Saturday, April 20, 2013

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Tell Us a Childhood Memory


Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 
time for some more Genealogy Fun!!



Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): 


1)  Have you written your memoirs yet?  If so, please share with us one story from your childhood.  
If not, then start your memoirs!   The story could be a memory of your family life, your schoolwork, your neighborhood, etc.  It doesn't have to be a certain length - just something you recall.

2)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a post on Facebook or Google Plus.

Here's mine:

The Paper Route and the Flexies

As a teenager (aged 12 to 16, as I recall), I shared a newspaper route with my brother Stan to earn money. The “Independent” was a twice a week paper, mostly advertisements and local news. Our route was between Fern Street (east) and 28th Street (west), Fir Street (north) to Date Street (south). Fir Street was three blocks down from our house on 30th Street between Hawthorn and Ivy Streets.  The only customer that I remember was old Mr. Stotler. He would give us extra money if we would learn something new – the National Parks, the alphabet backwards, etc. I can still impress my kids and grandchildren by saying the alphabet backwards very fast.  We delivered the folded newspapers on our Flexies, carrying them in boxes and throwing them onto the porches.  


The Flexy (essentially a sled on wheels – low to the ground, steered by handlebars with springs, with hand brakes) was a great transportation device, but it was dangerous because it was nearly invisible to drivers. We would go off a curb at a corner, swerve out into the street, and go up the first driveway on the next block. One day, while going down 30th Street to the nickel-and-dime store on Beech Street, I went off the curb at Date Street, swerved out in the street, looked behind me, and saw a city bus bearing down about 5 feet behind me. Oops. I crashed on the curb, flipped off the flexy, hit my head, and suffered a concussion.  

Stan also had a close call on his flexy – going down Ivy Street from 29th Street to the park, which is a great downhill ride that ends in a cul-de-sac with a concrete barrier at the bottom of the hill. He didn’t make the curve at the end of the hill, hit the curb, and flew off through the concrete barrier (which had an opening in it) and landed on the hillside below.  

If I can do this, you can too!


Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver


4 comments:

Dorene from Ohio said...

Randy -

Here is mine, although I have to confess it is a re-run:

http://graveyardrabbitofsanduskybay.blogspot.com/2013/04/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-childhood.html

GeneGinny said...

Here's mine, Randy.
http://geneginny.blogspot.com/2013/04/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-memories.html
In searching for a photo, I actually found some records at NARA that provide some info on my Dad's service...if they're not still top secret.

M. Diane Rogers said...

Well, I've only written about a few of my own memories, but I will post another tonight. (I know, Randy, I am so often late, but honest! sometimes I'm doing genealogy that just can't wait.)

In the meantime, here's a link for a project about my girlhood room that I did for Carrie Keele and DearMyrtle's Share A Memory contest: http://canadagenealogy.blogspot.ca/2012/09/my-childhood-room-pink-pink-my-share.html

M. Diane Rogers said...

Here's my SNGF post: http://canadagenealogy.blogspot.ca/2013/04/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-tell-us.html