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The Chillicothe Voice

Nelly's Corner

Jun 30, 2023 02:14PM ● By Greg “Nelly” Nelson
Our Small Town Was a Happy Town
Everyone older than 18 had a job and EARNED their living. Our town was as generous then as it is today. People expected others to work but if life dealt you a tough time these townsfolk helped in various ways... usually very quietly and quickly. Individuals stepped up to help. Some were wealthier than others but they acted like neighbors and gave help. I remember my mother telling me to, “Take this box to Mrs. Jones and don’t open it. Get on your bike and ride straight there!” 

Summer days are what kids lived for. We cruised through the alleys that were all covered with coal clinkers that were pulverized by car tires. Beautiful rusty red-tinged diamond lanes for bike gangs under age 13. Most kids had a hole in the knee of their jeans from an unexpected clinker crash... sometimes little holes on the skin of the knee from cinder shrapnel. We were all proud to show off the wound. Several of us rough-hewn riders were wounded trying to get to Johnson’s Candy store in north town on Santa Fe Avenue. That candy haven was an island of sugar delight. Every kid in town knew how to get there as fast as the pedals would push. We had to be sneaky or some party phone line mother would identify us and spread the word about sugar poisoning of some kids...they meant well but we knew better.
 
I had a sister who told always told my mother that she “meant well.” I called her by the name of Wretch. Soon all my inner circle of friends in the neighborhood called her Wretch also, but never to anyone but me. I was thankful because it would have been gallons of soap for me to dine on. The Wretch saw me eating an entire box of fudge sickles at Johnson’s candy kingdom. It was an hour before supper when I was gorging and she cruised by on her blue girl bike... and just gawked with her beady eyes not saying a word. She was alone of course. Who wanted to cruise with a Wretch anyway?  She kicked in high gear for the house. I knew my immediate future was going to be stressful. I slow pumped my bike home and took an alley and purposely fell on the cinders drawing a little knee blood. A trickle of blood would usually soften any mother’s wrath. It didn’t help me at all!  The Wretch had spilled her story in detail already... plus accused me of purposely failing on the alley cinders. The Wretch had no bottom for evil intent!  She never needed to witness much because she said she knew her “ Weird” brother. My mother for some unknown reason tended to believe her story. After mom cleaned the fudge sickle ring off my sweet lips I was told I would not have supper but I would have something sweet to eat later that evening....It was dish soap called Joy! How sick is that?

During that era, the president was talking about astronauts going to the moon in the future. The only time I ever wrote a letter to the president was during that time. I suggested to him that I had a sister I was willing to give to the space capsule. It was a better idea than the Russians had when they sent a chimpanzee up into space. The Wretch would surely report everything if she returned. I had my fingers crossed that entire summer.

Let’s hug all the kids and love all our neighbors!!!! Thank God we live in this wonderful town!