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CLICK HERE BARB'S PAGE - CHILDHOOD
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TENACITY
At age 7, when the proverbial Christmas question was asked, I responded with, "I want a printing set and a baseball & bat." Upon opening up the packages, I discovered clothes, books and a doll baby. The doll had a composite head, arms and legs and a cloth body. It was cute but definitely not what I wanted. When the Christmas tree was taken down, I packed the doll neatly in her box and stowed her away in the back of my closet. On one of the first warm days of Spring, after lunch, I retrieved her from the closet. I went outside to the rock pile, took her by the legs and beat her to shards on the rocks. The babysitter came bolting out of the house to see what was going on. She grabbed the remnants from my hands, but it was way to late for that. She advised me of the consequences that were surely going to transpire when Mom got home. I flatly advised her that I didn't care, that doll was not what I wanted for Christmas, and if I couldn't have what I wanted, I didn't want anything. I suffered much anguish the rest of the day as I could already feel the sting of a hand or a willow switch. The sitter didn't help matters. Every time she looked at me, she reminded me of the coming consequences. "Boy, are you going to get it when your Mom gets home!" When Mom came home, I was sitting on the swing that Dad hung from the apple tree. My heart sank clear to my toes. I know it did, because I felt every inch of it traveling down my body. Then I heard the summons: "Bobbie, get in here right now!" I was petrified. I had managed to acquire quite a list of "dumb things" in my short life, but this was by far the worst. When I got near the back door, I heard Dad talking. I nearly fainted. He should not be up yet. He worked midnights, then worked in his garage and workshop till about 1 or 2 o'clock, then went to bed. I
very meekly went through the back door into the kitchen. Mom was
sitting down, her face as red as a beet. Dad was standing with his
thumbs stuck in his pants pockets. He very quietly asked, "Why
did you do that?" I told him as simply as I could. No one said
a work for what I deemed an eternity. Then he said "Come over
here." I went as told. He put his arm around me and said, "Now
the next time you get something you really don't want, tell us and
we can exchange it for what you do want. Don't destroy it. It cost
money." I promised to never destroy anything again. The trial
was over. On my birthday in May, I got a baseball and a bat. The
next Christmas, I got a printing set. Never again did I get a doll
baby until I was grown and married. Then God blessed me with two
real ones. AMEN
LITTLE BOYS IN LOVE In the middle of the 4th grade, during Christmas vacation, Dad moved us to the country. I had to go to school on a school bus. The first day was traumatic. I was a city kid, and all these characters were rugged farm kids. The teacher introduced me to the class then sat me in the middle of the first row of seats. Before the day was over, I had learned that the first 3 rows were 4th graders and the last 3 rows were 5th graders. Before the morning was over, a kid sitting next to me in the next row reached over and tapped me on the leg. I looked up, and he covertly stuck his hand out and I saw there was a piece of paper in it. I covertly took it. I opened it up and it read, "I love you." No signature, no ID of any kind. l Iooked at the kid who gave it to me and pointed to him. He shook his head "NO" and pointed over the other way. I looked around but everyone was looking at their desk. Before the day was over I had about 6 or 7 of these notes. I was embarrassed to death, so I just kept my eyes on my desk too. Little boys have odd ways of showing their affection for you. They run into you, pinch you, chase you, make faces at you, and do all kinds of stuff. One day it got really bad out on the playground and it brought tears. The teacher came over to see what was wrong. I tried to explain but did it badly I think. She listened sympathetically then explained that this was how little boys in the 4th and 5th grades show little girls that they like them. She said they were just trying to get my attention. OH yeah, could have fooled me. That was a lesson in life that took a while to understand.
Something Like Out of the Movies! Part I
The
country as a whole participated in a "Scrap Drive". Every
school in the USA participated. We gathered up every piece of metal
and every newspaper we would find, beg, borrow, or steal and took
it to the collection place. Our collection place was a man's garage
across the alley from the school. He had a big Industrial Scale
and he weighed every thing that came in. For every 10 lbs of scrap
metal or paper we brought in we received a free ticket to the State
Theater. That was right up my alley. I was the biggest movie buff
in the whole entire world. There, half buried in the dirt was "The Cannon Ball". I had completely forgotten about it. It had laid there under the apple tree forever. It was for a Civil War cannon. It had been given to my grandfather. It was about 10 inches across and solid iron. It had laid there so long, it had sunk about halfway down in the dirt. Dad got a shovel and dug around it, then told me to lift it out of the hole. I gave it a try but no way could I get it out of there. He just grinned, rolled it up out of the hole, got both hands under it and heaved it into the wagon. I think it weighed about 40 pounds. It
was about all I could do to pull that wagon 2 blocks down the street
but I did it. When the drive was over, I had a pocket full of movie tickets. In the end, our little four-grade school turned in more pounds of scrap per child, then any other school in the USA. We all got medals and citations, and the boy who turned in the most poundage won a trip to a Naval shipyard to christen a new Liberty Ship. The lady school principal accompanied him. She ended up christening the ship because according to naval protocol, only a woman can do that. I didn't miss a movie that came to the State Theater for the next 4 years. The movies changed twice a week with a double header on the weekends. I didn't miss a one.
PART II
One day, I was watching the newscast, and they were showing a bunch of GI's on a little R & R on the French Riviera. They told how some of the guys were getting a little break from the fighting. All at once, they showed a close up of one of the soldiers walking along the crowded beach and I recognized him as my cousin, Merlin Ingram. I got so excited I could hardly breathe. I stayed there and watched the whole movie again so I could see that clip. I wanted to make sure I saw what I thought I saw. Sure enough, I was positive it was him. I got up and ran all the way home to tell Mom. I knew that Aunt Cora was worried because she hadn't heard from him in quite awhile. When I came in, she started in on me about being so late. I was a lot later than usual, and she was a mite upset. I explained why I was late, and she got all excited. She asked me over and over again if I was sure it was him. She didn't want to get Aunt Cora all riled up and then it not be him. I told her I was positive, positive, positive. She called Aunt Cora on the phone and told her. She was so excited she could hardly talk. They decided to call the man at the theater and tell him what I said I saw. He told them to come up to the theater the next morning and he'd run the reel for them. If it was her son, he would cut out some of the frames and give them to her. The next morning, Aunt Cora and Uncle Bill came and picked up Mom, and they went to the theater. Sure enough, Aunt Cora saw him and she yelled and started to cry. Everyone agreed, yes it was Merlin, in the flesh. The man cut out about 6 frames and gave them to her. They came back to the house and I got a great big hug from everyone.
When the war was over, Merlin came home and one of the first things
that Aunt Cora said to him, after all the hugs and kisses, was that
she saw him on the Riviera with all those half naked French women.
He denied it with a big stupid grin on his face. He said, "Now
Mom, you know I wouldn't do anything like that." After that
trip to the Riviera, Merlin's outfit went in to full blown action.
The battles were so horrendous and the trauma so deep, that his
hair began to fall out. His battle fatigue lasted for some time
after he came home. He ended up being a young bald man. He's 80
years old now and hasn't had a hair on his head anywhere for years.
He made up for it by growing the biggest and best handlebar mustache
anyone ever saw. (Merlin is my Mom's sister's son.)
OUCH
!!
I was three in May and sometime during that summer I had a little accident. I loved the outdoors. Did not want to be inside for any reason. I was out in the back yard and it began to rain. I loved playing in the rain and Mom always allowed me unless there was going to be some lightning. She stood at the back door and called me to come in the house. I said "No". Well, she ended up dragging me in, kicking and screaming. When she got me inside the kitchen door, she let me loose and I threw myself down on the floor. We had a door stop that was a 6 inch round, 4 inch high, hunk of iron. During the tantrum, I hit my elbow on that door stop and broke the end of the bone off. "OUCH". The Dr. was called, and he came to the house and hog tied me, examined the break and said it needed to be wrapped tight so I couldn't move it then put it in a sling for about 4 weeks or so. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. I tolerated it being wrapped and kept it in the sling only because it hurt if I didn't. When the time came to have it out of the sling and the wrap taken off, the Dr. came and removed everything and examined it, very gently. Then
he told me to straighten it out. I said "NO". He tried
to do it but quit because he thought maybe during the struggle,
it would be broken again. So he coaxed and coaxed and Mom coaxed
and coaxed but to no avail. Still wasn't going to straighten it
out. He needed to know whether I could straighten it out or not
because if I couldn't, they would have to operate on it and straighten
it that way. He had a real nice mechanical pencil in his jacket
pocket that I was eyeing. He noticed that, and mentioned it to Mom.
She said yes, she likes pencils. She likes to write. He
took the pencil out of the pocket and held it out to me. I reached
for it with the unbroken arm. He snatched the pencil away. This
happened a couple times. I was getting flustered. Finally he said
I could have it but I had to take it with the other hand. Meaning
the broken one. There was a couple minutes of hesitation, then all
of a sudden, the pencil got to me and I stretched that arm to it's
fullest and snatched that pencil away from him. Thanksgiving Dinner 1944 Mom always fixed a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner. We very seldom had Turkey because Dad didn't particularly like it. He said it was too dry. So we'd have chicken or more than likely, wild game. One year we had a huge Duck. Mom had never fixed a Duck before so she wasn't quite sure what to do with it. When it came out of the Roaster, it looked delicious, but didn't prove to be so when we tried to eat it. That was about the greasiest critter I ever seen. She never attempted that again. Dad was quite a good hunter in those days. He had an old 12 gauge shotgun and fared fairly well with it. One Christmas, Mom bought him a brand new 12 ga. Pump with a burley maple stock. It was the most gorgeous thing I had ever seen. He always kept it oiled and polished and when he passed away, it still looked like new. We
were living in the country and Dad was still working on the new
house in town. Moms sister Cora and her husband Bill and all their
available kids, were invited for Thanksgiving dinner. They had a
married daughter living in Marion, Ohio and two sons in the service
of their country, one in the Air Force and one in the Navy. Three
kids were still at home. MaryJane was about 15, Phyllis was 11 and
Butch was about 8. They were there for the dinner. Aunt Cora and
Mom spent the whole morning cooking. The meal consisted of all the
game that Dad had brought home. Rabbit, Pheasant and Ground Hog
plus all the trimmings. Now most people today would frown upon Ground
Hog. But back then it was fair game and delicious if fixed correctly.
Aunt Cora advised Mom and Dad not to tell her kids (who were strictly
"city kids") what they were eating. The Pheasant and Rabbit
would be all right but not the Ground hog. We all sat down at the
big dining room table. Dad passed the big game plate around and
everyone picked out what they wanted. When it got to MaryJane, she
asked what was on that plate and she was told, Pheasant and Rabbit.
Who could tell any different, after it was cooked? She picked out
a leg and put it on her plate.
After everyone had finished eating and were enjoying their coffee
and dessert, Dad being the Burdett that he was, asked MaryJane if
she knew what she had eaten. She replied, "a rabbit leg".
Dad asked her if was good. She replied "yes". He then
told her that she had eaten Ground Hog and she immediately threw
up in her plate THE CHAMBER POT When we lived in grandpa's house, we had some lively times. It was a long way from the upstairs bedrooms to the bathroom downstairs. It was a nightmare if you had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Especially in the winter when it was cold. The house was heated with a coal stove and Dad would stoke it before he went to bed, but in the middle of the night it got cold. I'd take a glass of water to bed with me because I always had to have a drink before I could go to sleep. In the morning the water in the glass beside the bed, would be frozen solid. When we were small, Mom put a chamber pot in our bedroom. If we had to go in the night, we didn't have to go downstairs. At the head of the stairs there was a small dresser that Mom kept stuff in. On top, clear in the back was her Ukulele. I couldn't reach it, and besides that I wasn't supposed to mess with it. BUT..I took on temptation every time it reared its head. I tried and tried but just couldn't reach that Ukulele. So. I drug the pot over to the dresser and climbed up on the lid and made a reach for the Uke. Well, too much weight on one side and the pot tipped over and spilt its contents all over the floor. A lot of it went down the floor register that was in the ceiling and ended up on the dining room floor. The rest seeped between the old wooden floor boards and ended up drenching the clothes that were hanging in the adjoining closet downstairs. Needless to say, I was in trouble. I got spanked for that one. But the pot got emptied every day from then on so if I did it again, there wouldn't be much of anything to spill. Mom removed the temptation. She put it downstairs way up on the top shelf in the closet. I think I was about 4 or 5 when this incident occurred.
BARB AGE 7 A
MOUSE IN THE HOUSE Pat was about 12 or 13 and she went into the bathroom to take a bath. No shower in Gramp's house then. While the water was running in the tub, she disrobed and prepared to get in the tub. We never got into the tub until the water was the right temperature and the spigot was off. While she was waiting, a little mouse decided to make an appearance. She was deathly afraid of them. She started screaming, grabbed the toilet plunger and jumped up on the toilet seat. She scared that poor mouse half to death. It raced around and when it went by she socked the plunger on top of it. Then with the plunger stuck to the floor, she just kept plunging and screaming. Grampa heard all the ruckus, so he came running, thinking she was hurt. He opened the door and saw this sight. She was still squealing and screaming. He took the plunger, got it unsucked from the floor and examined what was under it. There laid the Momma mouse and about six teeny pink hairless mice. Pat had performed a non-spontaneous abortion with the plunger .
PAT BURDETT
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