Sometimes when there were older kids (friends and cousins) visiting my brother, we would play hide and seek. I always wondered why it took them so long to find me. Then one day I came out early – and found that they went on to their next game without me.
We had barberry bushes near our house, and a wrought iron fence and we’d chase around outside. Playing tag, one day, I landed (got pushed?) in the pricker bushes. It was noisy at the time, butit turns out one the thorns remains in my side to this date.
Our home had a bannister on the front hall stairway. One part of the bannister stopped at a landing part of the way down. The rest of it went all the way down to the first floor. Of course, at the end of the bannister at the first floor there was a decorative,sharp bit of trim that stuck up. I managed to gouge myself on that bannister more than once, before I stopped sliding down.
One memorable day we had gone to the vacant lot by a big hill, a block away, looking for snakes. The fact that we had dinner waiting didn’t register with us, but it sure registered with Mom. When we got home, she was very, very angry. The boys went to their bedroom, and I hid under Mom and Dad’s bed. It seems she was worried at what had happened to us.
Another time, I was with a friend, hiking by the railroad tracks, about half a mile to a mile away. Much later that day, much too late, I returned home for supper. The menu was BLT sandwiches, which was my favorite. Mom, Dad and the rest of the family were gone – out in the yard doing gardening. There was no dinner for me. I had to make my own BLT that night.