Blizzard, Earthquake and Childhood Diseases
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Blizzard, Earthquake and Childhood Diseases |
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My Earliest recollection
was when I was 3 years old. We lived in a small 2 bedroom house at 10045 8th
Avenue S. It was right across the street from the White Center Heights
Elementary School. Next door the house on the corner was where the water
disctrict was but even though we were so close to them we didn't have indoor
plumbing. The property was steeply sloped and there was a path a little ways
down that took us to the outhouse. We had a lot of fun
playing in the dirt under the house. I seem to recall that Daddy was digging
out under that house to maybe put a basement. But I'm not really sure about
that. During the time that we
lived there, there was a huge blizzard and a violent earthquake. Now when we
have snowstorms or earthquakes I hear news reports of the "blizzard of 1950" or
the "earthquake of '49" and I recall looking out the window at the oil barrels
rocking in their cradle during that earthquake!
I also recall the time
of the snowstorm because I was very sick. I had practically all of my childhood
diseases at once. I had Whooping Cough (Pertussis), Chicken Pox, and Mumps all
at the same time. Then Shirley got the measles and Mother took me to the Doctor
to get a shot. Doctor John Smith. The Nurse gave me a shot for the measles and
so I got just a very light case of the measles, thankfully.
It was during the time that we lived in this house that Shirley and I were talking one day about what we wanted to be when we grew up. Shirley told me that she was going to be a missionary nurse in India.
Hmmmmm. Pretty smart little kid, huh? For the school-age
children, school was out for some time. We had a skeleton keyhole on our front
door and I was just tall enough to peek out and see Shirley playing with all of
the neighborhood children. Of course, I couldn't go play because I was sick.
That didn't make me not WANT to go play in the snow though. I figured out that
if I had to go potty, Mother would have to bundle me up and take me to the
outhouse. At least then I got to go out into the snow, if only for a few
minutes. And one time, I deliberately "fell" so I could slide down the path to
the outhouse.
We had some friends who lived nearby, The LINDS. They lived at the end of a dirt road.
For some reason, it seems that that road was also 8th Avenue. In any case,
Mrs. Lind was a good friend of Mommy's. Her name was Lydia. and Mr. Lind was a plumber.
I think his name was John. When we knew them then, they only had their two oldest girls:
Joanie, (who was Shirley's age) and Becky, (who was my age.) We continued our frienship with
them throughout all of our growing up years. Mrs. Lind eventually was one of the very first people
to start selling Tupperware at parties. By the time I was in Jr. High School, she had done so well,
Mr. Lind quit his job as a plumber and they moved to Toronto, Canada, where she became Territory District Manager!
We spent the night at their house many times when we were in grade school and Jr. High. I remember that Mrs. Lind could make the most wonderful pie crust! I asked her for her recipe, and to this day, I use her secret recipe for pie crust because it is so flaky and tasty! |
Sharon Page 2
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