friend Linda had a Mimosa tree in her back yard. She also had a big galvanized pool. I think
we would "swim" almost every day. There was Linda, another neighbor girl, and my sister and
myself. The Mimosa tree would drop it's pink and green fuzzies into the pool and it was our job
to take them out. Also, a dishwashing pan was placed next to the pool, so we could wash leaves
and cut grass off our feet before we got into the pool. This was a first-class operation.
Linda's dad was a fireman in St. Louis Hills. While we lived on Winona, he worked his way up
to a Chief. We got to go with him to the firehouse many times. One time we went, it was to see
Denise Darcell, a fifties-style starlet. I don't remember what movie she was promoting, but we
thought she was pretty cool. One time I asked Mr. Nagle, what does the chief do and he
replied, "Well, the chief never asks a man to go into a place he wouldn't go in himself."
I didn't have a clue what that meant at that time, but after a while I began to get it.
On some summer evenings, Mr. Nagle drove us up to a back road near the railroad track
on Fyler Avenue. We would stand on a hill, and wait for the Super Chief. When it came by
we jumped and waved. There were still cabooses at that time, even at the
back of the Super Chief and we would go kiddie crazy if someone was there to wave back.
Getting back to the Mimosa, there are very few around Blue Springs, but my sister said they
are quite plentiful in St. Louis City and County. Bradford Pear is the tree of choice in Eastern
Jackson County. In the seventies, every new house received a maple tree and a Bradford Pear.
It is well-liked, I think, because it has something going for it in three of the four seasons. In
Spring the trees have beautiful white blossoms, in the Summer they have dense glossy
green leaves. Their most spectacular display is in the fall when they change from green to
gold to red. Alas, 24th street was built when only a maple tree was planted in each new
yard. However, we do have 2 hard maples the original owners planted and a sky line
locust (no pesky cigar-like pods).
Back to Winona, The people next door to us had a walnut tree in the back yard. My sister
and I had never been around one and the neighbors egged us into gathering some. Of course,
we ended up with stained hands and clothes. On the plus side, they had a large lilac bush in
the front, side, yard. It produced copious lavender flowers in the spring. The bush was so old
that some of the growth toward the center had been compromised. I'm not sure if it was
nature or children that had caused the inner portion of the bush to become hollowed out.
Which ever it was, we had tea parties in the empty center. Mainly the tea party consisted of
my sister and myself. The girl next door was apt to be playing "cowboys and indians," with
her cousins. Within a few summers, the Hohlfeld girls were playing with toy guns, too.
There were three families of Neithes who lived next door: two brothers and one sister.
The two brothers lived in a two story building. Bill and his wife, Marie, lived upstairs and had two boys and a girl. Carl and his wife, Mary, had two sons. And their sister, Marie, lived in a little house at the back of the vast yard. She and her husband, George, had one son.
My mother was very storm-conscious, shall we say, and so was George. Some nights, they
would see each other storm-watching out the screen doors, him from his front door, and my mom from our back door. We didn''t have sirens in those days to warn about an impending
tornado. But we all slept a little easier knowing mom and George were on storm patrol.
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