When I was a kid, my family and I lived in a house at the corner of East Rose Avenue and Drayton Court in Webster Groves, Missouri. My address was East Rose but I always considered Drayton to be my neighborhood.
I loved that house and that neighborhood. I literally sobbed when we left it for a bigger house on Selma Avenue, also in Webster Groves. But my maternal grandmother had gotten senile and had to move in with us so we needed more space.
I always wondered how my old man felt about that move since Grandma lasted about a year. One Sunday morning, he had to drive us kids to church (he had pretty much stopped going by then) because Grandma suffered a serious stroke and Mom had to stay home, do what she could for her mom and deal with the emergency people.
Grandma was dead by Tuesday.
Anyway, back to East Rose and Drayton. One of my best friends there lived a house or so north on Drayton and across the street. His name was Art.
Artie and I didn't go to the same school. He attended the Catholic school at Annunciation parish, a little bit up the road, while I attended Washington Park, a tiny school that the Webster Groves School District operated for some reason.
But the rest of the time, we did what neighborhood kids everywhere have always done from time immemorial. Games, sports, the odd overnighter, whatever. We had our arguments now and then, some of them rather fierce, but what kids anywhere never have those?
I really regret losing track of Artie and I always wondered what happened to him in the years since I left East Rose and Drayton. Particularly because of his last name.
Hittler.
15 comments:
I have located an Arthur Francis Hittler, approx. 61-63 years of age, residing at 1610 Kircher Dr; Saint Charles, MO 63303-5456 as of June, 2018.
Hope that's Artie!
When I hear about kids bullying a classmate, I always wonder what on earth is wrong with their parents.
Holy crap, Hal. The age range would be about right. And if he's living in St. Chuck, he must be doing all right for himself.
Thank you.
I'm with you, Katherine, I have a particular problem with kids making fun of other kids for things those other kids have no control over. That basically made me what I am right now.
But not in a good way.
I'll just leave it there.
When my girls were in middle school and high school, we saw the usual instances of Mean Girls hurting others for fun. One of the targets was my younger daughter. I told them both very bluntly that this was not behavior I would ever accept in themselves -- and I volunteered around the school, so they knew I would know. The older one was the one who might have been a Mean Girl, but we wouldn't permit it.
So, I Googled E. Rose and Drayton, and did a look-around on street view. Nice houses. Look like the post WWII GI-Bill 3BR homes, that popped up everywhere. They are much the same as those in my hometown when I was a kid (except many more brick houses.)
Webster Groves looks like a nice place to live.
It was and is. My little slice of heaven, I guess. :-)
Relatives of mine lived there in the 1950s and forward, and probably attended the same Episcopal church you did, Chris, unless there is more than one. I didn't know them well, since I lived out in Arizona.
There's just the one. Emmanuel.
My uncle and his family don't appear to be particularly religious, so far as I know, so they might have fit right in at Emmanuel.
What was his name?
Caleb Holyoke
There were four kids, two older than me (I'm almost 70) and two boys younger than me by quite a bit.
Don't recall that name.
Possibly just as well. Uncle Cale was a really nice guy. Not sure about the family. The kids were probably a lot older and a lot younger than you. Plus, they may have been Easter and Christmas people. My grandparents were believers. Some of their seven children were not.
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