Thinking back, I am convinced the neighborhood I grew up in was ideal. 

I lived in the same house in the same neighborhood until I was married.
That was not unusual.
People just did not move around in those days. 
It was extremely rare if someone moved away.

Fathers tended to stay in the same job until retirement.
Mothers did not work outside the home.
If you were into any mischief, there was always a mother to let your Mama know.

We wandered from yard to yard.
Only Laura Carol and Mary Elizabeth who lived directly across the street were never allowed to leave their yard.
I never knew why. 
Laura Carol and I are still friends.
Maybe someday I will ask her.

We had a lot of freedom (except LC and ME).
We spent most of our free time outdoors.
There was no tv, video games or social media to keep us inside.

We could always find something to do. It might be as simple as jumping on an inner tube.
This was long before trampolines.

Billie Jean had a huge inner tube in her yard; maybe from a tractor?
I was jumping as high as I could go.
When I landed, my ankle twisted.
Pain!
The other kids ran to my house to tell Mama that I was hurt and couldn’t walk.
Mama told my big brother Ted to ‘go help your sister get home’.
Ted showed up driving Dad’s truck!
I was only across the street, people.
How embarrassing.

All the neighborhood kids went to the same elementary school.
Jefferson School was only a block away.

In those days, ‘paddling’ by a teacher was acceptable.
Maybe that’s why I never, ever heard a student sass or be rude to a teacher.

Mrs Solomon was our second grade teacher.
I don’t remember what Vinnie McQuire had done, but he was called to the front of the room for a ‘swat’ with the paddle.
Mrs Solomon pulled her arm back and aimed for Vinnie’s backside. 
When she let loose, instead of Vinnie’s butt, she hit the radiator.
Vinnie jumped and hollered like he had been shot!
Even Mrs Solomon laughed.

We learned at an early age how to take the city bus to go downtown to the movies; being chauffeured by parents was unheard of.

A Saturday movie cost 10 cents.
If we were lucky, it would be a double feature.
Favorites were Roy Rogers and Gene Autry cowboy movies.

Our town was a safe town.
Otherwise, we kids would never have had the freedom we enjoyed.

We all knew about Caddo Street and were taught to avoid it.
Caddo was a street alongside the railroad tracks where ‘low life’ went to drink and carouse.
“What happens on Caddo, stays on Caddo”.

Dr Boyd lived in our part of town and practiced medicine out of his home.
Sometimes Mama would take me to Dr Boyd’s if it wasn’t anything too serious; maybe a cough or sniffles.

I remember Dr Boyd vividly.
He reminded me of the doctors I saw in the cowboy movies.
He had white hair, always wore a black suit with a black string tie and sat at a roll top desk.

What I remember most about Dr Boyd was that the only medicine he ever prescribed were ‘sugar pills’.
Dr Boyd had an assortment of liquids that he would choose from depending on the complaint and he would pour a few drops over the sugar pills.
Laugh if you must but maybe Dr Boyd was just way ahead of his time!

My neighborhood was the perfect neighborhood and the perfect time to grow up.
I don’t think there will ever be another as safe and innocent. 

If you can’t help comparing my town to Opie’s Mayberry, I wouldn’t argue with you.

– Sue Williams