Kim 2: I just keep thinking as I read these stories, some of which I've heard a lot, and some are new, of little vignettes, like when we would visit Mimi and she would hold our faces in her hands (thank you, Peggy, for reminding me of that years ago!), the midnight "milk and cookie breaks" with Twinkies or, especially, Eskimo pies. I remember also the trip to the Dairy Queen in Dick's roadster with a very young Annie, and the ice cream somehow got all over the outside of the car, so we had to stop and wash it off. Memories of fun summers... Those were fun milk and cookie breaks--usually lasting (or starting) at about midnight on the nights we would arrive, meaning that the time actually felt like 2:00a.m. for those of us on East Coast time! This reminded me of one of my favorite stories, which at one point I submitted as a story sample to a school for writing children's stories. I must have been about nine or 10 at the time. We had just arrived for our summer visit and were going out to the Soda Straw--an Ice Cream shop with all the bells and whistles for birthdays. The whole way over to the restaurant Dick was telling me how the milk shakes at this place were really hot--steaming when they arrive. Of course when it arrived, there was a cloud of steam coming off of it. He encouraged me to "feel the heat" coming off of the shake and I did as I was told. I wound up with a handful of whipped cream as he knocked my hand into the drink. We all had a great laugh. It was a few minutes later that my sundae arrived. I sniffed the whipped cream, took a little taste, made a face and said that I thought the cream had gone bad. Dick leaned across the table to "test" it for me and wound up with whipped cream from his nose to his chin. At that precise moment, the drums started sounding and the whistles were going. For a brief moment I thought it was because I had done this to my uncle! I was at that time a very shy child and this was totally out of character for me. It was a great boost to my confidence! Cindy, I remember those milk and cookie breaks, most of which took place late at night and early morning. I think I instigated a few of those. Here's a short story that stems from this.... I apparently was still doing this until I was about 25. The problem I had was I couldn't discipline myself to stop when I needed to. Here's the story... it was about a year after we bought our first house (1974) and I got up one evening about 10:30 for a milk and cookie break and guess what? We were out of cookies! So, I hopped in the car and went down to 7-11 and bought a package of Oreo's - not the 3 row job but the 2 row. When I got back, I proceeded to eat the whole package along with almost a complete half gallon of milk. When I got to bed, I was the most miserable human you have ever seen. I remember laying on my back wondering when the pain would stop. It really hurt! I remember asking Jan to stop buying cookies and she did. It was the greatest thing she has ever done for me. I was literally out to kill myself. By the way, if you or Kim ever come to Denver and would like to have a milk and cookie break for ol' times sake, I'd do it in a second! The memories were just too good. You can stay at our house - you too Kim!. Hey, I just remembered something... I believe we are all meeting in Houston soon - right? I bet they have Oreo's in Texas! We'll just eat a few - ok? Love, Danny PS. I remember the revenge you took against Dick when he fell for your whipped cream trick. :-) Well, who said I was lost? No, actually, I am still in New Orleans - it's 31 years now. I am re-married (YES again!!) to Robert Noote, and NO you cannot call me Noopie Noote!! Jacob is 22 yrs old and works for the gas company, hoping to marry in another year or so and also desiring to go into full time youth ministry with the church he belongs to. Bob works for Home Depot and I am with a wholesale distributor of men's and ladies gift items. I would love to hear from you guys...don't have huge amounts of time to be on the home computer because of my work, but it would be nice nevertheless. Have to run now. Take care and let me know how everybody is, okay? Bye Hi Noop! How wonderful to hear from you. I've put you in the address book and in the Junglewood group. Did you check out the website -- www.kingwoodcable.com/jehaley/junglewood.htm? It's a work in progress -- should see changes once or twice a week. Question -- since you signed this email as Noop, but informed us that we are not to call you Noopie Noote, may I assume that referring to you as Noop Noote is acceptable? I find it kinda cute, actually. That's how I have you in my email directory, but I can change it easily. Next time I'm in New Orleans, I'll try reaching you. Did you know that Billy's daughter, Francesca is going to school in New Orleans? Jacob at 22 blows me away! How the time flies. Keep in touch, and happy you are not lost! That was a great time at the Soda Straw. Does anyone remember someone driving the tractor (or was it the golf cart) and tipping over the trailer with siblings and cousins in it???? Kim, It had to have been a golf cart thing. It's scary trying to imagine the big steel trailer flipping over behind the old Ford tractor with a bunch of nieces and nephews in it. I can see it now... Mom (Mimi) running in to tell Dad that there's scrambled grand kids out there! It's not like we hadn't come close to a disaster like this. I remember when ol' Pete Woodbury was going as fast as the tractor would go right there along 6 house (next to the chicken house) and he turned his head around to see what was making so much noise in the trailer and when he did the tractor veered left right into 6 house... 8 support bars, a little paint and 37 panes of glass later, it was like nothing ever happened. There's got to be another tractor story out there.
Several years before the Junglewood fields were burned that we spoke of earlier in this collection, there was the Junglewood Dump Fire -- a fire that was so spectacular it could be seen for miles. Not withstanding the danger, I always thought it was a good thing that happened. That was such a nasty place! Others might disagree. Ken, what I remember about this fire is only what I remember you telling to me. How 'bout sharing that memory with us -- including the effort to get some water to put it out?
Ken 8: Well, here's the best of my memory of this one... I think it was just Danny and me, playing around up at the dump. I was probably about 10, which means Danny was about 8. For the people that never saw it, the dump at Junglewood was a big bowl-shaped hole about 1/4 mile south of our house. We used to burn all our trash back then, and take the ashes, and whatever didn't burn up to the dump. The hole was sizeable: about 40-50 yards in diameter; with trash lining the sides all the way around. Anyway, that day we were playing around with the sun and a large magnifying glass, stopping ants in their tracks, and trying to see what trash we could catch on fire. It wasn't hard--this magnifying glass was probably 3 inches in diameter. Before we knew it, we had a small fire on our hands, that started to spread. We started stomping it out, but it kept spreading in other directions. "Don't let it get outside the dump, " I yelled. (Stomp, stomp, stomp...) "I know," Danny yelled back, "I wish we had some water." (Stomp, stomp, stomp...) I noticed that the size of the fire wasn't growing appreciably; it was just moving. We just couldn't get it out. "I have an idea," I said, "You keep stomping, and I'll run back to the house and get a bucket of water!" "Oh, right!" he said. "That'll work." (For years, Danny kept my memory fresh about the utter genius of this idea.) "Well then, what are we gonna do?" I was really getting nervous. A few minutes later, we took a breather, looked at the fire, which was now well beyond our ability to stomp out. We decided, since it was still contained within the dump itself, and the wind wasn't blowing, to just leave it, hoping it would burn itself out. After all it was still only on one small edge of the dump and didn't seem to be spreading rapidly. So we left, fingers crossed, hoping and praying it wouldn't spread to any of the dry fields that surrounded the dump. The next morning, I remember Andy talking to someone (Dad? Billy?) asking who burned the dump. "What? They burned the whole dump?" "Yep. Must've taken about 10-20 people to keep it controlled, with all those dry fields around. Everything inside's completely burned. They really did a nice job!" I just gulped. The whole dump! Wow! I don't remember when we were finally caught...but we were. Did Benjie say something about not wanting to talk about Dad's spankings? Neither do I. Kenny, I can remember the fire in the field east of the farm. Seems to me that it was you, me, Danny and maybe Tim. We were, again, burning ant hills. It must have been in the fall because the grass was tall and dry. I never even imagined that fire could spread so fast. Before we knew it we were running just to get out of the way. I don't remember getting into trouble with my dad, but your dad sent me to a bedroom in your house. Another story I remember is the time you and I put pillows in our shorts and went around to the houses on the farm asking to be spanked. Well, your mother was just too smart for us. She said "just a minute" and went back to get your dad's belt. We were pretty smug and bent over to give her a better shot. With that she proceeded to catch us across the back of our bare legs. I didn't think it was very funny, but it was a good "life's lesson". Thanks for all the work you are doing on this. Charlie: As a matter of fact I wasn't in on that one--amazing, since they used to say.."where there's smoke...there's Kenny." (Actually, I just made that up, but they should have said it). Anyway, it was just you, Danny and Timmy that time. That's the one that resulted in a 2-3 year hiatus on your guys' visits from Colo. Springs. I hadn't remembered the pillow story--funny! Good one Ken.... ."where there's smoke...there's Kenny." I think we all qualified though. Hey Charlie, I must have, at least, been near by because I remember the pillow in the pants part, but weren't we more in a state of panic trying to defend ourselves knowing we were in for it? I can think of a lot of things we needed to be concerned about. This was right around the time when Chuck caught Timmy and me breaking windows out of the barn. We were in the middle of a mind set to see who could break the most windows. It must have sounded horrible. I remember my reasoning... since a couple were already broken... who could possibly care if we proceeded to break out the rest.
What about some unicycle stories? Dad (Jim), didn't you ride one to school occasionally? I just checked out the website with the photos. Great touch. You all are doing a wonderful job with this.
How many recall Superman and Lois? I remember a bit, (age has gotten to my memory I guess). He used to appear out of the Haley's house regularly...just in time to save Danny from killing Vinegar, the old tom cat, (Danny used to swing him around his head by the tail all the while Vinegar was screetching like a siren! That is until June came running...do you remember how she outran the boys all the time??) or something equally as important at the time. Do you remember WHO superman was? I also remember riding into the sunset with Roy Rogers - used to ride the old red leather chair in the old house, each of us on one arm. Of course, it didn't compare to riding Patches, who was technically my pony by the way...but Roy preferred the chair to a real horse. Do you remember who Roy was?
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