There was a small market just across the field from the school--it was owned by an older gentleman named Mr. Poole--I met him on my countless trips to get odds and ends for mom--she didn't drive--so I was her errand boy---one day 4 big boys beat me up and took the money mom gave me--but that only happened once--after that I took dads 357---just kidding!~
Mr. Poole loved to talk baseball--and so did I--and we had one thing in common--we hated the Yankees--we cheered for everyone who played them--actually--we really respected them but you know--those darn Yankees!!!
I hung out a lot with Mr. Poole---Something happened after Summer vacation--we were gone somewhere--and Mr. Poole saw a UFO in the sky above his store--they did a write up in the paper and various people started making fun of him--it was so embarrassing to him that he sold the store and moved away---I was really upset about him leaving--he was such a nice old man and a friend of mine. I would grow up and actually have a UFO sighting as well--but I ain't movin!! later The Codger

I had arrived in kid heaven on earth and to this day my favorite place, South River Park--Edgewater Maryland---
I had the coolest kid in the place to show me the ropes--furthermore--the school was awesome----When I arrived I transferred in as a last group reader and the poorest writer in the class--my teacher set about to change all that--and by the start of third grade I was in the first group in reading and was an outstanding cursev writer--and my problem with pronouncing S's was over--
The teacher figured out I liked to draw--and darn if she didn't let me do a mural on butcher paper the length of the classroom with a prehistoric scene with all the Dinosaurs---
I also got to plant tomatoes out side the window of the classroom--and go out and care for them. I loved that school--one of the teachers read to us and actually acted out via different voices the charactors in the books---she instilled in me a love for reading.
The school also taught a lot of American history and state history of Maryland--which I found very interesting--we also did a lot of crafts and various games to build our bodies and coordination--out on the playground.We had plays in the auditorium--in one I was an indian and was supposed to kidnap the lady settler--but I missed the edge of the stage and fell off of it--about 4 feet to the floor--the crowd laughed--I didn't hurt myself.
Nancy set about to dee-citi-fi me--first that little sweetheart taught me to swim--no kidding----first she taught me the dog paddle and then the Australian crawl---and the day I could swim to the diving platform which was over my head was my graduation day.
She tried to teach me to dive but I was total clutz--nothing graceful about me---Nancy would go on to be a champion AAU swimmer---
more at a later time The Codger

Nancy began to show me around-but a kid named Michael tried to eliminate me from the face of the earth--as a welcome aboard jesture.
He said let show you around man--just keep up with me through the woods--go where I go.
He was bigger and faster than me--but I tried to keep up--through the brush-down the path left right,left again--I was flying-he rounded a corner and so did I and instantly I found myself tetering on the edge of a cliff--which I nearly ran right off of--the rocks and the water looked like 100 feet below---and there was Michael hanging onto a rope over the side of the cliff--laughing at me.
I believe that the fear of heights I found out about years later at a pyramid in Central America was born that day on that cliff-----
My fear of heights involved being on a shear drop off with nothing to hang onto--I'm OK with a railing or a wall--at any height.
In the later 70's we won a sales trip to El Salvador-and while there we went to a pyramid type structure--and I ran up the steps to the top and was going to run down the other side--but guess what--there were no steps the other side--only a shear wall drop off 180 feet down-which like the Maryland cliff I almost ran off of.
When I saw the drop off, I got light headed and dizzy and had to sit down on the edge. I got sick and couldn't move---after a while with peoples help and slow breathing I was able to scoot myself away from the edge--but it was quite a while before I could stand and walk back down the front side. It was then that I found I had a height problem and the episode on the Maryland cliff came flooding back into my memory. more later The Codger

I wasn't going to miss the red brick apartments at all.
The new home was awesome---Our own boat and boat dock--with roof and picnic table and benches--a yard at our house with 21/2 acres--a basement--a club house right behind our house for the community--with dinners and dances and theme parties for holidays.
I would walk across the field by the clubhouse and there was my school,and it was brand new---and day one I met the best friend I have ever had------------------Her name is Nancy--and I call her my little black haired girl---another name would be general Nancy--she knew how to do just about everything---swim, ride a bike-fish-play cards--she knew how to catch crabs and softshell crabs as well--she knew how to row a boat and catch eels and swing from a rope 50 feet above the water--and she wasn't afraid to ride down the hill from atop the bluff at full speed on the gravel.
She introduced herself--day one and made it her job-to teach me the city kid the country ropes--oh did I say she liked to play ball as well---my kind of woman! more later Codger

The seasons changed,we all grew older. Grandad refloored the house and covered the walls in knotty pine from the property. The old outhouse was replaced by a chemical toilet and a new addition to the house was begun--such are my last remembrances of the farm except for the last memorable walk I made with Grandad around the property.
I was 15 years old, he told me he had sold a portion of the property to help maintain his other two homes. He seemed sad when he told me--but the farm was real life and such is life---grandad was about to retire.
I saw my Grandparents a few more times in Florida,up untill my early twenties,Grandads health was failing and he hated appearing before people--being less than 100%. We had many more meaningful talks,he was proud of his life and the things he had accomplished,but disappointed about unfinished things.
We were very close and those last visits meant a lot.
I grew into my 30's and had been living in Texas a number of years,it was there that I received the news that my Grandad had passed away. It was the saddest day of my life.
It was sad to think that Grandad would not walk his beloved land any more,the farm had become a sadder place and it would yield yet other lessons,that life could seem cruel and disheartening, and then tragedy struck again!Dark clouds covered the land,the Whippoorwill sang a sad song as our wonderful Grandmother took sick and the ravages of cancer began to take that grand lady. She was the personification of a loving person who constantly gave of herself to others,and to the end her thoughts were of family.
It was if the years of joy suddenly were to be tempered by sadness,when more precious life failed to return in subsequent springs. Robert,my Granparents youngest son tragically died at age 49,and not long after his older brother Sonny died in his mid 50's.
The farm had been sold a few years before and all that remained was about 15/20 acres held onto by Richard the oldest son--who led a quiet life and was proud to hang onto a piece of family heritage.
In 1992 Richard was murdered by a man who had bought a portion of the original farm and at the time of this writing in 1992--the man was pleading not guilty by means of insanity--with a trial scheduled for Oct 1992.---note the man was found guilty--had changed his plea to self defense--
It's like the last remaining innocense is gone,death had come in its most violent form to the most peaceful of places. It is a sign of recent times that no place is exempt from evil
My Grandparents are now survived by two daughters-of their 6 children. Richards family still resides on the farm,and time will slow the pain of recent tragedies and as surely as Spring follows Winter,life will rise amid despair and fresh green grass will come forth amid the weeds and thorns. People will once again enjoy the land and the spirit of the farm will endure and the birds will once again sing a happy song in the foothills of the Blueridge on a place we called the FARM!! The End The Codger