Written on 2015-03-27

1649 Monongahela Ave – Swissvale, PA.

Here it is spring and I can swear I can hear my mother’s voice “Get busy cleaning.” And you know you must always listen to your mother. I started pulling things from the cabinets, digging into boxes and in the process, re-discovery many treasures from the past. It was a real treat to look at the photographs and bring back the memories that they hold.

One photo showed me as a small child, maybe three or four years old, standing on the porch of 1649 Monongahela Avenue in Swissvale, PA. This is probably the first home I remember. It was a house which had been converted into a two family home. We had the second floor and a couple, John and Ora Shey, lived on the first floor. (Thanks, Bonnie, for that information.) There wasn’t much of a front yard as everything in Pittsburgh seems to be built on the side of a hill. It was the same with the back yard.

My memories are scattered, very short. It was at this house that I had my first pet, a stray cat, if only for a short time. It seems I convinced my parents to let me bring the cat in and to feed him. However, I rapidly got my very first lesson in pet care, which was not to overly-cuddle an animal with a full stomach. The cat went back outside and I spent the half hour in the tub.

Next memory was of my first “crush” – Craig Lindsey. His family lived about four doors down the block and we would play together as our mothers visited. While I was a very well-behaved child, at least by my recollections, I seemed to get into trouble. And Craig was there also. We were playing around my mother’s sewing machine, pushing the pedal and playing with the levers. Word to the wise – don’t have your finger under the sewing machine needle if someone else is pushing the pedal. The needle went in one side of my finger and out the other. My mother washed it and put mercurochrome on it, staining it that tell-tale orangish-brown. And Craig’s mother, to teach him a lesson to be more careful, made him watch. We never played with the sewing machine again.

Nor was that the only time I ended up on getting hurt when Craig was around. The side door of the house had a slight landing, with two steps. Superman with George Reeves was a popular television show. Craig and I decided that we would leap off the landing and fly to the sidewalk. We could do this! I took one of the sheets from my mother’s linen closet and tied it around my neck, posed with my arms in the best Superman imitation and took that giant leap. One small detail though. The sheet was longer than I was tall. My feet got tangled and I went crashing to the cement, face first and still have the scar on my chin to this day. And I earned the nickname “chumpache,” for two left feet. I’m not sure of the spelling but that is what everyone called me. (Cheryl with bandaid on head, Craig Lindsay and Bonnie)