The Early Years
By
John M. Thompson
Random Stories and Thoughts About Growing Up
(Title needs work)
Well every story has a beginning and I think mine will start on Grahams Farm. This was a dairy farm in Lake Orion, Michigan where my father was the foreman. The year was 1952 and although I do not remember the time this is what my mother told me. My delivery date was December 10, 1952 at Pontiac General Hospital and the delivering doctor was Dr. Nosinchuck.
Sometime after that we moved to Keego Harbor, Michigan onto Cass Lake Avenue. I have few memories of that location. However, I do remember living just four houses from the lake, Cass Lake. My father by this time was working at Pontiac Motors and part time with Les and Paul’s Sunoco Station as a tow truck driver and mechanic.
Many memorable things happened to me at this location.
The first was one of my first memories of my older brother. I was lying in the grass doing what little boys do. Looking up at the sky seeing formations in the clouds. All of a sudden my older brother Darrell pushed a lawn mower over my hand and cut off the first half of the first knuckle of my baby finger on my right hand. I think it was an accident but who knows maybe he was mad at me for something. I was so young that I do not remember much about it but the section of finger is gone so I know it happened.
Another memorable event also involved my brother. This time he was giving me a ride on his bike and my foot got caught in the spokes. It cut my heel and tendon but not through. This was not permanent damage but it did hurt like $%&! Hey these two events seem a little morose, but really I am not that negative. I guess I must be having a Prozac moment (just kidding I do not use Prozac).
We also had several Harrisburg, Illinois reunions at our house on Cass Lake Avenue. Relatives and my parent’s old friends would come over and bring a dish to pass. People like Big Boy Strickland, Dan Matingly, the Smith family part of my dad’s side of the family and many others. These are vague memories but I do remember them.
I also remember swimming in the lake. At around 3-4 years old my brothers and sisters would go swimming and dive from the dock about 500 yards out in the lake. The first 300 yards were shallow, only around 2 feet deep but after that it would get deep quick to where the raft was at about 6 feet deep. I wanted to get out there in the worst way but I could not swim. Finally one day I decided to try. As the water got deeper I would go down and push off the bottom of the lake and move forward. Up and down launching myself off the bottom till I reached the raft. When I got out to the raft my sisters and their friends taught me how to dog paddle. I went out every day after that during the summer. This is one of my best memories of growing up in Keego Harbor.
About the only memory I have of my dad doing anything with me was also around my 4th year on earth. My mother talked him into going swimming with me. He did not have a swimming suit so he used his boxers. We were in the water for around 15 minutes. This event is only memorable because it was one of 3 memories I have of doing things with him. At about my 9th year I bought a baseball glove from Groaners Five and Dime. He played catch with me one time. That is not to say he did not play ball from time to time. He truly enjoyed pitching for Keego Baptist Church softball team but he did not enjoy spending time with his kids. He did provide for us although he would rather save money for cigarettes than give us a dime for candy (this really does sound whiny). The last time I remember doing anything with him was a fishing trip, in my 11th year, at night with some of his shop friends on the Clinton River near Cass Elizabeth Road and Cooley Lake Road. It was for catfish and as I remember it we were skunked. I do not want to imply that he was a bad man he just was not a family man, at least not like my friends fathers. I would characterize him as a selfish man. The thing I remember him most for is sleeping. Sorry if this seems a little bit like a pity party. Maybe this is the way he was because of the way his father treated him or maybe his family doted over him so much that he was spoiled and expected the world revolved around him. But I am done with this line of thinking it is not very productive.
At around 4-5 years old we moved to the house on Cass Lake Road by the curve between Cass Lake and Sylvan Lake. Gerald Pete owned it. He had a son, David my age, one year ahead of me in school. We became friends along with Bobby Owen, Kim Woodruff, and his brother Keith Woodruff. Another Friend at this time was Linn Seedick. My younger sister Julie was born here. My brother also turned 16 here and joined the Marines (simper phi). He could not wait to get away from our home. There seemed to be a lot of anger in his life. It seems as though my dad and his brother Cecil gave him a rough time as a youth on Grahams Farm. I do not doubt it based on my limited experience. He seems to have had to do all the work while my dad sat around. Based on what I know of my dad it could be true. Oops I whet back into parent bashing mode.
Sorry!!
My elementary teacher was Mrs. Schilling. She was a sweet woman who also lived in Keego harbor near the dairy queen. One of my first memories was of me hiding in the block box in the kindergarten room. The rest of the kids thought this was funny. I guess this was my first induction into class clown world.
Another memory was 1st grade with Mrs. Ryan. I had my first experience with Reading Dick and Jane books. I remember her offering to let me go outside the classroom to practice reading. I thought it was a punishment so I did not want to go she told me it was a reward so when I said yes to her then she was mad or something and said forget it, because the opportunity had pass. I also had a problem with the “th” sound and the “st” sound so I started speech therapy in first grade. It worked and now I talk and talk and talk to the point that some people would think I talk to much HUMMM!!!! Wonder were that came from (MOM).
On around my 9th birthday in the 1961-1962 era we moved into our house at 3023 Norcott Street in Keego Harbor. I lived there until I was 22 years old minus a few months here and there when I tried to experience growing up. I will go into detail about these experiences as I expound on my life.
Kim Woodruff was my friend and nemesis until our high school years. Kim was one year ahead of me in school. But in grade school we spent every day together.
The tree fort was the first big event in our lives. At the end of Norcott and Cass Lake Front there was this huge Oak Tree. Every bit of 60 feet tall with multiple branches reaching out in angles and y’s just right for building a tree fort. It was on a hill at the corner of a vacant lot. We decided to build a double-decked tree house. We all went home and scavenged all the wood we could from our garages and underneath our houses. This was going to be the best tree house in town. Used wood and nails arranged in such a way as to produce a 6’ by 8’ two story open walled house in a tree. All that was left was to create a club and elect the officers. Of course Kim became the President, his brother Keith was the vice president and Bobby was the Sergeant of arms. I was the youngest so I was the gofer. I did not mind I just enjoyed being one of the gang. Go get food, drinks and things like that. We spent summers from 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade hanging out there planning our days event, playing tag (flashlight, Marco polo, etc), bike trips baseball games at Roosevelt school, swimming, you name it, everything started from there.
My brother-in-law Ron Brown taught me how to play ball. He would spend hours with me in front of our house throwing a ball to me. We called it “burn” this entailed him moving in closer and closer until he was within a few feet of me. It would burn my palm like crazy. This will forever be a favorite memory of mine. Ron is a great Brother. He and my sister Di are two of the best people in the world. There love was without obligation. I am truly blessed to have them in my life. I love them without limits.
Cass Lake is huge. And in the summer of 1962 the gang decided to ride our bikes around it. We started at Norcott and went south up Cass Lake Road to orchard Lake Road went west to Commerce Road then north on Hiller Road and right onto Cooley Lake Road then another right onto Cass Elizabeth Lake Road and then south again onto Cass Lake Road. It was a huge trip. We were so pleased with ourselves and independent for 10-year-old boys. I wish that we were able to bring that feeling of independence and safety to the current days. We did not fear the way we do today. This I know is not a new sentiment, but still I wish it were true.
Hey, here is another Kim woodruff story. As I mentioned before Kim and I had a friendly but sometimes adversarial relationship. I always got into fights with him in our pre teen years. It really seems as though it was weekly. As a matter of fact we did get to a point were he would just slug me in the arm as a way to get past the fight. I would say ok you win. He always won those fights. On one occasion my older sister Priscilla decided that he was not going to beat up her brother anymore. So when he got me penned on my back she came running out of the house and tackled Kim and fought him off of me. I admit it was a little embarrassing but she did win. The big thing is she had this heavy brace on her leg and the guys were genuinely afraid of her. Getting kicked with the brace after all would hurt. It seems as though the fights did slow down after that but maybe we just grew out of the fighting stage. Who knows??? Viva La big sisters, another sister whom I love.
Kim died on the 3rd of December 1997. He was a good man. I had not seen him for 26 years. We went our separate ways in high school. Ran with different people. He was a year ahead of me and was very athletic. He played football and was on the ski team. I wish that we had stayed close over the years. I heard that he never had any children. I understand that he was saved. That is good news.
Dave died back in the early 1980’s. He had moved to California. I heard that he died of aids. We had lost contact during the high school years. Dave was one of those guys that got lost in high school. I am not even sure if he finished. Frankly I don’t even remember him after 7th grade. That’s odd since we were so close up to that point and he was only one year my senior.
Dave, Kim and I were so close in elementary school. We did everything together. I guess it all started when Kim got involved in sports and was a star and I was not. My parents would not let me play sports on Sunday and that is when the teams started. I wonder how things would have been different if we had started peewee football together. We’ll never know.
Let me tell you about my mother (Anna Mae). She really is a very loving and caring mother. We would sit for hours talking about life and family on our front porch in Keego Harbor. As a matter of fact everyone in the neighborhood would congregate on our front porch to talk and enjoy the summer night with my mom, Donna and Tom Roberts, the Graves family, Di and Ron my sister and her husband. We would sit out there and drink ice tea or Pepsi, but let me get back to my mother. Mom is the original church lady. Dedicated to a fault and really she is responsible for most of my brothers and sisters being very involved in the work of there local churches. Me included. She truly loves the Lord and is dedicated to his service. This is 2006 and she is 83 years old. To this day she is the Godliest woman I know and as a prayer warrior she would be the first person I would call. I do not care what subject you start out with in talking to her it will always end up focused on her church work or her kids work in the church. It is the focal point of her life and I love her for it.
This story will illustrate my mother’s vigor. She told me this story. My dad and mom when they were young and living in Indiana during WWII where he worked as a Forman building troop transport boats like the ones you would see landing on the beaches of Normandy and Iwa Jima. Dad on paydays would stay out late and drink beer and gamble. When he would come home he would be very short on money for living expenses. Needless to say mom was upset with this choice and decided to do something about it.
Mom started buying bibles. When dad would see a bible he would tell her that they could not afford them. She pointed out that they could not afford his drinking and gambling ether. After some time my dad decided that she was right and according to the story stopped drinking and gambling. Now that is a character story if I ever heard one. As with any story I am telling it the way I remember it. If it is a figment of my imagination it is still characteristic of my mothers slant on living in this world and serving God.
Growing up in church as a child was sometimes difficult. Not bad by any stretch, however, it was the center of our lives so everything else took a back seat. I always use to say that I could miss school before I could miss church on Sunday. No kidding when other kids would stay home to watch the “wizard of Oz” on Sunday nights we would be in church. I did not see the movie until I was an adult. I could not play organized sports because they practiced on Sundays. This is not a complaint it is just a fact. I think that perhaps we except excuses for not going these days from our family members that my mom would not have bought into. On another note maybe doing other things on Sundays is not so bad as long as they do not take the place of serving the Lord. Just food for thought. After all it is saved by grace not works. This is not a commentary; I also know that by your works they will know you. I also understand the idea of not forsaking the gathering together of the saints. I guess the truth is it is between you and the Lord. You know to him that knows to do good and does not do it to him it is sin. Wow this is to deep for this memoir I will stop now.
I am a Keego kid. I’m not sure that will ever change. Growing up in a small community in Michigan probably is not any different than any other small town story. There were the poor the elite and all the in-betweens. However, from time to time I find myself going back to when I was young. Our problems seemed far and few between in those days.
In Keego Harbor during the 60’s you could go all over town without being afraid. Oh we had our crime I suppose but not like what is common today. Two times a day you could go to Roosevelt Elementary and pick up a baseball game at 8am and after lunch during the summer. Even if you were not very good and I was not, Or sometimes you could build a fort in the woods for you and your buds. There were a few of those places, small sections of wood. One was located on the curve by the Baptist Church and one by the Roosevelt school. It was simple and it was fun. The days passed so quickly.
Besides the play ground time there was the lakes. Four of them surrounded the community Cass, orchard, pine and sylvan lakes. You could spend all day going from lake to lake getting rides on boats and skiing. The lakes were practically across the street from each other. The people that lived on the lakes were so friendly. No one ever turned you down for a lift. What a life of leisure for a young kid.
My mother never worried about were I went. She new (or believed) I was safe. You could not go very far without seeing the “Keego cops” cruising down the street and they all seemed to know us by name. From time to time they would give us a ride in the car and buy us ice cream. We were not afraid of them. We looked up to them. They were bigger than life, important members of the community Ken Sisk, Holloway, Gomer (nickname) they always looked after us.
For ten cents you could get a whole bag of candy from Sunnyside Market. The only hard thing was facing Bobby Stewart. She and Orville Stewart owned the store and she had a grumpy disposition. Candy was two for a penny and I always wanted one of everything. After about three choices she would blow a gasket and just start putting the candy in a bag while grumbling about not having time for this foolishness. She would wink as we left. We new she loved us. I went back to see her several times before she passed away. She was always her sweet grumpy lovable self.
One day I was going to the store to get candy. I could always take the empty Pepsi bottles back for money. At two cents apiece a carton would get me 12 cents to spend on candy, 24 pieces all to myself. Well, I tripped in a hole on Moss Street and down I went. Broke all the bottles and cut my stomach up. I still have some scars on my belly from the glass cuts. I cried pretty hard that day. Not because I cut myself up but because I couldn’t buy ANY candy that day. That is pathetic but true.
Around my 10th birthday I became interested in reading. I discovered the Hardy Boy mysteries. The first one I read was The Mystery of the Chinese Junk, it hooked me for life. Every time I could put together a $1.50 I would go up to the 5and 10 store to buy another book. At one point I had all the original 38 books of the mystery series. They took me to places I had never been and allowed me to dream of things I wanted to do. The books took place in exotic places such as Alaska and the Amazon or the Yucatan Peninsula. They were great fun. I have since passed those books on to my nephews my sister’s boys in the late 1980’s (Priscilla). I still buy and read them from time to time just to take me back to the good old days of dreams and wishes. If that is juvenile I do not care because it is a good escape.
At 11 or 12 (1963) I was also a paperboy for the Detroit News and the Pontiac Press (now the Oakland Press). I delivered newspapers everyday of the week for the Detroit News including the Sunday paper. For the whole city of Keego Harbor. I got my first bike, a Huffy, for helping with delivery of the papers. I was out in all four seasons delivering, collecting for the paper and trying to get the monies needed to pay my bill. It was hard sometimes. People would always try and avoid the collection days and some got really far behind. I did win a trip to camp one summer for getting the most subscription for the Detroit News. I got to ride my first horse at that camp north of Lapeer, Michigan. I thought I was quite the horseman after that experience. Often I would spend my profits on candy and during the summer I would stop up at the Root Beer stand on the corner of Cass Lake Road and Orchard Lake Road. I would buy a hamburger and Swamp Water a mixture of orange drink and root beer.
I also would spend my paper money on going to the movies at the Keego Theater. On Friday nights I would go and see movies like Dr. NO and the original Thirteen Ghosts. On the way home I would walk down the back streets from Cass Lake Front to Norcott Street. I would always get spooked out and start feeling like things were hiding behind trees and things. I would break out with goose bumps all over fear welling up inside me. I could not wait to get home. Someone once told me that when you got goose bumps it was a sign that the devil was close by. I would talk myself into seeing all kinds of weird things before I got to my house. What an imagination I had. As I look back on those experiences I feel that they…. Well I am not sure how I feel about them but they did have an obvious effect on me. As a Christian I do believe in the spirit world so who knows. Where there are angels and a God there must be demons and satan.
One mourning I was collecting for my route and went up to a house next to the dairy queen in Keego Harbor. The lady came to the door in a skimpy shear nightgown and talked a little while. I mentioned this to my mom who then told the mayor Bill Graves who then told the police and that started the process for them watching the house. It turned out that it was a “ house of prostitution” and the girls were ran out of town, my first and only experience with ladies of the night.
I was into Music and Theater in High School. I went out for the wrestling team and was on the baseball team but I never excelled in these sports. It was good for me though. Music was my favorite activity. Mr. Asplin gave me a lot of opportunity in his classes. I even was allowed to lead the choir on several occasions. I sang my first solo at a Christmas concert as a junior (1969-1970) it was “I’ll be home for Christmas”.
It seems that I was always searching for my place in life. There was minimal self-confidence in my early years. My parents took little notice of activities that I was involved with. Dad seemed only interested in himself and sleeping. Parenting is so much more than paying your kids way in life. You should take an interest in what they do. Help them reach their goals. Apart from my mother being proud and supportive as she could be I attribute much of my experience to people like Mr. Asplin, Mrs. Sieve, Mr. Smith teachers in school and then the youth directors at Sonny Vale Chapel who saw potential in my abilities. Later in life there were people Like Rev. Jack and Gerry Turner and Chuck Sanders from Northside Baptist Church (now Heritage Baptist) who encouraged my music and ministry.
I did several plays in high school but three of them I acted in, they were: “bye bye birdie”, “Arsenic and Old Lace” and “Waiting for Ghedo”. I also learned about stage make-up during those plays and have used that knowledge on many occasions throughout my life. I did the make-up for dozens of church plays since then as well as four Shakespeare plays while I went to Midwestern Baptist College. This was an interesting skill. I was especially good at crepe beards and doing aging. I really enjoyed doing these things and I am sure I will do more in the future. For many years I was a member of Faith Baptist’s theater group doing make-up and theatrical parts like a sergeant in the Roman Army. Great fun and interesting as we did large theatrical productions costing many thousands of dollars to produce.
