Kind friends

“Charm” by Debra Hurd

Reminiscing today about my childhood with two kind friends, both older.

Jimmie E. was two years older. Every Saturday morning I crossed the street in our small Michigan town, knocked on his back door, and went in and watched Mighty Mouse and The Lone Ranger with him in his little den.

In the autumn we played house outside. We raked piles of maple leaves into a large blueprint of a house in his backyard. Rows of leaves were walls. We parked our bikes in the “garage.” We never actually said, “let’s pretend you’re my husband, I’m you’re wife,” but it was assumed.

Janet J. was four years older. A twelve-year-old playing with an eight-year-old me, she was always fun and taught me how to wrap fabric around dolls, securing it with pins to create spontaneous clothes. In her yard smelly green walnuts were scattered around. Her father flattened them with his car tires in the driveway.

Janet’s father and my father were both ministers. We lived across the street from each other, she in the Methodist parsonage, I in the Baptist parsonage. Our churches were also across the street from each other on two corners. In the Methodist church they could dance in the basement. In the Baptist church dancing was not allowed because it was considered sinful. (I’m not sure what folks at the time did with the Psalms in which King David danced unto the Lord.)

One of my best childhood memories was piling into the Methodist minister’s convertible European car with the neighborhood kids and going for a root beer at the A & W. In those days it was still a drive-in and they hooked a tray of frosty mugs on your window.

Together, Jimmie, Janet, my brother John and I were in the Happy Workers Club. We raked leaves for old people. Afterwards, at night, we played combat outside the Methodist church, which resembled old German buildings we saw in WWII movies.

I am the youngest of eight children. All the neighborhood kids were older. Many elders have cared for me my entire life. Even my husband is older than I by a bit.

Thank you to all you lovely friends and family who have cared for me. I will turn the big 5-0 next month, and I couldn't do it without help (and some dancing) along the way.

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