that my momma was one of 6 kids.
6 very creative and ornery kids.
growing up in the 1930's they invented things.
such as...
one brother invented perfume sold in a bottle.
it was really just a cotton ball soaked in ???
but he convinced their friends it was needed.
(as an adult he did produce his own hair products line
and was very successful.)
they had assorted money making adventures;
the troop train made a very brief stop in their home town,
so they hauled a wagon full of cold sodas and candy bars
to sell to the soldiers. eventually those fellas asked
"hey do you have an older sister?"
sure they did.
so.....next time they took her picture with them
to show. and....
they sold her address!!!
she did get letters from strangers.
their family lived in rentals and moved often.
i think they must have been a bit like"spanky and our gang".
mom once said, " when we moved in to a new area,
the neighbors would shudder and say 'oh no..it's the Hantz kids'! "
there are tales of renters in the basement and going in their rooms
to dust and clean.
or my uncles using a white sheet and talcum powder to
scare naive little kids into believing the 'ghost of whom-ever'
lived in there.
one house had them living across from the town pool.
like most kids they were there all day.
one time momma and her older brother-the-inventor
during the off season convinced their younger brother he could fly.
all he needed to do was tie a bath towel around his neck,
jump off the diving board and he would be soaring like superman.
well..... they cried the whole time dragging his little
body home convinced they had killed him,
and boy-howdy were they gonna be in trouble!
momma's mom was the lady who would fill her car
full of all the neighborhood kids and take them
out to the sand dunes with a picnic lunch.
or down to the cimarron river bridge for hiking-
walking on the cat walk,
or over to meade lake for the afternoon.
entertainment abounded with some creativity.
during high school momma worked in the local drug store,
was also a drum majorette and could twirl a mean baton.
yes, i know where that baton is.
she climbed water towers, trees, had a newspaper route.
they scavenged in trash bins and sold the glass bottles to
a local store man, named john mead i think, so they could buy candy
from him. hence one of the nicknames they had 'john meads kids.'
she was a fun kid and later a fun adult.
certainly made for a great childhood to be raised by
a creative fun lady.
we climbed trees, tv towers, mountains, sat on the roof,
waded in nearly every stream in the rocky mountains.
we had an old army jeep on the farm.
sometimes we would just go for rides in bumpy pastures,
or sand dunes. when we had a dune buggy we were out
driving around once, mom and us kids, came across a
irrigation sprinkler that was showering on the road.
it was a hot day so we drove slow to get sprinkled.
we laughed so much, momma took us through it
several more times.
we worked hard, we played hard.
she shared her love of life and
we were blessed beyond measure.
for two weeks now she's filled heaven
with that fun-loving creative spirit.
whew...i don't wish her back...
except i do.
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