Everyone likes to talk about their teen years, right? There are things I have forgotten that I wish I hadn't, and things I remember that I wish I didn't. We all have that. I began my teen years in New Boston. We had moved to a little two bedroom house on a little street between Gallia and Rhodes. I remember we were close to the corner, and there was a bar on the opposite side of the street on the corner. I remember going into that bar and getting hamburgers for us to eat for dinner on many occasions. That was a treat, when we had the money to do that. It wasn't often, because by this time, mom's husband, John, was living in Cleveland and not even sending money to support us. At first he came home on weekends, then stopped that, then began sending money each week, and that stopped too. All my mother had to live on was a $66. social security check each month for me, Janice, and Tammy. I don't even see how they thought someone could take care of three children on that amount, let alone the six that mom had. Mom would bar-maid at the corner bar just to try and make ends meet. It didn't work because all she could afford to pay was the rent and sometimes pay our utility bills. We basically lived on "commodities", which is why I said it was a treat to occasionally get hamburgers from the corner bar.
Well, back then, they were definitely sticklers on raising your children. Our electricity was turned off because that was the bill that had to be let go that month, so we could have heat. it was January/February of 1967. Someone reported the situation, I know who, but it isn't important to list it here. A couple police cars appeared outside, Julie was baby sitting us so mom could work. They said we had to go with them. I don't think they made Julie go since she was 16 at the time. I was 13, Janice 12, Tammy was 7, Nancy was a toddler and Samantha a baby. I remember a lot of crying. Anyway to touch up on it, me, Jan, and Tammy went to a childrens home in Wheelersburg, Nancy and Samantha went somewhere else. Julie went to stay with our Aunt Violet. We weren't in the home long, maybe a month or two, then went to live with our father's parents. Mamaw and Papaw as we called them. Nancy and Samantha went to "supposedly" live with their dad's brother, Levi, but actually lived with their dad, John. John didn't support them when they lived with mom, so where is the justice that he should be able to raise them????? Mom and Julie moved to Cleveland once she saw that she wasn't going to get us back, and we were raised from that point by our grandparents. I have regrets about that, not living with my mother and other sisters, but my grandparents were very good to us. Now a quick touch on our life with mamaw and papaw Hays.
I loved Wheelersburg school. Janice did too, I am not sure Tammy liked school at all, lol. I had very good friends, as did Janice, but I think Tam fell into some shady people. Well they were by standards back then, but today they would seem like saints. We lived very strict lives then, most all of our moves were closely monitored. I thought they were too strict with us, and they were, but I believe it molded us into what we are today. We couldn't date, even at seventeen and eighteen unless with another couple. Janice and I would go to the burg on weekends and hang out at Pop's Place. All our friends hung out there. We weren't allowed to separate, but we did. I behaved myself, honestly, but I can't speak for Janice all the time, only when she was with me. When she was with me, she behaved, and when she wasn't she behaved for the most part.
However, I can recall one incident that she was right down rotten and I am the one that got beaten for it, lol. We split up at Pop's and she went out with her boyfriend. I stayed at Pop's with my boyfriend, Rodger Arnett. When it was time to go home, Janice never showed up. I kept waiting, and finally Rodger said I needed to go home, I didn't need to get into trouble too. So I did. I walked in the kitchen door, and got the pee beat out of me with a coat hanger. Scared me poopless, lol. I was not expecting it, she must have been waiting there in the dark from the time I was supposed to be home until I walked in that door. She was thoroughly angry. I remember asking her if she was crazy, and that got her more upset. I told her I was late because I waited for Janice to show back up, that she had left with her boyfriend and was supposed to meet me back at Pops. Mamaw told me I was a liar because Janice was in bed asleep, and had even come in early. I ran to that bedroom going to beat her senseless with mamaw on my heals. I could smell alcohol on her, and I started shaking her asking why she did that to me, but couldn't get her awake. This whole time mamaw was hitting me. The next day I asked Jan why she did that to me, and she said she had drank some alcohol, and didn't want to be late, so mamaw wouldn't know. I was upset, but got over it. I was grounded but got over that too. Janice and I were very close, we always hung out together. We got into a few messes, no bad ones. The one I just told you about was probably our worse, well, except for one other thing. LOL, Jan it is so darned funny, but I won't tell it. All I am saying about it is your hubby (whom you were dating at the time) was involved. And it took place in Garden City. Bring back memories? LMAO.....
We had a good life at mamaws, even though strict. We had a membership at the pool in the burg, so spent a lot of summer days there. We were allowed to go to school dances, which we called "sock hops". We weren't allowed to date at that time, but saw our "boyfriends" there. We went to all the sports games. Not that we liked them so much at the time, but we were allowed to "sneak" and see our boyfriends there. Remember those days, any of you?
When Janice was a Junior, I think, she met her hubby, Walt. They got really serious really fast. The fall of her senior year, she and Walt got married. Before they married though, she fixed me up on a blind date with Walt's brother, Bobby. He was home on leave from the Army, or whichever one he was in, or had just gotten out, don't remember which. But I do remember his hair was shaved off practically, and that was not what we were used to seeing back then. This was the days of the Beatles, so you know the mens hairstyles. Bobby was a very good looking man, but I didn't see that because of his hair. We are so vain aren't we? Anyway, we went to Chillicothe to Manners Big Boy for dinner, and don't remember what we did after that, but it was our one and only date. A few years later I was working at Master Portrait Studio's and Bobby was working there. I remember thinking he was so darned hot, you see, he had hair then, lol.
We were good kids back then. We really were. But I guess we had to let our mischievousness out someway, so we always did it by using poor Tammy. She was like six and seven years younger than Jan and me, and always wanted to tag along. We didn't want a little kid following us when we went to see our friends. just didn't look good. There was a little store down the street from us, we would cut through an alley behind mamaw and papaws house to get there. Well, we would go there and hang out with some friends. Mamaw made us take Tammy most of the time, and we got tired of it. So we handled it, right Jan? lol. It may sound mean, but we were desperate. Down the alley, there was a big tree right before we cut over the hill to head to the store. We tied Tammy up there, and told her if she screamed, or told anyone, she would be sorry. We went to meet our friends, and when we were done, untied her. She never told. The next time we were going to the store, mamaw said Tammy, you can go with them. Tammy said "no, I don't want to go". Poor thing. She never followed us to the store after that. Another time, we were even more rotten to her. These two things were the worst we did to her, the other things were very minor. There was a t.v. show back then, on at eleven oclock, called "Chiller". It was on at 11 p.m. every Friday night. Mamaw allowed me and Jan to watch it, but made Tammy go to bed cause she was too young. Tammy never fussed about it. One night, Jan and I decided to scare her. And scare her we did. We lived in the country, no street lights, and had those metal blinds on our windows. You could barely see your hand in front of your face. There was a closet door right beside the head of the bed. I hid in the closed while Tam was brushing her teeth and getting ready for bed. Jan waited in the hall. Tam got into bed, and I was to wait until she was nearly asleep, then come out and scare her. When Jan heard her scream, she was supposed to open the door a crack, so I could see to crawl out of there without bumping into anything. Just about the time I should come out of the closet, Jan would open the door and say, Tam, are you asleep? I would think , Jan, quit asking her or I will be in this darned closet all night. Finally I heard her breathing heavy, so I slowly opened the door, with it squeeking a little. I heard her roll over. I stepped beside her head, and stood over her, about that time, she let out a horrible scream, Jan cracked open the door a little, and I crawled out. When I got into the hallway, mamaw yelled in "Tammy, go to sleep, you are not watching this movie. It is too scarey for you". Poor Tam, she was freaking out in there, and mamaw thought she was only wanting to watch t.v. Jan and I laughed so hard we could hardly watch the movie. Like I said, we had fun. Lots of fun.
One of the things I remember most was me and Jan sneaking out and seeing our sister Julie. We weren't allowed to see her or mom, but we would meet Julie on occasion in the church parking lot down the street. We did this for a while, then all of a sudden it stopped. The visits. I don't remember why they stopped, but I know me and Jan looked forward to them.
I could go on forever telling of my teen years, but there isn't enough space, nor enough time to write it all. I just wanted to touch up on a bit of it. When I was a senior, I baby sat for a lady, Nancy. She had two kids. Lisa and Lori. Nancy began working late nights, so I moved in with her. I was eighteen at the time, and it was right before graduation that I moved in, so mamaw didn't stop me. I graduated high school from there in May of 1972. Then in November of that same year, Janice got married. It was a small wedding, and I missed it, because I had moved to Cleveland. More of this on the "After Graduation" page.
One other thing that is worthy of mention is Hanging Rock. That was one place that definitely became our hangout. It was near Ironton, Ohio. We would take a couple car loads of us up there and drive as far as we could, then we would walk the rest of the way. It was way up on a hill, and it was actually a huge rock hanging out over the "mountain" as people up here would call it. We would go up there and sit and drink Boones Farm, Strawberry Hill. I really didn't do any of the drinking, cause I didn't drink then, but a lot of the others did. There were grapevines there that we would swing out on, over that rock. A little bit crazy weren't we? But so much fun we had there. |
