Karen Talks About the Neighbors

Let’s talk about the neighbors!  Note I did not say gossip but instead we need to share some memories. 

Although I did many workshops on writing your autobiography, giving a list of possible topics, I never thought of the neighbors; well, that is until Jim’s dad wrote about them in his.  Second page, even, he listed the neighbors via direction.  Example: East: William Darman (Wallace, Jack, children); Jankowski (Vincent; three sisters).  Loved how he’d put “shoe-string relation” who were somewhere in the family tree.  Fritz (later Blecks – shoe string) and Raffles (shoe)!  His description of the Parkers was much more detailed.  They had five kids: Fay, Benny, Beatrice, Dorothy and Harriet – “Dorothy was my favorite and a really cute gal.  Ben was quite a guy – he really loved dogs and hunting.” 

In JoAn’s (Jim’s mom) autobiography they first lived on Edward Street.  Neighbors one side, the Gibrons were a Syrian family.  “I played with their daughter, Geraldine and her brother, Abe ended-up playing with the Chicago Bears, then became a defensive coach for them.”   JoAn wove other neighbors’ stories into a well-written, fun read!

My dad didn’t point out people but pinpointed several he knew, including my favorite notation which was that he played baseball against Birch Bayh.

Mom’s wasn’t an autobiography as I wrote it several years after she passed, using some of her diaries.  Although mom never went to training as a hairdresser, she sure had an amazing knack for it.  Regularly, she did several neighbors and friends in town and not just women – kids and men as well (set David G’s hair), Doris Grimes (taught at Waveland) and Anna Hayes’.  We had three beauty shops in Waveland, so she was eventually made to stop. 

Thus it is my turn to tell you about our neighbors when I was young and please share yours either in an autobiography or just a couple page essay.  Our closest neighbors were Ida Reiter on the East and Norman and Agnes Walker on the other side (loved to watch them shop – he’d buy parts of it; she others and then some together).  Mrs. Reiter was quite old but Dad mowed her yard and mom would take her over eats a couple of times a week.  When she passed away, Dad was chosen as one of the pallbearers.  Well, it was an extremely long funeral, her daughter having played some of Ida’s favorite songs; also parts of a book Mrs. R. loved.  Dad fell asleep.  Then the daughter had a tape of Ida reading some poems she had written. Thus, this is what dad woke up to and he jumped high thinking Ida Reiter had returned from the dead.  He was super embarrassed but then again, everyone knew to expect the unexpected from Fred Bazzani. 

Johnson’s lived across the street from us and their daughter, Mary June and I were fairly close when young as I would carry her across the street to our house and go swimming all the nice days we could.  She had one of the last cases of polio so the exercise was quite good and we had fun.  Both with a love for writing, many years later we were in the same writing group and had a blast.  One day she said, “This so reminds me of when we were young and wrote plays and performed them for our folks.  It was one of the highlights from my childhood!”  Sadly, I really didn’t remember it!  Ha, another reason to write your autobiography – others can fill-in some blanks for you!

Probably my favorite neighbors were Maude and Oscar Cook.  I absolutely adored them.  They walked just about every evening, holding hands and laughing together. She also made me a lot of yummy cookies when I’d go over and talk to her when he was working (owned an antique store).  A fairly well-known Indiana artist, she only did still lifes but I had my picture professionally taken when 16.  She loved that picture and for graduation I received her one and only portrait using the picture as her starting point! 

Others around were the Machledts who had the funeral home.  They lived above it. They had one son, Freddie who would chase me (never caught me) and try to kiss me.  The Milligan’s lived a bit up the street and I loved playing with Betsy!  There were few girls around – hung-out with Mary Curry and Melody Murray some and walked a lot with Carol Presslor plus I always had to walk to school with Tresha Cox.  Used to sit and dream looking at the Sears Catalogue with Bobby Ann Fullenwider.

Well, I could keep telling you about the neighbors, but think for now, I’m done talking about them!  Please, write about yours!

For years, Karen Zach was the editor of Montgomery Memories, our monthly magazine all about Montgomery County. Her column, Around the County, appeared every Friday in The Paper of Montgomery County. Karen retired from all that a few years ago but sent us this gem to share with you. You can reach her at karen.zach@sbcglobal.net.