Dogs, Cowboys and Ice Cream

Childhood at Liberty Church- More Sunday School songs:  Let the Son Shine In
Rise Shine- Children of the Lord
Play:  Many of us had a dog to play with.  Bobby Ogle's dog was Chi Chi, a brown mutt.  Bobby Whitaker had a small collie named Skippy .  Ours was Blackie, sister of Grandma Clayton's dog, Dixie, part Fox Terrier and part mutt.  Later dad got us a Pure Bred Boxer which was named Peanuts.  She had "papers".  She drooled a lot and occasionally blessed our home with aromatically unpleasant flatus.  But she was a good dog for kids who needed to wrestle and play "fetch" with the dog.

Mike and I played special rules football in the house at night when Mom and Dad were at the neighbors for a card game or whatever.  I don't remember exactly how it worked, but I do remember a broken lamp that got us into trouble.  On occasion, Mike, being the older brother by 2 years, would hold me down until I said uncle or gave him a toy or let him play with my six guns or toy rifle. Outdoor football consisted of one kicking off and the other running back trying to score.  This was full tackle, no pads football.

Since cowboys were so important in those days, we both had a double holster for our six guns that shot caps if we had any.  We got the toy rifles one year for Christmas, complete with rifle holster suitable for tying on our bikes just like Roy Rogers, Gene Autrey and Hopalong Cassidy did on their horses.  I remember playing on a dirt pile where Aunt Joy (Jonas Hoffman) and Uncle Jerry (Hoffman) were building their house, through our yard and Grandpa/ma Jonas back yard, still on Back Street.  One day, Mike and Bobby Whitaker were there and we had our toy rifles ( I loved mine) but somehow got into an altercation with Bobby as we threw dirt clods at each other.  I was excessively angry about the results of the dirt clod throwing and losing "King of the dirt pile" repeatedly and suddenly broke the stock of my toy rifle over Bobby's head.  I then began crying because I broke my rifle (no remorse apparently at trying to harm a friend).  I never got another toy rifle (consequences).

Brenda Lodge (Stone) baby sat for Mike and I, maybe to protect the lamps from our football, but certainly for safety and control purposes.  She was surprised when we announced that it was time for ice cream and Mike and I both reached in the refrigerator to get our personal pint of ice cream.   Yes, we were given too much ice cream, but it was great from the kids perspective.  I think it related to my Grandpa Jonas growing up in East Dayton with a very stern German-American father.  In their house, if you didn't eat all your food, you got it at the next meal.  Since there were 8 children or so, money was tight and food was scarce.  So Mike and Pat get some extra food and ice cream in their childhood to make up for Arthur Harry Jonas' life in East Dayton.  I can't remember if Brenda got ice cream, too.  Certainly we must have shared?