Aunt Armour & Uncle Authur Hood's Bus In Hico, Louisiana
Six Flag Over Texas. Auntie, Krista, Craig, Jeff, Lauri & Mama on front. Daddy, Ellen and Norman on the back row. 1970's early 70's! I was probably 11 or 12 and took the picture.
Summer Time When We Were Young
Well summer time is here. Do you remember how that last ride home on the bus felt? You had all your stuff out of your desk or locker and you were ready to get home and lay in the hall under the attic fan. It was hot and the crowed bus didn’t make it any better. Riding the bus, you were frozen, wet or hot and nothing in between!
I come from a long line of bus drivers on my mother’s side of the family. I think all my great aunts and uncles drove school buses. All the way back to the time that you rolled up the windows because they were canvas and tied up with cord. I remember riding on the bus to pick up kids when I stayed with my Granddaddy Huffman in Dubach. My Grandmother Ruth drove a bus and it was always parked in the driveway. I loved to get in the bus and open the door with the handle. It was a place to sit in the summer and pretend that you were in high school with the big kids. The wasp also liked the bus and you had to be careful not to get stung if you played in the bus in the summer.
Playing school with the neighbor kids would last about a week into the summer vacation. I liked to be the teacher and make kids stand in the corner. I would not have made a good teacher. I probably would have been the old-maid school teacher that everybody talked about for years. I would have been the MEAN one that hit you on the head with a ruler! Did you have a teacher like that when you were in school? I did!
Next for the summer agenda were the swimming lessons. My first swimming lessons were at the MHS pool in the boy’s gym. Do you remember when Minden High had a swim team? I do. The old “drop the penny in the deep end to get you go under water” was one that I hated. I’m still not the best swimmer. The only advantage I have with swimming now is that fat floats! My next swimming lessons were taken at Victory Park. Jane Addison of Main Street Antiques was the swim teacher. Do you remember the old Air Plane that sat in the park for years? I do. It sat behind the Girl Scout hut. Victory Park was renamed in the 1940’s after WWII. I always thought the plane was scary. It looked like it crash landed in the middle of the park. My favorite thing at Victory Park was the old swing with the big plastic horses. How many of you remember that? I loved the baby pool under the pine trees. I remember my mama sitting with her feet in the water while I played with my Jolly Roger floating ring. My mother never has been much of a water person. My mother and my aunt both swam with rubber swim caps with flowers on it. I still remember those caps. Do you remember your swim cap?
One of the best summer activities to me was Caney Lake. I loved to go to the lake when I was a kid. It seemed so far away back then. You had to load the car down with a ton of stuff just to go. Do you remember the old store next to the pier at Caney with the juke box and how you parked the cars along the road that ran by the lake? Do you remember the paddle boats that you could take out into the lake? I used to love to watch the people skiing behind the wood boats with wood skies.
Going to the drive-in was another summer treat. My daddy worked shift work at the gas plant in Leton so my mom would take us to the movies if he was working nights. I remember many a Disney movie at the Joy Drive-In. Do you remember the mosquito coils that you would light and burn inside the car? I remember the crackling of the speaker as it vibrated against the glass of the car window. Mama would give us our baths and put our pajamas on and away we would go. Years later I would go the McKinney’s house in front of the Joy and we would sit in the yard and watch the movie without the sound! Did you know that the first place Elvis saw his name in lights was at the Joy Drive-In? I don’t remember that far back but many Minden folks from the 1950’s do!
Summer was filled with bare feet, sunburns, scraped knees and mosquito bites. Remember how you hated the ever popular Methylate or what ever that red orange stuff was in the little plastic vials that you would crack and rub on your latest wound. I hated the dreaded red stuff. It burned and stained you for a good week. And then you had the calamine lotion for all other aliments. The well equipped summer medicine cabinet always had plenty of bandages and the pink stuff and the red stuff would cure all other matters of summer injury.
One of the vacations that I remember as a kid was going to Six Flags over Texas. I think we must have taken everybody on both sides of our family. I remember my Great Grandmother, my two cousins Gary and Craig along with my Aunt Bobbie and Uncle Pete along with Uncle Pete’s mother Granny Couch plus my mother’s sister Ellen and my Uncle Norman. We like a good family vacation, filled with lots of fighting and arguing and making wrong turns and getting lost. Do other families take the whole family on vacation? It does make for the best memories later in life! If you have never done this go find you a ‘67 Chrysler New Yorker and fill it up with about 8 people and head out with the rest of the family following in a ‘68 Plymouth with kids laid up in the back window and laying on the floor. This was when staying in a motel was a treat and if they had a swimming pool you were in hog heaven! We have taken many trips like this and I remember them all!
I remember catching fireflies with cousins and putting them in a jar on your night table. I always wondered what makes them glow like that! Eating watermelon and making ice cream were always a summer favorite. Having slumber parties with friends, dances at the community house and hanging out at the Dixie Cream and the D.Q. were things enjoyed in the teen years. But I will save that for another story.
Well summer time is here. Do you remember how that last ride home on the bus felt? You had all your stuff out of your desk or locker and you were ready to get home and lay in the hall under the attic fan. It was hot and the crowed bus didn’t make it any better. Riding the bus, you were frozen, wet or hot and nothing in between!
I come from a long line of bus drivers on my mother’s side of the family. I think all my great aunts and uncles drove school buses. All the way back to the time that you rolled up the windows because they were canvas and tied up with cord. I remember riding on the bus to pick up kids when I stayed with my Granddaddy Huffman in Dubach. My Grandmother Ruth drove a bus and it was always parked in the driveway. I loved to get in the bus and open the door with the handle. It was a place to sit in the summer and pretend that you were in high school with the big kids. The wasp also liked the bus and you had to be careful not to get stung if you played in the bus in the summer.
Playing school with the neighbor kids would last about a week into the summer vacation. I liked to be the teacher and make kids stand in the corner. I would not have made a good teacher. I probably would have been the old-maid school teacher that everybody talked about for years. I would have been the MEAN one that hit you on the head with a ruler! Did you have a teacher like that when you were in school? I did!
Next for the summer agenda were the swimming lessons. My first swimming lessons were at the MHS pool in the boy’s gym. Do you remember when Minden High had a swim team? I do. The old “drop the penny in the deep end to get you go under water” was one that I hated. I’m still not the best swimmer. The only advantage I have with swimming now is that fat floats! My next swimming lessons were taken at Victory Park. Jane Addison of Main Street Antiques was the swim teacher. Do you remember the old Air Plane that sat in the park for years? I do. It sat behind the Girl Scout hut. Victory Park was renamed in the 1940’s after WWII. I always thought the plane was scary. It looked like it crash landed in the middle of the park. My favorite thing at Victory Park was the old swing with the big plastic horses. How many of you remember that? I loved the baby pool under the pine trees. I remember my mama sitting with her feet in the water while I played with my Jolly Roger floating ring. My mother never has been much of a water person. My mother and my aunt both swam with rubber swim caps with flowers on it. I still remember those caps. Do you remember your swim cap?
One of the best summer activities to me was Caney Lake. I loved to go to the lake when I was a kid. It seemed so far away back then. You had to load the car down with a ton of stuff just to go. Do you remember the old store next to the pier at Caney with the juke box and how you parked the cars along the road that ran by the lake? Do you remember the paddle boats that you could take out into the lake? I used to love to watch the people skiing behind the wood boats with wood skies.
Going to the drive-in was another summer treat. My daddy worked shift work at the gas plant in Leton so my mom would take us to the movies if he was working nights. I remember many a Disney movie at the Joy Drive-In. Do you remember the mosquito coils that you would light and burn inside the car? I remember the crackling of the speaker as it vibrated against the glass of the car window. Mama would give us our baths and put our pajamas on and away we would go. Years later I would go the McKinney’s house in front of the Joy and we would sit in the yard and watch the movie without the sound! Did you know that the first place Elvis saw his name in lights was at the Joy Drive-In? I don’t remember that far back but many Minden folks from the 1950’s do!
Summer was filled with bare feet, sunburns, scraped knees and mosquito bites. Remember how you hated the ever popular Methylate or what ever that red orange stuff was in the little plastic vials that you would crack and rub on your latest wound. I hated the dreaded red stuff. It burned and stained you for a good week. And then you had the calamine lotion for all other aliments. The well equipped summer medicine cabinet always had plenty of bandages and the pink stuff and the red stuff would cure all other matters of summer injury.
One of the vacations that I remember as a kid was going to Six Flags over Texas. I think we must have taken everybody on both sides of our family. I remember my Great Grandmother, my two cousins Gary and Craig along with my Aunt Bobbie and Uncle Pete along with Uncle Pete’s mother Granny Couch plus my mother’s sister Ellen and my Uncle Norman. We like a good family vacation, filled with lots of fighting and arguing and making wrong turns and getting lost. Do other families take the whole family on vacation? It does make for the best memories later in life! If you have never done this go find you a ‘67 Chrysler New Yorker and fill it up with about 8 people and head out with the rest of the family following in a ‘68 Plymouth with kids laid up in the back window and laying on the floor. This was when staying in a motel was a treat and if they had a swimming pool you were in hog heaven! We have taken many trips like this and I remember them all!
I remember catching fireflies with cousins and putting them in a jar on your night table. I always wondered what makes them glow like that! Eating watermelon and making ice cream were always a summer favorite. Having slumber parties with friends, dances at the community house and hanging out at the Dixie Cream and the D.Q. were things enjoyed in the teen years. But I will save that for another story.
