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can't remember how our household goods made the trip to Medicine
Lodge, but can remember very well how we made the journey. We went in a
Model T Ford. It was a long trip, and we had to stop occasionally along
the way to let the car cool off, which was normal for a Model T. At one
of the last stops as we neared our destination, I got out of the car and
discovered sand in the ditch at the side of the road. Now the only sand
I had ever seen was in my sandbox so I was completely amazed that the
wonderful stuff could grow wild out in the country. I went down in the
ditch and played a while before we moved on. When we arrived in Medicine
Lodge that day in 1928, we might have stepped into a western movie. Main
Street was lined with board sidewalks covered by canopies and at
intervals there were hitching posts, long unused. Not far from town were
the Gyp Hills in beautiful technicolor. |
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hen we first got to Medicine Lodge, we had to stay at the old Royal
Hotel for a few days. Dad's boss and his wife were planning to take a
vacation of a few months, and Dad was left in charge of the business,
and we were to move into their house until they came back. They didn't
leave for a few days after we arrived so the hotel was a necessity.
We hadn't been there long when I broke out in a rash. An investigation by
Mother revealed bedbugs. Mother was horrified. Yes, there really is such
a thing as bedbugs, and yes, they really do bite. At the end of our
sojourn at that fleabag hotel when we went to move into the nice house
belonging to Dad's boss, Mother had to inspect every single item that
went into the place in order to be sure we weren't bringing in some of
the little pests.
hat summer was a happy one. There were children in the neighborhood to
play with. The Hibbard girls lived across the street. The thing about
those girls which most impressed me was that they could swallow pills,
something I just hadn't been able to master. When I had a toothache,
Mother would dissolve an aspirin tablet in a teaspoon, and that was
really bitter medicine. There were no orange flavored baby aspirin in
those days. Actually we had very little in the way of medicine. I
remember Fletcher's Castoria and Vick's Vaporub was rubbed on my chest
if I had a cold. For an earache Mother would heat some light oil and
drop it in my ear. For cuts and scrapes we had iodine or red
Mercurochrome, both of which stung like fury. A bottle of Listerine and
a tube of Ipana toothpaste were about the only other items in our
medicine chest. Actually, I was pretty lucky. Some of my friends had to
take cod liver oil everyday because it was thought to
be very good for children. But I didn't have to take the nasty stuff.
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uring that summer we bought a car. It was a 1927 Chevrolet, dark green
with black trim. We were thrilled with it. This was not our first car as my
parents had been driving an Essex at the time I was born; however we had
been without a car for two or three years. Now that our circumstances had
improved and we could afford a car we were very happy. We called it our
Shivey---not Chevy, but Shivey. Bob learned to drive this car, and I'm
sure he put more miles on that old Shivey during his high school days
than Dad did. We had an outing every Sunday. Sometimes we went fishing
northeast of Medicine Lodge on a creek which we called Bee-Bee Creek.
Sometimes we went to the Hully Hoss Ranch near Sun City where there was a
good fishing hole.
ometimes we took a drive through the Gyp Hills. I never got tired of
those hills. The colorful red bluffs and gullies with outcropping of
gypsum which sparkled in the sunlight were always a pleasure, fun to
climb and pick up pieces of gypsum. There were two types of gypsum; one
was the semi-clear type which resembled mica and the otherwas opaque,
chalky-white gypsum. The white kind could be used as chalk for drawing
hop scotch games on the sidewalk. This summer marked the beginning of my
love affair with the Gyp Hills. The affair has never ended. I love those
hills. They call me, they beckon me, and I must go back.
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hen we moved from the Wadsworth house, we went into an apartment for a
while and then to a large grey stucco house on North Main Street. This
was a great location for me as I was close to school and only about two
blocks north of the old Lincoln Library. I could walk to the library as
often as I wished. I read all the children's books and then retread
them. Knees hooked over one arm of my chai r, my back resting against
the other arm, I devou red the adventures of the Bobsey Twins and Tom
Swift and stretched my imagination with Black Beauty and The Secret
Garden.
ehind the house was a high elm tree, its lower branches not far above
my head. I could climb up to a limb just perfect for tree-sitting.
Tree-sitting was a most pleasant pastime on a lazy summer day, but this
was not my secret place. A grape arbor grew along the south property
line. I discovered a place where I could crawl under the vines. There
was a space just big enough for me, completely cut off from the world by
the grape vines. I spent happy times in this leafy retreat, knowing no
one could see me and I was the only one who had ever discovered this
secret place.
ur neighbors to the south had a fine strawberry bed and currant and
gooseberry bushes, all great for outdoor nibbling. Across the alley, our
neighbors had a stand of white clover in their back yard. Uninvited, I
would go and sit down in the clover and make clover blossom jewelery,
pretty necklaces and bracelets.
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y best friend was Joann Richardson, who was six months younger than I
and a year behind me in school. She lived in the same block, and we
played together every day. We indulged in a lot of pretense in which we
would be certain characters in certain circumstances and we would act
out our chosen roles. This game started out as "Let's play like," but soon became just "plike." One of us would say,
"Let's plike" and away we would go, making up the plot and
dialogue of our story as we went along.