Were You in the Newspaper and You Didn't Even Know It?

Have you ever looked for yourself in the newspaper?

I always thought I was "never" in the newspaper - except the one time when, under my photo, the name was listed as actor "Dana Andrews" instead of "Dana Stewart!"

So, I never looked for myself... until this weekend. Newspaperarchives.com carries the newspaper from the small town where I grew up. While digging around, I was pleasantly surprised to find four clippings where I was mentioned!

HOSPITAL DISMISSAL

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When I was 5 I appear under the "dismissed from the hospital" column. My mom says it had to have been one of two events: the mild concussion I got while either jumping on the bed or jumping on the toilet set to see myself in the mirror - my mom wasn't home and heard both stories. Or, the time I had chicken pox and measles at the same time and got dehydrated. Thankfully, I don't remember either of these incidents!

HEAD INJURY

A horrible photo of me, but it shows the nasty scratch on my head from my fall

When I was 6, our Campfire Girls troop went on an out-of-town trip. We were taking a group picture on the tall steps of a statue, and I fell and got a nasty scratch and bump on my forehead. I got teary eyed when I read, "We visited the museum and had our picture taken by the Pioneer Woman Statue. Dana Stewart fell and hurt herself, we all hope she's fine now." Oh, how I wish I had a copy of that group photo! (And, a nicer looking photo of me with this injury to share!)

DEAR SANTA

Santa from Wikipedia

A "Dear Santa" letter written by 6-year-old me was another clipping I found. I'm guessing my teacher helped me write the following: Dear Santa, Would you get me some dolls and doll clothes. I would also like a Tugboat Suzie. A package of Shrinky Dinks would be nice and a doll house. I'm six years old and I live on B street. My name is Dana and I have tried my hardest to be a good girl. I would like to see you this year and all your reindeer especially Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. Please come this year to my house. - Dana Stewart (By the way, I lived on C, not B, Street, but this was a very small town and I feel certain this is my letter; I LOVED dolls!)

UPDATE 1/10/2017: I now believe this "Dear Santa" letter might have been another girl named Dana Stewart who lived in our small town. 

3RD PLACE CITY-WIDE WINNER

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I spent many hours jumping rope in elementary school. During my first grade year, there was a city-wide marbles, jacks, and jump rope contest. To be eligible for the contest, I had to first win at the school level. I won!

The rules of the city-wide contest were simple: two adults turned the rope and the student would run in, do a certain number of jumps, and run out without hitting the rope. During the first round, each student jumped once before running out. During the second round we jumped twice, etc.

As the article stated, Rope jumpers near the sand pile sometimes got confused and lost count as the contest wore on. Twice competitors jumped out before they were supposed to.

One of those jumpers was me! I didn't "lose" the contest because I hit the rope; I "lost" because I forgot how many jumps I was supposed to do on a certain round! It was quite disappointing, but I was thrilled to find this newspaper clipping showing I'd won 3rd place.

WERE YOU IN THE PAPER?

Have you ever looked for yourself in an online newspaper? If you haven't, give it a try and let me know what you find! The first step is finding which site carries your hometown paper.

Memories of an Antique Clawfooted Tub

Growing up, the house we lived in had been built in the late 1800's. Though it was two stories and had four bedrooms, it only had 1 1/2 bathrooms: a half bath under the staircase and a full bathroom upstairs. The full bath didn't have a shower; it only had an antique, claw-footed tub. The tub was painted white, inside and out, but the outside paint had peeled off in places. Surprisingly I have many memories centered on that old tub.

Me (age 2) & my baby brother in the antique tub

My sister, brother, and I were 3 "stair step" children. My sister, the oldest, was almost 2 years older then me; and I was almost two years older than my baby brother. When we were very young, my mom would pile all 3 of us in the tub at one time to give us a bath and wash our hair.

In the summers when we were a little older, my mom would put us in the tub in our swimsuits to "cool down" before our naps. One day, she put us in the tub and went downstairs to take care of something. She heard lots of giggling and laughing and screaming. She went through the entryway, directly below the tub, to see what was going on. She saw water pouring down the wall by the front door! We had discovered how to use the back end of the tub as a giant slide. It sure could make a splash!

Well, one Sunday morning, we heard a noise in the attic running back and forth across the ceiling. The door to the attic was in the upstairs bathroom; it just had a trapdoor without any stairs. There was a piece of wood you'd push up and over and then you'd have to use a ladder to get into the attic. My dad decided to fill the tub with water, open the attic door, close the door to the bathroom, and check on the situation when we got back from church. When we got back, my dad found a terrified squirrel in the bathroom. I always thought he found it in the tub, but my mom said he was caught in the window shade trying to get out. My dad was able to catch the squirrel in a towel and took him outside. Perhaps in shock, the squirrel climbed up into our big oak tree and just sat there staring at us for a very long time.

Strangely enough, the bathroom was at the front of the house with a window over the tub facing the street. We didn't have central air-conditioning, so we often had the frosted window partially open to catch any breeze. If you peeked out the window, you could see what was happening all the way up and down our street. And, you could hear conversations in our front yard!

My mom always told us not to bathe whenever there was a storm; the lightning could electrocute us. When I was about 8 years old, I was going through confirmation class at our church. We went to a Baptist church, so we often heard the gospel. We were told that we were all sinners, that Jesus had died for our sins, and that to go to heaven we had to accept Jesus as our Savior. I'd wanted to accept Jesus as my Savior for quite awhile. But, I was dreadfully shy! In our church, you had to walk down the aisle to profess your faith. The very idea of this had me petrified.

That night, it started thundering and lightning while I was in the tub. I finally realized that I could actually die that very night. And, that without Jesus as my Savior, I would go to hell. So, in that tub, I bowed my head, confessed myself as a sinner, and asked Jesus to come into my heart. And, yes, I walked the aisle the next Sunday!

Let's Pretend...

Are you recording the stories of your life along with those of your ancestors? My great aunt spent decades doing genealogy, and yet I know very little about her, her siblings (including my grandmother), and their parents. As we research our families, let's also share our stories so they won't be forgotten. 

As children, my brother, sister, and I spent countless hours outside playing pretend with our friends. While we played some of the more common games like school and store, we were also quite creative.

PARADE

Who wouldn’t love to be in a parade? We would find as many things with wheels as possible: tricycles, pedal cars, my brother’s, and wagons. Then, we’d line up behind the leader, which was usually my big sister. When everything was set up, we needed an audience. My mom would watch our parade go by as we took off around the block or sometimes just up and down our street. Here comes the parade!

Everyone loves a parade!
My brother, then my sister, then myself. Strangely, I don't remember that blue pedal car.

BABY BIRDS

Who has ever pretended to be a family of birds? We did! This was a game we played in the fall when the leaves from our towering elm tree littered the ground. We would rake them up in a pile, and then hollow out the middle to create a giant bird's nest. There would be room enough for three or four small children. One person would be the mommy bird, and we might also have a daddy bird. The other children would be baby birds. The babies would keep the mommy busy demanding food with their chirps. And, later, the mommy would teach the babies how to fly! The sky would grow darker as we ‘flew’ back and forth from the nest and around the yard until our moms yelled for us to come in to dinner.

KING & QUEEN

This is another game I wonder if anyone else every played. We had a swing set in our backyard and would shimmy up the long poles to reach where the swings were attached. We’d unhook each swing and then hang it where it was only about a foot from the top pole. Carefully, the king and queen would get into these high swings…our thrones! If you weren't the king or queen, you were a servant. The excess chains would hang all the way to the ground and we tied a bucket onto one. Then, the royalty would demand their servants to bring them various items... including real snacks from the kitchen. I can’t imagine trying to shimmy up those poles today!

Another photo of us and some of our "wheeled" toys. There are branches of the Elm tree

whose leaves we used to create our bird's nest in the upper right. The porch swing

hung on the left side of this porch. And, in the backyard, between the house

and the tree, you can barely see our yellow swing set. 

GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS

While the other ‘games’ were played over and over, I only remember playing “Guinness Book of World Records” once. We had a Guinness book, probably from the school, and had looked through it to try and find a record we could break. We decided we would try to set the record for the longest time swinging. (Maybe that’s why I hate swinging so much as an adult!) I guess we’d looked up the rules or we made them up, but we decided we could each get off for the swing for a  few minutes every hour to use the bathroom or stretch our legs or just give our swinging bodies a break. But, the swing couldn't stop swinging and someone had to be on the swing at all times. My mother would serve us food and be the official timer. I honestly have no idea how long we lasted, but I’m guessing it was several hours.

I just looked up the current record. It’s called “Longest Marathon on a Swing.” It says, “The longest marathon on a swing is 32 hr 2 min 3 sec and was achieved by Aimee Pivott (New Zealand) in Pukekohe, Auckland, New Zealand, on 4-5 October 2013.” Maybe we should give that record another try! I suggested this to my sister, but she said we stopped trying to break the record when she started puking. I guess I forgot that part!

And, here’s my attempt of making the first section, about the parade, more “show, not tell” by adding dialogue. (This post is actually part of a class I'm taking, "The Write Stuff", with Lisa Alzo.) I don’t feel very comfortable putting ‘words’ in other people’s mouths and I feel it makes the actual memory seem fictionalized. But, I also see how it could be more interesting to read. What do you think?

THE PARADE

My sister hopped on her shiny red tricycle and ordered, “Everyone, grab something with wheels and line up behind me!”

My little brother ran to upright his John Deere tractor pedal car and trailer. I grabbed the wagon and ran towards my sister. I dropped the handle with a clang and ran back for the other tricycle instead.

We got in line and my sister explained, “It’s time for the parade and we need someone to watch. Dana, go get Mom.”

I ran up the steps to the screen door and knocked. After a minute, Mom opened the wooden door. “Yes?” Mom asked.

“We’re having a parade. You’ve got to come and watch!” I blurted out.

She unlocked the screen and followed me down the porch steps. I sprinted back to my ride and waited for my sister to start the parade.

All the way down the block I pumped my legs round and round and tried to keep up with my big sister. At the end, we turned around and headed back towards our house. Grinning ear to ear, we all pedaled past our mother imagining the cheering of the crowds.

Everyone loves a parade!  

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Share Some Elementary School Memories

It's that time of year again - kids are going back to school. In honor of that, Randy's weekly Saturday Night Fun Challenge is to share some elementary school memories. So, here goes!

My official kindergarten photo

I started school very close to home. In fact, Lincoln Elementary was just across the alley from our backyard! I could be in my classroom just minutes after leaving my backyard. I remember my best friend, Misty, having to tie my shoes for me at recess during kindergarten. And I remember hearing the bell one day and heading home... and my mom told me I had to go back to school... it was recess; the day wasn't over yet! I was really embarrassed.

I took speech therapy in kindergarten because I had trouble saying the "r" sound. Me and another classmate got out of class a couple of times a week to work with the therapist. I got to do lots of fun games and crow like a rooster to try to say my "r's"!

We played a game that would probably get kids in trouble now. There was a row of bushes on one side of the school. The girls would gang up and chase a boy and catch him and one of the girls would give him a kiss. Yes, this was kindergarten! Anyway, I would help, but I never kissed the boys. I thought that sounded pretty yucky!

In 2nd grade, my older sister & I went to a new Christian school. It was a very small school with only two rooms. One was for K-2nd and the other was for 3rd-12th. They tested me and ended up skipping me up a grade to 3rd grade. We sat in these cubicles and basically taught ourselves out of these short PACE booklets. We had a flag we'd raise if we needed help & we set weekly goals as to how many pages we'd finish in each subject. When you were done with a section, you went up to this big stand and used a red pen to grade yourself. If you got enough correct, you went on to the next booklet. I loved it! We also got to do speed reading on some kind of computer which was really fun. I don't think this is a great environment for everyone, but I flourished! 

One of the boys who sat next to me, Mitch, was in high school and we would thumb wrestle under our partition. We also had Bible sword drills where a verse reference is said aloud and then we'd race to see who can find it the fastest. I was the youngest, but I won the contest! My prize was a new Bible.

We went back to public school for my next year. I'd finished 3rd grade, but I wanted to be back with my friends. So, I did 3rd grade 'again'. I was really confused with the schwa in reading; I'd never heard of it! But, I read well and ended up having a reading group by myself. This was also the year, I believe, where I got knocked out doing a failed penny drop - where you hang upside down on a bar and someone pulls your arms & you're supposed to flip over and land on your feet. It's not good if you land on your head.

The next year, 4th grade, we went back to a Christian school. It was actually a different school but had many of the same people. My best friend that year was a girl named Julie. One night I spent the night at her house and was in awe at her huge house, her horses, & her basement - it had a cement floor and we were allowed to roller skate on it! I was never much of an athlete, but that year Julie and I competed for 1st & 2nd prize in all of the events at the annual Play Day. A few other highlights were: playing tetherball at recess each day, finding pottery shards in the pile of dirt behind the school from the new building; and the giant snow cave some of the older boys made and we were allowed to crawl through.

For 5th grade, I was back at the school behind our house. This year, my classroom window looked into our backyard. The whole classroom would say 'hi' to my mom when she came outside. On nice days, the windows would be open. This year, my best friend was Shona who had moved next door to me. She would later move away and died our senior year. I wrote about her in a previous post. 

Then there was 6th grade. This was our first big move: from Kansas to Oklahoma. I made a new best friend, Pam, and we spent many hours together between school and church. Our class was out in a prefab, which I felt made us special. Our main teacher , Mr. Irvin, read Michael Crichton's "Congo" aloud to us. It was terrifying! But wonderful! He had a huge dictionary where we'd look up words; he called it "Big Bertha." And, he drove a yellow sports car that seemed so flashy. Sadly, he died several years ago. 

At recess, we'd play a new game to me: four square. If I wasn't playing four square I was hanging out on the monkey bars. I was horrible at P.E., but the teacher was a lot of fun. He had a prosthetic leg and sometimes he'd take it off. One time, some of the kids 'stole' it and he hopped around laughing as he chased them.

This was also the year of my first boyfriend. We 'went together' for a while, and then I found out he was in a basement with another girl and KISSED HER! That was the end of that relationship! Later that year, the girl got attacked by a dog while walking home from school and the tip of her nose was bitten off. Sadly, I've heard she has now passed away, too.

Randy mentioned Safety Patrol. I did that, too! Our job was to help kids cross the streets safely and we got to wear two bright orange straps: one went around our waste and the other across our chest. Between the badges and the responsibility, I felt so important! My friend, Steven, and I were the head guards and worked most days.

I pretty much loved school. I was kind of nerdy and often a teacher's pet. Later on, I'd come to love science. But, in elementary school I think I just enjoyed it all! Well, except for P.E.

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please write me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net

Sharing Memories Week 27: First Loss

Lorine at Olive Tree Genealogy offers a weekly challenge to share some of our own memories. Her weekly themes are a great way to preserve our own stories. Last week's challenge was to share about your first loss.

I had three grandparents who died during my childhood, but the first two happened when I was very young and the third one was a grandfather I barely knew. What really stood out was the death of my best childhood friend, Shona. Her mom married the man who lived next door and she became my neighbor. I still remember how we met...

We must have been about 7 or 8 years old the first time we saw each other across the chain link fence. She had a picnic table in her backyard;  I had a swing set. And, for some reason, we started taking turns showing off. She would do some kind of dance move or gymnastic trick on her table and then look at me. I would swing as high as I could and jump off. I guess we eventually started talking, but I just remember that initial feeling of trying to 'one up' her.

With blond hair and a crooked smile, Shona made up dances to our favorite movie soundtrack, "Grease." We learned all the moves and the words, though there was one curse word we always had to bleep out. I still consider "Grease" one of my favorite movies.

We lived in a small Kansas town in houses that were about one hundred years old. Each house had several steps going up from the sidewalk to the main yard and there was the chain length fence between us. The fastest way to get to her house was to grab onto the end pole and swing out over the sidewalk. I remember one crazy day when it was raining in her yard and not in mine! 

Shona moved to an even smaller Kansas town after only a few years. I got to visit her the summer after our fourth grade year. The houses were spread out and most families had enough land for horses. Instead of walking or riding bikes to visit friends, we rode horses! This was my first real time on a horse and I remember one of them peeing and being told to yank my feet up and learning the hard way that pee splashes on blacktop! I was shocked to see the young boys our age chewing and spitting tobacco while we each sat on a horse and talked. On a weekend night, we attended an old-fashioned barn dash and the teenage girls wore their jeans so tight I saw one of them jumping up and down trying to pull hers back on in the restroom.

The next year, I moved farther away, too. We continued to write each other and at one point she told me that she had Hodgkin's Disease, but then went into remission. We talked less and less as the years went by, but we still sent Christmas cards to each other.

Our senior year I sent out a card but didn't receive a card in reply. Instead, a few days after Christmas, I got a phone call from her older sister. She told me Shona had passed away shortly before Christmas. I hadn't even known her cancer was back.

After hanging up the phone, I ran outside and hid behind a bush near the driveway. I sobbed! I couldn't imagine that Shona would never graduate from high school or go to college. She would never marry or have children of her own. I couldn't believe she was gone. We were just kids with our whole lives before us!

I recently found Shona's tombstone on Find-A-Grave and am thankful for the volunteers who post photos and other details and give family and friends a place to remember loved ones and leave virtual flowers.

Sharing Memories Week 1: Kindergarten Days

I am catching up with the Sharing Memories prompts found at Olive Tree Genealogy. Week 1 was titled "Kindergarten Days."

My Kindergarten Photo

This is my 'official' kindergarten photo. My sister and brother both have similar ones.When I went to my mom's last weekend to scan photos, I was specifically looking for this photo to blog about kindergarten. I thought it was my 'first day of kindergarten' picture. But, it's really more like an official kindergarten photo. My sister and brother both have similar photos. The writing on the back is not my mom's, but someone from the school. The photo was taken in late September and says my teacher was Mrs. Hogan (whom I vaguely remember) and my counselor was Mrs. Woodfin.

What I remember most about kindergarten...
...not being able to tie my shoes & having my best friend, Misty, do it for me.
...a guy in my class, Teddy, moving away and my mom took me to his house to say goodbye. I cried.
...one of the boys stood in front of the class and pulled his pants down!
...the inflatable letters that 'introduced' us to the letters and their sounds. I didn't remember they were called "The Letter People" but I found them through Google! We used both the inflatables and the posters, like Miss A who says "achoo"!

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please write me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net

Sharing Memories Week 13: Broken Bones & Other Accidents

Olive Tree Genealogy offers weekly prompts, called Sharing Memories, to "help all genealogists with writing up memories of our ancestors and our childhood." Her prompts actually encouraged me to travel home this past weekend so I could copy some of my mother's photos! I scanned about 200 of them, but I still have a LOT more to do.

This week's prompt is "Broken Bones & Other Accidents." I immediately thought of an accident I had when I was about seven years old. And, I'm excited that I have a photo of my resulting injury... because of the scans I just did!

Pioneer Woman Statue in Ponca City - from Wikipedia

This is the site of my accident. Along with most of the girls in my class, I was a Bluebird (which is a younger version of Girl Scouts.) One day, we took a field trip to the Pioneer Woman Museum in Ponca City, Oklahoma. For a group photo, we climbed up on the base of this statue to pose. Well, with all those girls, I somehow got bumped... and fell off the step... and landed on my head. Ouch!

Here's me with the scratch on my forehead! I guess it's road rash. This injury took a long time to heal. In fact, it finally healed... only to show up again in the summer looking like a scar! But, after that summer, it finally went away for good.

I find this photo kind of humorous. I've cropped a Polaroid photo to just show myself and the kitten I'm holding. It's Christmas and we are at my cousin's house. He lived in the country and always had a bunch of 'wild' cats and kittens running around. We could rarely even catch them; but we sure tried!

I also can't believe what a mess my hair is... and my outfit is pretty hideous. Out of four people in the photo (my sister, brother, & cousin), my daughter couldn't pick me out; she thought I was a boy! Well, I guess we'd been playing hard!

I also enjoy seeing the elf hanging on the tree in the background. My mother and my aunt both put these on our trees.

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please write me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net