| FENNVILLE
I
first felt the rumble of the steam
engines
in 1940 when Mom, my two sisters and I moved to a house about 800 feet
from the Pere Marquette tracks on Walter St. (Double White dot at
bottom
of Map).
This
is where I went to kindergardern. We had previously lived three
miles
to the south west on Hutchins Lake.
Then World War II started. |
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KELLOGSVILLE: |
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BURTON HEIGHTS
It was 1942 when we moved here and I was in the 2nd grade. Aunt Blanch lived about a block south of us. Just about three doors to the east was a bakery that made wafer cookies and they threw the broken wafer sheets out the back window. Guess who ate all he could. This bakery was on Division Ave. and across the street was a movie theater. That is where we saw "Bambi" when it 1st came. out. While going to school in
Burton Heights,
I stumbled on the edge of the curb on my way home. Broke my left arm
which
was the arm I used to write with. Using the right arm more, probably
helped
make me right handed in sports but I remained left handed in
writing.
We moved from the apartment down to Aunt Blanch's for a short time and
then all of us moved to the suburb of Wyoming.
Living with two
families
made it easy for mom. My cousin Elaine was a built-in baby
sitter.
In Wyoming, I had another accident, playing in the garage attic, barefoot. It had a finished ceiling and I stepped between the rafters and went straight down onto the car's license plate which in thoses days stuck out on a bumper with sharp edges. I have a three inch scar from that, on the instep of my right foot.
While living up in Grand
Rapids, my sister
Carolyn stayed of and on with Grandma Sheckler's sister Edith Lickley
and
her husband, in the country North of Bloomingdale. I too made weekend
trips
on the train to Fennville, visiting my grand parents at Hutchins
Lake.
I guess I missed them and the Lake. This train was always the
less
expensive MILK TRAIN that traveled
late at night. It stopped at every depot that existed along the
way,
and that was six or eight. The everyday freight deliveries were
made
then, being more important than passengers on that train. I also
remember being picked up at the Union
Depot
in Grand Rapids by my cousin Neil with his girlfriend Alice, in a big
truck
he was driving at the time. Alice lived just a short distance from us
in
Wyoming. I remember where she lived because there was a store on
the corner of her street where I purchased candy. I always had a
crush on her.
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FENNVILLE:
In 1943, my sister Arleen and I moved back to Fennville to live with our grand parents. Three was too many kids so my sister Carolyn moved to live with Aunt Edie and Uncle Frank Lickley near Bloomingdale. Mom had to stay in Grand Rapids because the war was still on. She moved in with her friend Jessica Mackie who also worked at Hayes.. After the war, Mom moved to Fennville and lived with Keith and Bee Hutchins. There - another story begins with Red Hutchins |
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