To begin with, I'm not a Woodsdale kid, I'm an Elm Grove kid. Yet after spending a few hours reading what the Woodsdale kids had written, I realized we were not all that different. Just a few miles apart, but so much in common. Most of all we all grew up in a time that most of us wouldn't trade for any other time or place before or since. Life was simpler and people were kinder and more giving. Moms could be stay-at-home moms without either feeling the need to "go out in the world and find themselves" or the necessity to have to be one of the bread-winners. Kids didn't need to be put on diets because they didn't sit in front of a TV or computer screen all day and eat junk food and they didn't need to be entertained...and never bored. In fact, I remember when most small children took an afternoon nap(so moms could get some rest). I still can remember laying on the double bed with my mom and my sister and thinking of all the things that I could be doing instead of being "made to take a nap". The only loud music I remember being heard from a vehicle coming down the street was from Ice Cream Joe and it didn't rock your house; but it did disturb some mothers because the ice cream truck always came in our neighborhood when we were taking that afternoon imposed rest.

Most neighborhoods had their own Mom and Pop store which was just around the corner. Ours was on Cracraft Avenue just up from Wheeling Avenue where I lived. It was called Red's because the man who owned the store had red hair, I suppose. He was a big man with a gruff voice and I was a little scared of him as a child, especially when I was behind the candy counter with my little brown paper bag and my change clutched in my hand, trying to pick out the most candy and the best for the money. He would be patient to a point and then you'd hear him say, "You about done back there." Sometimes, I would say, "could you put it on the tab". Everyone had a tab and sometimes mom would send me with money to pay "on the tab".

Everything tasted so good then. I don't know if it was because I was a kid, but more likely because everything was really fresh. The "icebox" in our house was only a small space that could hold about one ice cube tray and a small carton of ice cream or maybe a pound of meat. This meant someone had to go to Red's or the By-Rite at the corner of Stone Church and National Roads every day or so. That was quite a walk from our house, but it was normal to walk farther than that. Buses ran every 20 minutes or so, but if you had to go anywhere in the Grove, you mostly walked or skipped beside your mom or dad, holding their hand. We lived with our grandparents and my grandmother was one of the "best cooks in the world". We had a roast every Sunday and it fed the 6 of us and there was still enough left over to have hot sandwiches with gravy on Monday and sandwiches to take to school for a few days...they must have been gigantic cuts of meat. Nanny's noodles were to die for and were laid out on linen towels to dry; enough to cover the entire large kitchen table. When she put them in her home-made chicken soup...ummm, it was "to die for". When we came home from school and opened the front door, the smells wafting around your head made your mouth water. She canned all summer and those homemade vegetables were better than anything that you could buy today canned or frozen...especially her combination of stewed bread and butter tomatoes and sweet corn. One thing that I was terrified of as a small child was the pressure cooker. I was afraid to walk by that "beast", constantly sputtering and steaming. My grandmother did a good job of convincing us about the dangers of us being burnt or the possibility that the thing could "blow-up". She didn't need to worry about that with me...I didn't need a bogeyman...as long as the pressure cooker was on the stove.

Things were so much simpler back then. A kid could spend an entire afternoon in the back yard and never run out of things to do. Imagination was king. We had a sandbox, swing set and a log cabin ordered from Kaufman's in Pittsburgh, and of course the backyard pool. If it rained we ran out and jumped around in the raindrops. I don't remember having as many "bad" storms as we have now, with the high winds and thunder and lightening...how about any of you? When we made chains out of clover we were queens covered with beautiful necklaces and bracelets and tiaras. We set imaginary plates out of flat stones and served up weeds as salads and mud pies as meat. We dressed up in mom's clothes and high heels and paraded around the back slab porch like ladies going out to fancy dances.

You knew that summer was coming to a close by the sounds of the cicadas and the shortening days and the trips to the stores to get school supplies and clothes. Summers always passed too quickly and you would soon be trading in your roller skates and swimming suits for shinny new lunchboxes and book satchels and dresses. Moms would see you off to school and heave a sigh of relief. But the school year flew quickly by and soon it would be summer again in Elm Grove.