Thursday, May 3, 2012

Oh, That Old Gang Of Mine

     I recently re-connected with someone through classmates.com.  I haven't seen or talked to this person in 47 years.
    This was his e-mail:
Hi Lynda,
I saw your profile pop up as a new member of classmates and thought I'd say welcome.  Don't know if you remember me but back in the day (summer of '63 or '64 ??) I was one of the crowd that used to hang out on your front porch every night.   I am actually still in touch with some of the others. If you'd like to stay in touch please do and I'll respond as well.
 
       That message brought back memories of a long ago summer.   The crowd who used to hang out on our front porch (it wasn't exactly a porch, more like a stoop with steps) were all boys.  It was me and my sister and usually 8-10 boys.   And hanging out is just what we did.  What did we talk about?  Why did these boys like to hang on our front porch?  I wish I could remember.
       I do remember speeding through the evening chores.  My sister and I took turns cleaning off the table, washing and drying the dishes and sweeping the floor.  Once the kitchen was tidied up, we could go outside to sit on the porch.  We had no air conditioning so we stayed out as long as possible, savoring the coolness of the night air on a sticky hot summer eve.
      Then the boys would come, riding their bikes, walking down the street in pairs or groups of three or four stopping at our house to hang out on the front porch.
      The most vivid memory is of my father.  He was not happy that all of these boys would be hanging around his daughters.
     He would say, "Why do these boys have to congregate here?" This is not the neighborhood hang out.  No other parents would want this crowd in front of their house."
     Most times he would tolerate it, but sometimes when we got too noisy, my dad would come out and chase the boys away and make my sister and me come into the house.
     In my response back to R, I reminded him of how unhappy my dad was about the gang hanging out in front of our house.  R replied that he did remember that and at the time he couldn't understand why my father would object.  His thought was that my dad should have been at ease knowing exactly where his daughters were and pretty much what they were doing.
    But, R further went on to say, that it wasn't until he had a daughter of his own that he understood how my dad felt.
     R sent me a long email letting me know what happened to some members of the old gang.   It's funny when I think about those days and those boys, I picture them as the young teens they were 47 years ago.
The Old Hang Out



I have created a page for Anna's Diary.  It can be found under the Tab titled Anna's Diary.
I have posted all of the entries to date there, starting with January 1, 1929.

Here is today's entry from Anna's Diary:
Friday May 3, 1929
Home all morning.   Spent afternoon at 360.  Had supper there.  Jewel and Rick came bak with me.  They love my new Chinese rung in the dining room.


2 comments:

  1. Sweet post.  I remember those long summer evenings.... I was hanging out with boys all right but most of them were related to me!  Tell me again where you grew up?

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  2. It's always interesting getting in touch with someone from the past--it makes it seem like that world is still out there going on somewhere.

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