When we went to the farm there were always certain things that we would do every time. One of the funniest things to do was gather eggs. Grandma and Grandpa always had a bunch of chickens all over the place. They roamed freely around the yard, as far as I can remember they did not have a chicken coop. We would make a game out of seeing who could find the most eggs. The chickens would make nests in and around the hay stacks. So we would climb around on the stacks of hay searching for the hidden nests. Often we would get in trouble for getting on top of the hay stacks because it was dangerous. To us kids the adults were just being a pain, because of course we knew how to climb without falling off or knocking them over. Once we found where the nests were we would watch them every day and collect the eggs.

I remember having breakfast with Grandpa Golding where he would fry up our eggs in bacon grease. Even thought I don’t remember ever having bacon there was always a can of bacon grease sitting near the stove. Then he would take his slice of homemade bread and put it in the pan of hot bacon grease to fry up a bit. Then the egg went on the bread. Oh, that was good.

When I was 8 there was a movie that I wanted to see more than anything. This movie was the rave everywhere. It was The Yellow Submarine by the Beetles. All of the kids in school either had seen it or were making plans to see it. My opportunity finally came when a couple of my friends and I made plans to ride our bikes across town to the movie theater for the Saturday matinee. The problem was that mom was not too comfortable with me riding my bike all that way alone…without her. We negotiated an arrangement…well actually I begged until she finally gave in, somewhat. We agreed I could ride my bike on one condition. That being that I would walk it across the road when I got to an intersection. My friends met at my house and with my money in my pocket the time came and we were off. I stopped at the first intersection and walked my bike across the street, however my friends didn’t. I almost caught up with them when we arrived at the next intersection. Again I walked across the street with my bike, and again my friends didn’t and I found myself alone trying to catch up. By the time I made it to the next street I decided that it wasn’t worth it and I followed my friends across the street while riding my bike. We were sailing along with visions of the Beetles foremost in our minds when all of a sudden there she was, mom. She had followed us too see if I would indeed walk my bike across the intersections as agreed. As soon as I saw her I knew my goose was cooked. No matter how hard I begged I had to put my bike in the back of the car and go home to spend the rest of the day in my room. I didn’t mind spending the day in my room as much as I was devastated by being embarrassed in front of my friends and I never got to see The Yellow Submarine. In fact, to this day I still have never seen the movie that at the time I would have given anything to have had the opportunity to see. It turns out that I did learn that when I made a deal with my mother that I needed to keep it not because she could find out that I didn’t keep it but because I knew that keeping agreements was the right thing to do. Lesson learned!

Our pink house on Center Street was a two story house. The stairs going up to the second floor was in between the living room and the kitchen. On TV one of our favorite shows was Superman. He was totally awesome. The neatest thing that Superman did was to fly. He could glide through the air with his cape flapping behind him in the wind. Our imaginations were vivid and we played all kinds of games. I recall playing on the bare wooden stairs leading up to our bedrooms. The girls and I, ok mostly me, would take a bath towel and using a safety pin would transform the drab bath towel into our very own Superman’s cape.  We would climb as far up the stairs as we dared then would jump with all our might flinging ourselves as far down the stairway as we could dreaming all the while that we were leaping over tall buildings with a single bound.


Faster than a speeding bullet.
More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Look! Up in the sky!
It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Superman!

Yes, it's Superman - strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Superman - who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel with his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights the never ending battle for Truth, Justice and the American Way.