when Rex burst into the house, soaking wet and with a very thick broken rope around his neck. Rex was a smart, tough dog. Skippy was cute and playful, my mother loved him. Rex and Skippy played together all the time. Skippy was killed when he was run over by a garbage truck in front of our house. My father had taken Rex somewhere and when the dog returned and smelled the blood in the street he was fran- tic. He ran through the house looking for Skip- py. The poor dog was devastated by the loss of his companion. STRAWBERRY MANSION We moved to a rented house next to my father’s garage when I was about ten years old. The area was called Strawberry Mansion. Needless to say, there were no mansions in Strawberry Mansion. The neighborhood was named for a restaurant that was famous for strawberries and cream. The neighborhood was much like Natrona Street but living next to the garage made it easi- er for my father to get to work. My father and a partner had a lot of used cars that were very interesting looking. They kept them on the street near the garage and later rented a big place on Lancaster Avenue to store and sell them. By all rights my father should have been rich. He sure tried. But he never regained his wealth after the Crash of 1929. SOME KIDS The house was three stories and was next to a similar building that was always empty. We rent- ed out the third floor to a woman and her son, Blackie, who was about fifteen years old, and her daughter, Reba, who was somewhat slow mental- ly. Reba was about my age. I remember they had to come downstairs to use our bathroom. And I remember Blackie bringing his older friends around – they were impressive to a young girl.
Woodside Amusement Park, Strawberry Mansion
earned fifty cents a week for setting the table for the teacher’s lunch room at school. These are the kinds of things we did to make a little money. Once at Easter time we made Easter baskets at school. I remember being very proud of mine but on the playground a boy snatched it away from me. I was very upset and ran crying back to school to tell my teacher. She was very under- standing and in no time at all we had designed and constructed a new basket. We had two dogs, a German Shepherd named Rex and a fox terrier named Skippy. I remember one of the things we fed them was cooked onion from the chicken soup my mother made. Once Rex was stolen by someone; he must have escaped because he came back during a terri- ble rainstorm. The whole family was very excited
29
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator