As I landed on the ground I heard the dresser mirror hit the floor and crash.

That same night we went to the drive in and I slid down the slide and landed in a huge puddle of mud.

April said, “well it’s because you broke that mirror, now you will have seven years of bad luck”!

Then there was the time I came up with the idea that I could keep our dog from chasing cars.

I figured if I could tie a rope around his neck and then wind it around my ankles and tie it to the porch post he couldn’t get away.

Well, I had that dog all tied up and the rope anchored to my ankles when along came a car down the alley, and sure enough the dog barked and jumped and tried to get loose.

As our dog made a dash for the road, that rope started to unwind and burned the skin right off my ankles.

We didn’t always get into trouble, we had many days of fun and adventure too.

We used to turn an old wash tub upside down and stand on it for our stage while we belted out songs loud enough for the entire town to hear.

We had a grand old time riding our Big-Wheels up and down all the alley’s, roller skating and pushing our doll buggies up to Daphne Fair’s house.

Sometimes we would ride go-carts and Minnie-bikes with Mike and Doug Martin.

I think it was Michael LeValley who had a little spider-monkey and he threw it on Cindy Millers back one day and scared the living daylights out of her.

One time after we had been to either a revival or Bible School at Donald Fosters church, Dwayne decided he was gonna preach some hell fire and brimstone to his siblings.

So, my brother made him a pulpit with some old concrete blocks that he probably took from the house Pepper Jewel was building at the time and preceded to quote the Bible.

Although the alley where we spent hours and hours just being kids, looks pretty much the same as it did years ago, some of the old homes and building are no longer there.

The dump and the chicken house are gone, the little house where Buster Brooks’ sister lived is now a vacant lot at the end of the alley behind the Citizen’s Bank.

Where the basketball court is now, that area was a grove of trees and sometimes used as a pet cemetery.

The big tree we loved to climb is gone, and so are the neighbors who lived beside us, but the little house we lived in still sits across the road from the water office.

When we visit daddy, we end up on the back porch where we have a clear view of the street and alleys where we spent many happy days just being kids.