Do You Remember?

Dad riding in my old Jag!

Dad playing tennis at Kahawa Club with Mort Urschner and Spike Spencer.

Swimming with Dad in the new pool in March under the frame and plastic cover. I took a snow ball into the water. Stayed a few seconds. Dad swam for ten minutes.

Dad getting his last swim in the pool in November.

Dad stopping on the PA Turnpike on the trip to Florida so he could call in a new idea.

Dad and Bart talking to me about the birds and bees.

Lee sticking a knife into the door from the front hall to the basement stairs after I ran thru it.

Lee putting a pitch fork thru my snickers narrowly splitting my big toe and the next toe.

Carrying Lee’s 45 records on a broom stick.

Lee charging capacitors and leaving them out to shock me.

Mary refusing to play checkers with me ever again after I finally beat her.

Putting books in our pants to protect our behinds when Mother had us queued up for spankings when Dad got home.

The door in the pantry that opened to the chute to the incinerator. We would put a lit piece of paper in to start it on fire.

Going up on the roof of the house.

Going up on the roof of the apartment.

Friends sneaking into the apartment for the night.

Fixing the cars up in the garage.

Honey Flint coming over to work on cars in our garage after her business went under.

Beer parties and the keg down in the play yard. Bill Braggins carrying the partly full keg over to Patty’s Kuzacks house in the middle of the night.

Driving over Bill’s bare foot with the Ford

Falling out the passengers door of the Ford when Lee was doing a circle around the circle in front of the Durst’s House.

Covering the Renault engine to keep it warm in the frigid cold one winter. Telling Mom to remove it before she went to the store. She could not find it because the engine was in the rear, not the front and the car caught on fire.

Mother’s new 1967 Mustang Convertible that I would drive only when she sat next to me. She later was teeboned pulling out of a restaurant on rt 97 when the car was barely two months old.

Dad wrecking his Lincoln Convertible when he was hit by a dump truck.

Wrecking Dad’s Jaguar 3.8 sedan and his asking how his car was rather then how are you?

Sneaking out in the Jaguar 3.8 and driving to New Hampshire when Dad told me I could not go.

Throwing Mother’s silver ashtrays.

Learning how to weed Mother’s garden.

Eating grapes from the grape arbor.

Finding wild flowers in the wild garden. Collecting flowers with Mother from the woods.

Nancy and Gary running thru the hedge and hiding from the Cops after a beer party.

The swings next door.

Dinner’s

The day Lady (our Airdale) took the Cow Tongue destine for the dinner table off the kitchen table. Mother took it out of Lady’s mouth, rinsed it in the sink and put it back on the plate for dinner.

Giving Lady our uneatable’s under the table.

The doggie door for the Bedlington terriers.

The Bedlington bringing in a chip mouse to play with in the house.

Our parakeet opening up her cage and flying around the house.

The parakeet harassing the dogs.

The cat stalking the bird.

Dropping the cat upside down to see if she would land on her feet.

Nancy’s Sweet 16 party when someone spiked the punch.

Wild party at the house when our parents were out of town.

Cutting down the elm tree with Lee. We had a long rope tied to the bumper of the Ford.

Lee’s tree house in the Apple tree with electricity and running water.

The Lily pond.

Singing “get the worst, get the worst, get Chester Durst”

My paper route.

Our Easter Duck, Donald who turned out to be Donna.

Lady stealing an apple pie cooling outside the Durst’s kitchen.

Tapping the maple tree to get maple syrup.

Climbing out the bathroom window.

Touching the live connection in an opened Electrical box on the side of the house.

Mary’s Wedding in the yard when it rained and we had to put sheets of plywood down to ford the driveway.

My train set up in the attic.

Sneaking up the back stairs and walking on the corners to keep them from creaking.

The Ice box.

Deliveries of Milk to the back door.

Mary getting caught for buying liquor for my friends.

Mother’ Jelly Room

The Rat Room, the Paint room.

The Hydrangea Bushes

The evergreen trees on the side of the house decorated for Christmas and spelling out Merry Christmas one winter.

Getting yelled out when I said “is this all” at Christmas! (It had worked for a while and I just thought……)

Walking to Glenwood School with Lady.

Lady bringing back huge bones from the Zoo.

Playing tag in the yard

· Don't forget the little green house in the garage with the windows where we kept our gardening supplies too.

· Pulling Japanese beetles off the grapevines and putting them into jars with olive oil to save the vines

· The cement steps Lee and I built down to the pool.

· Mrs. Sweet up in the sewing room in the attic.

· When we hid Pete's white mice up in the attic when he was away and I'd feed them each day- til Mom found them by mistake

· Climbing thru the attic eaves (asbestos anyone?)

· Our footprints in the cement off the side porch

· All the barbecues we had on the side porch

· Swinging from the tree down the steps from the side porch- was it a crabapple?

· Finding a nest of bunnies under the sidewalk by those same steps

· Playing in the hydrangea bushes that were covered with snow in the winter

· Sticking a firecracker into the wasps nest off Pete’s room (above the kitchen door)

· Dad reading the OZ books to us and always so many children’s books on the shelves in Pete’s room

· The three windows overlooking the stairs and front hallway in Pete’s room

· The Dickens pictures up the front stair case

· The old kitchen

· So many secret hiding spots

· Dad bringing our first TV up the basement steps by himself

· The pipe rack

· Amazing plants in the sunroom

· Our turtle dish which I have never seen anything like it since

· The many games in the cupboards in the living room

· The old brown folding card table

· Celebrating King for a Day on Fathers Day

· Dads dictionary races where he’d give us about a minute to look up words

· Mom sending Toni and I out to pick fresh daffodils from the wild garden for her luncheon guests and we picked about 100!

· Mom always singing even though she was tone deaf

· It might be fun to consolidate our remembrances of 431 Hilltop and send them to the Agresti’s. I started another list. Please add to it.

· The doggie door

· The brass knocker (is it still there?)

· Sitting on the roof!

· Sitting on the apartment.

· Sneaking up the squeaky back stairs

· The jack in the pulpits and bell flowers in the wild garden

· The orchard, with apple trees, grapes, cherry trees, quience trees, currents, blueberries, pears and ?? Grapes were slip skin purple, purple green. Throwing slip skins at each other.

· Climbing the crab apple tree.

· Awning on the kitchen porch

· Riding in the dumb waiter

· The chute for clothes

· The pump room

· The Paint room

· The Rat room.

· The train room,

· The funny windows in the attic.

· Staying in the apartment.

· People staying over after a wild Saturday night

· The parties in the yard.

· Mary’s wedding party

· Nora Meads Sweet 16 party

· Nancy’s big sister party (was that your 16^th birthday)

· A couple of more. Joe our mailman reading our postcards and telling our mother what they said like “Peter is homesick at Camp!”

· Lady following the bus to Glenwood school and the principal calling our mom and saying she had to come pick up Lady, she’s in my office again!

· A birds nest in the sleeping porch window!! We scared them and worried they wouldn’t survive!

· Uncle Spike driving his huge Newfoundland down the Hilltop in his sports car!!

· Never locking the door and leaving keys in the car.

· The cement slab dad made off the side porch with each of our footprints embedded in it!

· Mom getting locked

· in the half bathroom off the sunporch and climbing out the window.

Swimming in the lily pond with the fountain on before we put in the pool!

· Keeping two rabbits Lee and I got for Easter in a play pen in the play yard!

· The icebox room with cabinets loaded with jars of jelly or mom mean including cherry, grape, quince , apple, current, and even mint!

· Having friends park on Gore Road sneak into the house without our parents knowing!

· Raking leaves into a pile and burning them in the street in the fall!

· Our big brother setting off fireworks from the roof one year on the Fourth of July!

· Playing lawn tennis and croquet in the center yard!

· Our big brothers clubhouse in the backyard complete with running water and lights!

· Telling the postman not to deliver the mail in the mailbox because there was a Wren’s nest in there and he actually listened to us!!

· Memories