M&Ms

One of my favorite candy is M and M's. Maybe because it is my initials. I met the widow and son of the inventor. He was killed during another experiment. They were invented in Kansas City at Midwest Research and was for soldiers to have when they were in the desert as they would not melt. The Mars company bought it and named them.They are great to hand out on Halloween as most kids like them.

Our Neighborhood

We live in a nice neighborhood but we have wild things happen. The president has visited us on the way to Northwest high School and we have had two murders, two sucides but otherwise we are quiet. When we moved here in 1951 we still had milk and bread deliverys. The bread was Manor bread and the delivery person fell in love with a customer and murdered her husband. A nephew got tired of waiting for his aunt to die so he could have her money. We had two sucides. The boys in the corner house did not like the man in the house east of us and painted their opinion on the west side of his house in black paint. They were required to repaint the west side of the house and they were required to repaint that side. Then to have President Reagan drive on 67th Street we are really something. He even waved at us.

Another entertainment in the thirties

During the depression across the street at the Junior High they made the playground into tennis courts and had craft classes in the Junior High each day where we learned all sorts of crafts. Once a week the firemen came and on 13th Street they had and my 2 sisters a big hose that went in a circle and we ran thru it. It was fun. I never was old enough to play tennis but my mother and two sisters and brother played. One summer polio hit and children were not allowed to leave their yards. That took care of activites.

Swimming

My mother loved to swim and taught us all early. We went to Gage Park where it cost 10 cents. The changing rooms had no roof and were just boards. I sat on a wasp nest once which was not good. When I was 2 my mother thought it was time for me to learn to swim. We went to Gage Pool and I got a Hershey square every time I swam about ten feet. I didn't like to touch the bottom as it was mossy since they only cleaned the pool on the 5 of July. Later we swam in the Kaw River with my older cousin watching as the river was full of holes. She was teaching swimming at the YWCA and my mother enrolled me so I would swim correctly but I was a pain to her as I would go under water and grab her ankles. Later I took life saving class which I passed 3 times until I got old enough to make it count. My brother had a good friend who worked with kids. The Depression was on and Topeka decided to let poor kids swim for free in Garfield Park in North Topeka. They got to ride free on the trolley. We helped out. My sisters and brother were life guards. I had the showers. Every kid had to have a soap shower before they went in the pool and I supervised. Once they got in the pool they blew a whistle every five minutes. Each kid had a buddy and they had to hold up their hands together. No one drowned.

The River Road

There was a gravel road that went near the Kaw River and was scenic. My uncle Percy had a cabin on it. My mother loved the road. When I was about 4 or 5 and not in school my mother liked to go on rides. She took along the minister's wife and their son Ernie who was a year younger than I was. One nice day we went out for a ride. Ernie fell out of the car (we weren't going fast.) I tried to get my mother's attention and when I told them Ernie fell out we went back. He was sitting there crying. I did not push him. Later on this same road I taught my husband to drive. He drove us into a ditch and we had to be be pulled out by a farmer and his tractor. A lot had happened lately at my house. My niece Jean was born and Helen, my sister, had an accident. My sister and sister-in-law were in different hospitals and people sent cards to the wrong hospital so my sister-in-law got cards saying "sorry to hear about your accident." My sister-in-law did not think it was funny. My sister and sister-in-law had the same name as my brother married a Helen. I wanted to tell my parents in person about ending up in the ditch so they could see I was not hurt.

One of Ray's adventures

Among Ray's many adventures was a trip to California in the Tin Goose. TWA was having trips across the country. They still had 2 planes left from form years and they brought one into Kansas City and the fixed it with tape and stuff and were going to fly it west. Three reporters were due to fly. Ray boarded the plane and about 30 minutes later I got a call from the city editors that the plane had gone down in a field in Concordia, Kansas When they took off again the gasoline came pouring down the aisles. When they got to Denver the other two reporters left. On the other side the plane went down again but in a small airport this time. They made it to San Francisco. From there a new plane flew to Los Angeles where Ray was to be in a movie with Jane Fonda called "Sunday in New York". When the movie came out it was X rated but we got permission to take the five kids. It was x-rated because of one line Jane said. "Do you believe in sex before marriage?". Ray's part was his shadow riding an escalotor.

Ray told me about his Halloweens when he was a kid. He lived on the edge of Topeka where the trolley cars ended. He liked to hang around with the older boys who liked to turn over out houses. One Halloween the boys were able to get the wires down so the trolley could not run. They were chased by the operator who only caught Ray. His mother was hiding behind a tree and saw what happened as the driver put Ray on tot ride to the police station. He got the wires back up and took Ray with him. His mother ran to get his dad and they rode the next car down to rescue him. He was let go after a scolding.

Scariest Halloween

Karl Menniger had a hospital in Topeka for the people with problems. He also had one for children. The children attended our church. One Halloween they were going to have a party and invited other children from our church. They would not go. However, the minister's son and I were forced to attend. We were very scared. I think I was eleven and Ernie was 9. We two hung together. They had great refreshments but they had fun scaring the two of us. We were the heart of the party. We were very happy when my parents picked us up.

Halloween many years ago

My oldest son, Steve, and his second Halloween. His first Halloween he and I were still in the hospital. When Steve was born we lived in Topeka where the streets are named after the Presidents. We were living at Sixth and Harrison. The main street is Kansas Ave and we were three blocks away. Steve was not very old and slept in a fancy buggy. My husband who was a reporter on the morning paper called to say that the Walgreen store at 8th and Kansas was on fire and did I want to see it. Steve was asleep and the weather was warm so I went out the door and was off to see the fire. It was pretty scary but I was more afraid to go back so I went the three blocks to Kansas Ave and the two blocks to 8th and Ray was waiting. I got a spot across the street to watch. One fireman said to Ray "Look at that crazy woman over there with a baby buggy" and Ray told him it was his wife. Next door to Walgreens was a men's clothing store that had a male statue of a man and the fireman kept apologizing to the model like he was real. So Steve went to his first fire.

On the real Halloween I had made him a little clown suit and we went to visit grandparents. He had a little pumpkin which I put a candle in. As we knocked on the door his candle flamed up and caught his clown suit sleeve on fire. We put it right out so he was not hurt.

Hello, I am back

I have been letting my friends relax but now I am back and shall write things as I remember them. The thought happened but I might not get the facts correct. My sister, Helen, just had her 90th birthday and she is the only one who might know I'm wrong and she has promised not to tell. My husband had many accidents and one was on the 4th of July, He got on a ladder in soft dirt trying to get something off the roof and the ladder went down with him. He broke his leg. We celebrated the fourth a few days later as the fourth was his favorite holiday except Christmas when he liked to be Santa in a costume. He went to work when he got home from the hospital with me driving him back and forth. One day on the way home we were at a traffic light and the police came around the corner chasing a car and the car they were chasing hit the truck behind us.