Finally!

The first neighbors that entered my life did so when we lived in a little house out on the Gleason highway. Actually, I couldn't tell you one thing about them. I remember their dog. He was big and ugly and mean. One day he reared up in front of David Mark and bit him right on the face. We were standing side by side in the driveway and it happened so fast I couldn't do a thing.

We would go down everyday to the pen behind our neighbor's house and see if that dog was foaming at the mouth. We were very young but I was afraid I might lose my little brother. He was worried about taking those shots if that dog turned out to be "mad".

We moved pretty soon after that.

I figured my folks were looking for a neighborhood that had kittens and pet turtles......

Our new house was on the corner on Stonewall Street and Como Road. Our nearest neighbor back toward town hired me to pick up walnuts. I worked all day. She paid me a dime. Now, listen, I'm only five or six and this is in the early fifties when a dollar was still a dollar. But let me tell you, I had done a lot more than a dime's worth! It took twice that amount of lye soap to get that green gook off my hands!

Mr. and Mr. Brooks lived across the street and down just a ways. They were older than dirt but really nice. Mr. Brooks cut our hair. He could only cut it one way---off! I mean he peeled us every time! I didn't mind it so much until we got to junior high. All of a sudden my hair became a little more important. I explained to Mr. Brooks that I might have a chance with Graylene Lemonds if he'd leave just a little there in front. I don't believe his clippers or his haircutting knowledge allowed for it.

We would pick cotton for Mr. Brooks in the fall. He paid better than our walnut neighbor.....but he'd work you till you near 'bout fell out! David would come by about dark, dragging that sack behind, and moan, "KC, the money ain't going to do us no good if we are dead!"

I was beginning to wonder if they made "regular" neighbors.

It sure wasn't the guy who lived in the big house up on the hill. We never saw him. Leon said the house was haunted. And that a man was hanged in the living room. I wouldn't even go trick or treatin' up there!

And, of course, the Cunningham's lived just down the Como Road from us. They'd win my quarter every time on their possum races. They used me and David for the "hay toss". They took us Snipe hunting. And they insisted on testing out my bicycles and Red Ryder gloves to make sure there were no "manufacturing bugs" in them.

We finally had a pretty regular looking family move in down below us. Leon crawled up on our roof and peered at them through a spy glass. "They've got a big dog. It looks uglier than the one that bit Dave." He was reporting to us as we clung to the weather vane and wondered what Daddy would do if he caught us up here. "No, wait a minute, that's not a dog. That's the daughter!"

We found out later that they were some how kin to David Crockett. There were quite a few of his descendants in West Tennessee at the time. Unfortunately for me, as I was just beginning to notice the opposite sex, Mavis Crockett looked more like Davy after the Alamo than her mother. We thought she wore a coon skin cap to school every day until along about the ninth grade we discovered it was her real hair.

Joe Sasser lived on the opposite side of town out toward Huntingdon. His neighbor was Judy Seratte. She was a few years older than us and the prettiest girl I had ever seen. No one was surprised when she was named Prom Queen. Some guys get all the luck!

Carol Jean Ellis lived up town fairly near Buddy, Ricky Gene, Yogi and Hollis. She was in the class ahead of us and she was also extraordinarily good looking. The guys took great pride in "living in her neighborhood". She was, naturally, the Prom Queen her senior year. She should have been!

Ricky, Buddy and the guys got Carol Jean as a neighbor, I was stuck with Mavis. Somewhere in there I got to thinking "life ain't always fair"......

I don't have time or space or the inclination to expound on my neighbors in college. Most of them were Alpha Tau Omega's or Beta Theata Pi's. The screaming, pillaging and bombs bursting in air were more than mild distractions as I tried to cope with a sometimes hostile environment.

An after mid-night call awakened me not long after Cathy and I married. It was from our new neighbor. "Kesley, there is someone prowling around my house. He is out by the garage." I told her I'd be right over as I jumped into my pants. The last thing I heard as I was throwing down the receiver was "I've got a gun and I'm shooting the first thing that moves out there!" Those words were still ringing in my ears as I stumbled through her garage just seconds later.....

I have often sat and wondered if you picked your neighbors or did some one at Mayflower do it for you.

Just this past week my next door neighbor was voted Prom Queen. Carson City is prettier than both Judy Seratte and Carol Jean Ellis put together! She certainly deserved it. I was thrilled! I called Leon and David. And Buddy, Ricky Gene, Yogi and Hollis! It took sixty years but it was worth the wait! I'm living next door to a Prom Queen!

I feel like Mr. Rogers. It is truly a great day in the neighborhood......

Respectfully,

Kes