IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS THE FAMILY STORE OWNED BY MY DAD'S FAMILY

THESE ARE SOME ROUGH LOOKING CHARACTERS!

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: MOM, GREAT GRANDMOTHER, GRANDFATHER, GRANDMOTHER, UNCLE, JUDY, JERRY, ROSE, AND BOBBIE

This is the story of a real Second Hand Rose. A gal who has lived many years and seen many things. When I remember my childhood years it is with a gleam in my eye and a smile upon my face. Memories of times that you could never find now. Maybe that is a good thing and maybe not!

We lived in the small town of Flanders with a population of two hundred. Everyone knew everbody and everybodys business. Now that definitely created some problems for the Rose. Our family consisted of a mom and dad, two brothers, one sister, one grandfather, one grandmother, one great grandmother and one uncle. All of these characters played an important part in creating who the Rose became. Well Maybe?

The dad was a junk yard worker. A kind man and caring father. The mom was totally in love with our dad sometimes over much. She was a housewife who lived through her families achievements. One brother who was hurt early in his teens and was hospialized almost his entire life. The other brother was always in trouble and saddened the family. A sister who was loving and caring and easily hurt. A Rose who writes this.

One grandfather on my mothers side who was a character like no other. A grandmother who loved her grandaughter the Rose and was also a special character. The great grandmother was God's gift to the family. An uncle who was my mom's brother who brought a new level of friends into our lives and scared us alot.

What a place to put a dysfunctional family. But move we did. I was only 5 years old when my dad moved us, loading the wood stove which was still burning, onto the back of the truck. Down the Main street we came with smoke just pouring out the stove. Well anyway, this was home sweet home for us.

I remember wanting to go to school with my brothers. I was just five years old but thought I should go with them. I finally did get to go and I loved every day of school. One thing I didn't like, in fact it scared me alot, was the story told to us kids about the principal having a spanking machine upstairs in the school. I remember once getting into a fight with another girl and being taken to the principal. I cryed so hard worrying about that spanking machine that she couldn't punish me. Thank God! I especially remember the before school dodgeum games we would play. Throwing that ball at the kids in the center was fun. It was a soft ball. We had dancing lessons in school. All the boys and girls would gather to learn slow dancing. Among the boys there were my two brothers, their best friends and mine too. The boys all got together and decided to play a joke on me. Of course I didn't know it was a joke until later. What they did was this: when the next dance was boys choice, my brothers and all their male friends ran over to me to ask for the dance. I just hung my head and wouldn't dance with any of them. The firehouse was just across the street from our school and we had regular dances there. All the graduations over the years were held there too. We had to go around town to the ladies that grew peonies and bring them for the decorations. The firehouse had a stage and sometimes our principal would have the minister come over and put on a magic show. I got to volunteer to be the lady in the little house. I would then tap dance and sing as part of the show. Our principal was also the choir leader of our church. So she was a big part of my grade school years. She didn't really like me though. Just the things I could do.

School was easy for me and when I reached the 7th grade I was able to sing and perform in the 8th grade graduation. I had lots of friends especially the boys. I was the only girl allowed to play baseball with them. They would also let me go down the railroad tracks and under the bridges to catch polywogs. We would have buckets of them at home and wait to see them turn into frogs.

Something wonderful happened on Saturday's. Right across from my house was the country store with ice cream palor. At around 8 a.m. Mr. Saunders would arrive with his wagon pulled by two horses.

I decided that I would ask Mr. Saunders if I could ride in the wagon with him. He said yes and I climbed in. Up the road to the feed mill we went. At the mill I would get off the wagon and play in the mill by jumping on the feed sacks. There was all kinds of hidey holes and once I found some kittens. The feed mill owner didn't mind my being there. He even gave me some sacks with pretty flowers on them so my grandmother could make pillowcases. The farmer would then load the wagon with feed sacks and off we would go, around the block that was known as the little block. He would stop at my house and I would get off. By the time next Saturday came around there were probably 15 kids in that wagon. We really had fun at the mill with all those kids. Mr. Saunders never seemed to mind. He would just drop us off at different places around the little block until he reached my house. One time my brother Bobbie and I stayed on the wagon until we got to the farm. The farmer then called his wife and she gave us each a cold glass of homemade buttermilk. I still pucker whenever I think of that:(

Wintertime was a really fun time of the year for us kids. My dad would make us mittens out of old sleeves of sweaters. He would trace our hand on cardboard and using the sleeve of a sweater, cut out the shape leaving the wrist part of the arm off the sweater for the cuff of the new mitten. You should have seen him on that old tredle sewing machine. We had our favorite hills for sledding and the town gang would go there. When the gloves got wet, we would just go home for a dry pair. Ice skating was a biggy too. We had a family who lived in the house that was the old Creamery. There was a big pond and the whole town skated there. In the summer it was also a swimming place. One bad winter we must have gotten 6 foot of snow. All the power lines were down and sparking. The electric company men worked 16 hours a day fixing them. They even slept overnight at our place and other people's homes. They slept on the floor in the living room.

Our family was always in the kitchen. We had great conversations and wonderful homemade soup and homemade bread. On Sundays my dad would go to another town to the bakery and buy crumbbuns. I dare you to try and find them today. We had a canary called PeteyBoy. He was always flying around the house. He would come to breakfast and hop around the table getting crumbs. This was a very special canary that spent most of his time loose. He would sit in the hollow of my chest and sing his heart out when the Firestone Hour would be on the tv. Oh, because my dad was a junkman, we had the first tv in town. All the kids would come over. I bet you don't remember a puppet show called Pinhead and Fudinny. I have never met anyone who remembers that show. It was around the time of the original Mickey Mouse cartoons.

We had in the town of Flanders a plastic factory. I still have the glass birds, etc that was some of the products they made. I don't know why they didn't call the place the glass and plastic factory. Once in a while I would go up stairs to the owner and he would give me a toy. The boys went there by themselves, but they were not given toys. They were given adult things that the boys would never show me.

When I was seven years old I decided to go into business. I needed money for candy. So I made potholders on a loom. You remember then don't you! I would go around town and do custom color orders. Next I had a newspaper route. Then by 8th grade I was cleaning houses, doing yardwork and baby sitting. Most times all in one weekend day.