Just Whistle a Happy Tune

Chess, Checkers, Monopoly, Careers, Yatzee, Badminton, Croquet, Jarts, Darts, Risk, The Game of Life, Candyland, Marbles, Slap, Hide and Seek, Parcheesi, Sorry, Operation, Mousetrap, Chinese Checkers, Jacks, Pick up Sticks, Dice, Tidily Winks, Ants in Your Pants, Cribbage, Blockhead, Rook, Old Maid, Poker, Euchre, Pedro, Gin Rummy, War, Fish, 52 Pick Up, Cootie, Hearts, Crazy Eights, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Rock'em - Sock'em Robots, Scrabble, Twister, Limbo, Dominoes, Triominoes, Bats in the Belfrey, Snakes N Ladders, Box, Tic Tac Toe, Bean Bag  Tic Tac Toe, Devil's Maze, Instant Insanity and lots more that I can't remember - we played a LOT of games in our family...

I always won of course ( OK! So maybe not all of the time,  but my siblings would grudgingly admit that I probably won more than my "fair" share - oh! You remember it differently ? Ha! Wanna set up the croquet set?  POISON!)

One of the projects that Art Inc. took on, was to paint arborite panels to be placed on the towns garbage cans - the Chamber of Commerce sponsored a contest ($25 prize) for the winning design - Gay Schmidt won the prize for her panels of playing cards,  but my panels were the ones shown in the Lapeer County Press picture of some of the Chamber members holding one of the garbage cans - I painted about eight or nine of these panels - some were of hobbit like characters and some were cartoon quetzeL birds... frankly, I didn't see that it helped to "beautify" anything but who's to argue with our civic leaders, especially if there might be chance to win some money...

Grandmas Running had a garden that should have been featured in Better Homes and Gardens - she had thousands of flowers growing in a landscaped area of a backyard that was a pleasure to visit - she had a small goldfish pond with lily pads and all of this was surrounded by various trees planted in the yard - she spent many, many hours in her garden and the results were spectacular - they also had a vegetable garden, but this was primarily grandpa's responsibility - he built her a greenhouse so that she could cultivate more plants and this was a very interesting, if humid place to visit...

We also had a vegetable garden in Elba - we grew green beans, peas, carrots, tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, radishes, lettuce, cabbage, sweet corn, popcorn, strawberries, raspberries, watermelon, gourds, dill, asparagus and probably more that I can't remember... and WEEDS, can't forget the weeds - we spent a lot of time (well it seemed that way to us...) Pulling weeds from the vegetable garden - mom would can many of these things and we also supplemented this by going places and picking strawberries at commercial fields or buying additional tomatoes for her to can or cucumbers to pickle...

Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails vs Sugar and spice and everything nice -

Gender roles were much more strongly in evidence when I was growing up, men had roles and women for the most part had very different roles - socially, family gatherings were supposed to be  the whole families, but in practice the men would get together and talk sports, hunting, fishing and whatever else, while the women worked in the kitchen preparing whatever meal was to be served - (gee, some things never change, do they?) - I was often more comfortable (as a small kid) being around the women as their conversations usually seemed more varied and interesting - besides which, they were the ones that had the food - men had jobs and wives stayed at home for the housework and raising children - dad wasn't particularly happy about mom going to work, but accepted this better as he saw  that more money was available for his toys and trips (hunting and fishing) - women's lib was often seen (by men AND women...) as a bunch of silly bra burners who didn't know just how lucky they really were...
 

Mom: For the record: I still think the so called women's lib was and is a bag of shit. Excuse the expression from your mom. If women want to drive trucks, pour cement, so be it, but leave me alone. I roto-til my garden myself. Not to prove something but because the garden is mine and I love to do it. Gads!

When we made our own toy bows, we needed a good supply of arrows - this was accomplished by carefully cutting stalks of goldenrod that had a bore gall already on them to be the arrowhead - these were not the most durable of arrows of course and they had no feathers to help guide them, but the supply was abundant and since we were shooting at each other anyway (to our parent's horror) we didn't really want something that was going to hurt us anyhow - the neighborhood parents of course thought differently and that we were likely to "put out somebody's eye" - this never happened, but I SUPPOSE it COULD have happened and the parents eventually got their way - our bow and arrow wars were stopped...dad really hated goldenrod because whenever it was in bloom, he seemed to have "hay fever" allergies to all of the pollen that it produced....

Across the road from the end of the field next to our house (where I wasn't really supposed to go at that age) there was a drainage ditch pipe that went under the road and emerged where the water made a small waterfall in a little rocky pool. I was playing there one day and constructed a primitive sluice to wash rocks  (my pretend gold) and I had a lot of fun doing it. - I left it set up and when I returned the next day it had been replaced by what looked to me,  like a professionally made sluice.-  It had some of my rocks in it,  but it also contained a small chunk of iron pyrite ( I knew about Fool's Gold) - I was really spooked that someone had been watching me play at this,  when I had thought I was unobserved - I left this sluice set up and  didn't return to play there for a long time - the next time I was there,  the set up was gone...

I suspect that a neighbor had seen me playing (there was only one house where I could have been seen from but I didn't know who lived there) and on a whim,  constructed this for me - later in life I've wanted to thank this person who was probably disappointed that I hadn't accepted this gift.. Whoever you were,  Thanks!

Grandma Skellenger's house in Davison had a goose berry bush out behind it - it didn't produce very many berries, but I always tried to make sure that I got to taste a few each year - they are very tart and have a very unique flavor - she also had lilacs and holly hocks - I think that the first time I ever saw a hummingbird was when it was dipping nectar from some of her holly hocks - there was also a small patch of rhubarb growing along the fence line - this was fun to eat raw, but grandma also made a rhubarb cobbler that tasted pretty good too...

Sometimes we would go driving on some of the back roads to where there would be "wild" stands of lilac bushes (these were usually found in places where old houses had been torn down and the land had reverted to wild) - we would cut armfuls of these to take back home to arrange in vases - the whole house would smell like lilacs for days..

My grandma Skellenger had a big green rat that, she claimed,  lived in her attic - when any of the kids were giving her any problems,  she would threaten to put that kid in the attic with the green rat - I'm not sure that any of us ever saw that green rat - it never seemed to inspire any real terror in us - not that grandma didn't get obeyed when she wanted, but she was always too nice to her grandchildren to ever put them into an attic - although...My own kids would probably have thought that was great and would have turned it into a pet...

Out behind the field at Greg Granger's house,  there was a stand of big white pine trees - they stood on a small hill surrounded by bushes and black berry thicket - Greg and I would often play back in these woods which were often cooler by several degrees than the unshaded fields around them - to be even cooler we would often strip to a makeshift loincloth or sometimes just enjoy the freedom of nudity - (Hey! I LIKED not wearing clothes!) - there was no sexual activity involved in any of this, but it did contribute to my wondering if MAYBE I was gay, later in high school...

Greg had a younger sister and twin brothers (both hearing impaired), but they were not invited to join us in our outings in the woods - (in fact, Greg would sometimes physically "discourage" them from going out to the woods with us - we played war, built forts and climbed trees - even further back, in a different part of the woods,  is where we captured my first baby racoon (Maria)

I wasn't even aware that Lou REALLY was my great Aunt until my Aunt Barb's wedding - I somehow had  thought that she was a long time friend of the family who had been accorded the HONORARY title of "Aunt" - at this time I was also told by Barbara (Truth?) that Aunt Lou had once been a "gun moll" for a petty stickup artist during the 30's and had often driven the getaway car - well, I can't remember ever seeing Aunt Lou even drive a car, let alone a get away vehicle, but who knows - it makes for good colorful family legend...

INSERT: (November 11, 1996 - spoke with mom  today... she says that Aunt Lou's "HUSBAND" was not a petty crook - he was a full fledged Chicago Gangster and one of the more notorious - she couldn't remember his name right  then, but says that he is sometimes mentioned on shows about that era - Aunt Lou WAS his gun moll - she apparently never divorced him and never actually married Uncle Earl...)

UPDATE:
 
 Aunt Lou was originally married (very young) to a man with the last name of Stallions. They had an only child named Johnnie Stallions. He never lived with aunt Lou and was raised by his Grandma Stallions. At this time he is still living in Illinois.

 Lou divorced and later married  Ray Walker. He was a member of the Shelton Gang. (see photos )  Lou left Ray but did not divorce him.

I can remember visiting Louise and Earl Crake when I was still very young and they lived somewhere in Flint - this was a pretty exotic experience because the area had a lot of black people in it and this was very different from what I was used to in Elba - Later they built a house only two lots away from us on Hammond road, closer to grandma Running's house - I had heard that they had a "kid" (named Ernie) but I didn't meet him for many years and I was somewhat disappointed because he wasn't a "kid" - he was an adult ...

UPDATE: Ernie was NOT their kid. He was "uncle" Earl's younger brother and now lives in a house between Earl's and Grandma Runnings old house. (Danny and Megan live in grandma's old house now)
Unknown and Ray Walker
Ray Walker and unknowns

The inside of Lou's house was kept spotless and it was generally understood that she wasn't enormously fond of young children - never-the-less, I was always made to feel  welcome at their home - Lou  wasn't even visibly upset when I brought a garter snake to show her - In many ways, I felt that she was my second mother...
Ray and Louise Walker and unknown

Earl always looked like Tennessee Ernie Ford to me - he seemed a bit exotic with his mustache - Debbie tells me, that mom  told her, that Lou and grandma Running didn't get along very well - grandma apparently always felt that Lou was the prettier sister and believed that Lou was always stealing her boyfriends from her (when they were teenagers...)

As a kid (a short time before Kindergarten) I was very proud of my ability to use crayons and coloring books, staying in the lines and doing a really good job at it - one night after we were put to bed,  I got up and figured there was enough light coming from the opening leading downstairs so that I could color in my buccaneer coloring book - I chose a picture of a pirate captain (the best one in the book...) and proceeded to carefully color the figure  (staying in the lines of course) - I was mortified to discover the next morning,  that in the simi-darkness,  I had mistakenly used an olive green crayon for the pirate's face and hands...

My mother thought this was hilarious because I was so upset by it... I don't think that I even got punished for coloring after my bedtime...(this time)

In the 5th (?) grade my mother came to school one day during the winter in the middle of the lunch break - the students had all been out on the field having a snowball fight - I hadn't been too enthusiastic about this because some of those damn snowballs hurt! (They had been made earlier in the day and had turned a bit to ice) - however when my mother arrived she brought me a new thick vinyl coat with a matching hat that had ear flaps on it - with this coat on I was practically invulnerable to any of the snowballs that hit me - I joined in the fight with a ferocity that surprised many of my classmates - snowball fights that winter were a lot more fun after I got that coat...

Like a lot of kids,  I sent away for the kit (advertised on the back of comic books) to sell greeting cards that would win you wonderful prizes, earn you extra money , etc, etc, etc... I quickly  found that I HATED being a salesman...  I managed to sell a few boxes to near relatives, neighbors  and a few others, but very quickly gave up on this as a long term activity... I made a little bit of money,  but didn't sell enough to win any of those fabulous prizes...

Another time, I sent away for 400+ Civil War soldiers - when it arrived I was disappointed and angry because they were so small that you could hold ALL of them in two hands...

Greg was my best friend through part of elementary school, jr high and again a year later when I returned from the boondocks, elementary 8th grade of Metamora - we discussed science fiction, comics, weapons, fellow  students and just about anything else that crossed our minds - I stayed overnight at his place a couple of times and he stayed at mine once or twice - sometimes we argued, but usually we didn't have to "make up" -  we just let the arguments drop - some people thought we had a homosexual relationship, but we were just friends who had some similar interests - there were a few times when I helped him with his schoolwork (his handwriting was practically illegible and there were a few times when I "deciphered" this for his teachers) - we kept the friendship going after I went to college - he and Clinton Price drove down to visit once and stayed overnight with me in Ann Arbor...

After I was married, I took Alta to meet him at his parents house in Lapeer - when we got there, we heard an argument in progress and when Greg came out to see us, he called me a Fag and said that he didn't want to see me - I haven't seen or heard from Greg since that event more than 25 years ago... too bad, because he probably was the best friend that I had during my childhood...

In my 1966 year book he wrote:
Mike - good luck to a very good friend and a good sport. Good luck in the future "69" (I hope) Greg

Greg wrote in my grad year book:
Mike! Why is it that they let a full time nut like you run around loose. Although you're still a pretty good Guy even if you do want to be president of France. Why would you want to do that. Your friend (and mine) The Great Granger "69" whoopie! Yah!

Once we went on a trip to Grindstone City - I'm not sure anymore just where this is, except that it's along the shore of one of the Great Lakes (I think Lake Michigan, but it might be Lake Huron) - there were a lot of HUGE abandoned grindstones at this location which couldn't be moved or lifted by any us - my mom find one, however, that was small enough to be picked up and put into the camper to take home with us - I'm sure that we weren't supposed to take this, but it spent many years in the garden around our house....

Grandpa Running wasn't "just" a finishing carpenter - he was an excellent cabinet maker -  one of the prized possessions of any member of our family was a gun cabinet constructed by Hank - he made several of these and they were beautiful as well as functional - displaying your guns was a family tradition, but it was recognized that they should be locked up away from kids...

It seems like everyone I knew owned guns - not  true of course, but that's how it seemed - certainly just about everyone on both sides of MY family had rifles, shotguns and dad had a .22 pistol - Dad had a .306 rifle with an ammo clip, a powerful telescopic sight and a sling...

I remember once, when he was target practicing and adjusting the telescope, he put a paper target on a telephone pole a LONG ways down the ravine of the railroad tracks - he was using steel jacketed army ammunition - (not legal for hunting) - he sighted the target and shot - the bullet went through the target, through the telephone pole and we dug the slug out of the hill behind it - dad had to dig in about 3 feet before he recovered the slug - this is a pretty powerful weapon - he also had a 12 gauge, pump action shotgun and a .22 caliber rifle - his .22 pistol was for giving a final shot to the head of any deer that had been wounded and had to be tracked and finished off - he used this when he got his big buck in 1968...

Grandpa Skellenger had a .306 like dad's, but it didn't have a clip or a scope - dad got me a .30-.30 lever action rifle for deer hunting - this is not as powerful a weapon, but it can still bring down a deer - it also didn't have the "kick" that dad's rifle had - when you fired that gun your shoulder muscles definitely knew it ... dad's hunting rifle was about the most impressive weapon that I ever saw as a kid...

We were only required to take one year of gym class in high school and you can bet that this is all that I took - I hated it! - our teacher was Mr. Nelson and as far as he was concerned, only the best athletes had any business in his class anyway - this was the place where I got picked on the most from the guys inclined to do so - I hated pushups and situps and laps - chin ups were torture and the horse was a nightmare - don't even talk to me about climbing those damn ropes - I surprised them a few times with my speed for short distance running, but I had no stamina for long distance and didn't care to develop any, thank you! - we only played soccer for a short time (which I liked) and I surprised them there with my ability to play this game (we played it a lot in elementary school)

As for the rest of it, I couldn't wait to finish my year and be out of it - I had even seriously considered taking up an instrument and joining band (THEY didn't have to take gym) but I didn't do this - I was not comfortable in the locker room in an environment of dirty jokes and snapping towels - I was NOT going to be caught off guard in the shower room and the only saving grace to the place was that it showed that some of the worst bullies in the school had some of the tiniest dicks (not that anyone was ever supposed to notice these things of course and no-one ever said so... THAT would have been an invitation to annihilation!)

My shitlist of 9th grade gym class tormentors included (but wasn't limited to...): Garry Bonner, David Woodward, Jeff Wilson, Ed Wilcox, Ken Thornton, Donald Sumner, David Rouse, Gary Preville, Robert Miller and the worst of the little pricks, Jack Howie... some of these guys, if not most, have likely grown into fairly decent human beings... at that time however, I could cheerfully have tossed each of them over a bottomless cliff... so much for pacifism eh!