Page 159 - my-people-abbie-harris-beck

The side walk started at my corner on both sides of the street and went all the way
to the school house, today is the courthouse.. The sidewalks were our playing avenue.
Crepe Myrtle trees lined the sidewalks along with huge live oaks. The median was lined
with palm trees and had those yellow fruits on them that we never allowed to even touch.
They might be poisonous.
The sidewalks were our skating rink, our bicycle path and our route for the
"trolley" cars that all the boys and girls made at Halloween. We pulled the trolley cars up
and down the sidewalks with their candle burning. We worked all week making the
trolley out of shoe boxes and cut out moons and stars and glued crepe paper in the cut
outs. The top had to have a hole in it so the candle would burn. They were fun and that is
the only time we could use a match. Then we had to have an adult present to light it when
it went out. I never remember a Halloween on main street that it wasn't cool to cold. We
had so much fun pulling the trolley. The smell of burning leaves and fires from chimneys
filled the air.

The front door of this house was never locked. I don't think there was a key. No
one locked their doors. Life was simple. The Beck children had rules. If we broke the
rules we were spanked with the "switch" and usually at that moment. My legs found out
what it feels like. I can feel the sting if I think real hard. We had only a few rules, like:
keep our room, come in the house when you are called. No running in the house and no
jumping on the beds. Most of my infractions were fussing with George. He was younger
and I had to give way to him and didn't like it. We had jobs too. Every Saturday morning
we had to do our chores before we could go play. Play was very important to all of us on
our street. My job was to polish all the furniture in the living room after I cleaned my
room.
Daddy built us all kinds of things to play on in the large back yard. We had swings
and an "acting bar". And daddy built me a play house with out walls or a roof. Then we
had rabbits and George had a goat named Trouble. I think we had quail or pigeons. At
the far end on the back property was a wooden shack. This was one time the servant
quarters and we were not allowed to go that far. The levee was behind that. Of course
we were not allowed on the levee. We might fall or get hurt.
As long as we lived there I remember the family who lived there. They were very poor
and a constant reminder of how much we had to be thankful for. The old man helped with
the yards.
In the summertime our front porch was the headquarters for gaming. The
monopoly set went on the bridge table and was played endlessly. If we took a break from
it, then came the cards. We played go fish and rook when we were older, like 9 and 10.
The preacher had 2 sons, Bob and Buddy. They were our regulars with me and George.
Then Walter Gay Pittman lived up by the Presbyterian Church at the funeral home joined
us some. The boys on the side street by the Presbyterian Church Ralph and Emmit
Daughtry sometimes played with us. Sometimes other kids from other streets came by
and we let them play. Lunch time and all had to go home and after lunch the rule was that
we had to go to our rooms to rest. We had to stay on the bed. We could not get off the
bed. We could read or color. But we had to stay on the bed.