Momba Tell Me a Story
When Eleanor Providence Kolasinski was 3 she began wanting to hear stories of my childhood. Over and over. My most happy and vivid memories were of our family in the 1950's when we lived in Lake Odessa so those stories became her favorites, and of these was the fire story.
Disclaimer* These are my memories...not to be confused with those of any other member of the family or neighbors.
We lived on Washington Blvd., a truly "kid street" on the edge of town. I was about 10, Shirley 8, and Val 5. Our house was a 2 story frame with 3 upstairs bedrooms. Shirley and slept in the foyer bedroom in a 3/4 sized bed like spoons in a drawer. Valerie slept with Eileen in her teen front bedroom but played in ours. Val and Shirl loved to play under the bed and this one day they didn't have enough light under there due to the blankets being pulled down to make walls for their pretend house. One of them got an idea to get candles under there and light them...probably Val (I'm thinking)....here I would pause for a little description of Valerie's bold and imaginative personality and Shirley's proclivity to go along with whatever sounded fun. proclivity?....
Anyway, it worked great and they probably played under there for another 5 minutes before being distracted by any number of available things to do. In the meantime, I was taking a bath. I even remember the new lily-of-the-valley baths salts...so grown up, wasn't I?
Okay, so here are Valerie and Shirley playing across the street at McCall's farm when they heard a fire siren. Wow! it was close....closer and closer...now we can hear the truck engine, too...hey guys, it's on our street!...come on, let's go see!!!...Look it's at the Klingman's...no.. OUR house!!!...Val and Shirl get really quiet and steal looks at each other....the candles?...ohnoohnoohno.....hide! The other kids ran to our house and my sisters lay down in the ditch.....not here,..we. are. not. here. We are going to get spankings. Crying now.
Meanwhile, Eileen drives into the drive right after the fire truck and comes flying into the bathroom yelling, "Sharon, get out! The house is on fire!" My first thoughts were."It can't be! The McCall boys will see me in a wet bathrobe with my hair wet! It's the worst thing ever to happen to me!" But being so mature I really say, "Eileen, don't let those boys see me or I can't come out!"
So here come the firemen with the hose and they run right up the stairs because that's where the black smoke is coming from. Next thing the soggy mattress is flying out of the upstairs front window onto the porch roof and bounces to the lawn. I guess Mama WAS there somewhere because next thing I remember firemen are giving her not quite a lecture, standing in the yard, about candles under that bed. I can hear from behind the grape arbor. Poor Mama.
Having taken long enough time to have the whole town come to our front yard, the fire dept. left. Our family slunked into the stinky sooty house and by nightfall only a few neighbors were still on the lawn talking.
Don't remember what kind of punishment Shirley and Valerie got...but I know they must have got one. I'm thinking they got killed, then lectured, then spanked, then prayed over and made to go to the altar next Sunday, then killed again. The End
*I think there is a similar story involving an Easy Bake(tm) oven. Faith? Val?
Disclaimer* These are my memories...not to be confused with those of any other member of the family or neighbors.
We lived on Washington Blvd., a truly "kid street" on the edge of town. I was about 10, Shirley 8, and Val 5. Our house was a 2 story frame with 3 upstairs bedrooms. Shirley and slept in the foyer bedroom in a 3/4 sized bed like spoons in a drawer. Valerie slept with Eileen in her teen front bedroom but played in ours. Val and Shirl loved to play under the bed and this one day they didn't have enough light under there due to the blankets being pulled down to make walls for their pretend house. One of them got an idea to get candles under there and light them...probably Val (I'm thinking)....here I would pause for a little description of Valerie's bold and imaginative personality and Shirley's proclivity to go along with whatever sounded fun. proclivity?....
Anyway, it worked great and they probably played under there for another 5 minutes before being distracted by any number of available things to do. In the meantime, I was taking a bath. I even remember the new lily-of-the-valley baths salts...so grown up, wasn't I?
Okay, so here are Valerie and Shirley playing across the street at McCall's farm when they heard a fire siren. Wow! it was close....closer and closer...now we can hear the truck engine, too...hey guys, it's on our street!...come on, let's go see!!!...Look it's at the Klingman's...no.. OUR house!!!...Val and Shirl get really quiet and steal looks at each other....the candles?...ohnoohnoohno.....hide! The other kids ran to our house and my sisters lay down in the ditch.....not here,..we. are. not. here. We are going to get spankings. Crying now.
Meanwhile, Eileen drives into the drive right after the fire truck and comes flying into the bathroom yelling, "Sharon, get out! The house is on fire!" My first thoughts were."It can't be! The McCall boys will see me in a wet bathrobe with my hair wet! It's the worst thing ever to happen to me!" But being so mature I really say, "Eileen, don't let those boys see me or I can't come out!"
So here come the firemen with the hose and they run right up the stairs because that's where the black smoke is coming from. Next thing the soggy mattress is flying out of the upstairs front window onto the porch roof and bounces to the lawn. I guess Mama WAS there somewhere because next thing I remember firemen are giving her not quite a lecture, standing in the yard, about candles under that bed. I can hear from behind the grape arbor. Poor Mama.
Having taken long enough time to have the whole town come to our front yard, the fire dept. left. Our family slunked into the stinky sooty house and by nightfall only a few neighbors were still on the lawn talking.
Don't remember what kind of punishment Shirley and Valerie got...but I know they must have got one. I'm thinking they got killed, then lectured, then spanked, then prayed over and made to go to the altar next Sunday, then killed again. The End
*I think there is a similar story involving an Easy Bake(tm) oven. Faith? Val?
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