Published: September 05, 2008 08:37 pm            

DAY: Reliving our childhood

Look up your grade-school friends

School has started, and fall is coming fast. I remember in my childhood how we looked forward to school starting so that we could reunite with friends who lived far enough away that Mom would not allow us to go visit them.

She was the mother hen who protected her flock 24 hours a day. And we had those friends who lived in the neighborhood, who to this day are still my friends. We lived in a neighborhood that was mixed, but that didn’t stop all of us from playing together, sometimes fighting one another, or having them over to our house for fun and games, storytelling and piano playing by our pretty mother.

The kids in our neighborhood really liked to have Mom tell them stories about when she was a little girl, some of it in the same house that had been in the family for many a year. The other neighbors knew that if their child was over at Lucille’s house, they were in good hands.

One thing I want to mention about where we lived as youngsters is that even though we were in the same neighborhood, we went to different grade schools. My family went to Willard School, and some of my friends went to Douglas School.

That was silly to us kids, as maybe the next-door neighbor sent their kids to Douglas and maybe down three homes that family sent kids to Willard. There were kids a block from there that went to Douglas.

What was funny was that when we finished our six years at Willard and Douglas, we all went to Central Junior High and then to Kokomo High School. Just think how it might have been if Willard and Douglas were one school, and all our friends would have been in one group. Think about how many priceless memories would have been made. What a mixed up world we were in during those times when separation was the name of the game.

But that never stopped all of us from getting together to play games, or just visiting each other. Those were good times when changes were in the air, but progress was slow and sometimes tempers were high.

My friends and I went to the movie houses together, and we were never told we had to sit in a separate section. We went to restaurants and had no problems being served.

Were we special to be able to do these things without problems, or did we just go to those places that we knew we would be served? I really don’t know and to this day, those friends who are still alive wave and say hello and shake hands with each other, because respect in all our lives was to honor one another as God’s children.

I passed papers in our neighborhood and all areas around it, and my customers were not only gracious, they always paid for their paper each week with a smile and many times some treats to boot. It was a wonderful world back then in our neighborhood, and it was made up of people who had respect and love for our fellow man.

Many of my old friends have been called Home, but there are still some who see me in the stores and other places, and they tell me they read my column and hope that I continue to write about those times in our area when friendship meant a lot.

In today’s world, not too much difference is evident, as there are still neighborhoods that have what we had and, probably, that will be true for many a moon, because friendship is one thing that sticks with you no matter where you live. It is the one thing that stays in your walk of life – the priceless value of one friend to another.

It is gold at your feet and with it, life is wonderful. How about you out there, have you seen one of your old friends and visited with them? Have you even thought of those great times when, as a child, love of your fellow man was supreme?

Ray “Uncle Ray” Day of Kokomo is a weekly contributor to the Kokomo Tribune. He can be reached by e-mail at uncleray@skyenet.net.

        

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