Cowboys, Indians and Pony Rides

When did the guy with the pony stop coming around to take a picture of you sitting on the pony?  We would dress up in a cowboy outfit - it was so cool.  He was still coming around in the early 1950s when my brother and I were little.  By the 1960s, I don't think he was coming around anymore.  My sister never got her pictue taken on the pony.  So, what happened that ended one of the most wonderful memory makers for any city kid?

My brother and I are only 13 months apart so we were constant playmates when we were little.  We always combined playing house with cowboys and Indians.  I'm not sure that we knew there were girl's toys and boy's toys.  We wore cowboy hats and had guns and holsters around our waist.  Dolls were our children.  We used big cardboard boxes to make a fort around our "house" which was a card table with a blanket over it that also served as a teepee when we were the Indians.  The rocker with a padded seat was our stagecoach.  The curved wooden oak arms of the rocker were our horses.  The dolls would sit in the stagecoach and my brother and I would sit on our horses.  The harder you rocked; the faster our horses would go.  We used string to tie our horses to a post (the doorknob of the front door).  In the winter time, the floor register was our campfire.  It would get pretty hot when my mother would shovel coal into the furnace.  She wasn't real happy when the clay (our food) melted on the floor register.  Oh, and the time we spilt chocolate milk down the register - she wasn't real happy about that either.

So, when the man came around and asked if we wanted our picture taken on the pony, we got so excited.  Now, we didn't have much money and mother didn't splurge on frivolous things too often, but she ended up saying we could.  And, here we are sitting on our pony.  This was taken in 1953 at our house on State Street.  We were full-fledged cowboys and our pony was the most beautiful and best pony in the world!

Sitting on the pony and playing cowboys and Indians with my brother are some of my most wonderful childhood memories.  I'm so glad that we were children in the early '50s and didn't miss the man with the pony.     

Glass Hens On The Window Sill

Although I brought back 34 boxes of "pretties" that we will be selling, there were a few treasures that we won't be able to part with.  Going through the kitchen cabinets, my sister and I found some wonderful memories - some we had forgotten.  When my grandmother moved into the house in the early '70s, she had the kitchen renovated - this is an older house so it has 10' ceilings.  She had cabinets installed all the way to the ceiling on two walls - so you can imagine all the storage space.  She even had a new modern automatic washer and dryer installed.  The wringer washer was being replaced (actually, it is still in the old garage).   The cabinets still have my grandmother's kitchen gadgets, dishes and pots & pans.  My mother didn't remove anything; just added to it.  My grandmother's glass covered hens are still sitting on the window sill in front of the sink and the kitchen clock is still on the wall - a copper teapot design.  We haven't removed them yet.

You know, it is sort of weird.....the dishes, glasses, pots and pans were the same all through my childhood and even into my adult years.  We didn't change or replace dishes like we do today.  I don't think my kids are going to have as much fun going through my things.  Here are a few things that my sister and I found.  You may find this sort of funny, but we were like kids in a candy store.

Yes, that is an egg poacher.  My grandmother would fix me a poached egg and put it on toast - it was always a special breakfast.  Luckily, we found two of them so my sister took one and I took the other.  See that rolling pin?  Yes, the handle is broken off of one side and that is how I always remembered it.  I can see her rolling out the dough for "poppie" on Sunday morning.  She worked fast, maneuvering the rolling pin around and stretching the dough until it was perfect.  Then the dough would have to "dry" before she cut it up and put it in with the boiling beef or boiling chicken.  Sometimes she would let me drop the squares of dough into the boiling water and I could watch it puff up.  And, then her egg beater with the worn green handle - another prized possession. I just loved watching her cook and bake - she always explained everything and let me help.

We found a few more treasures - the beat-up tin pie pan that she always used to flour meat.  The tin measuring cups with the beat-up rounded bottoms.  We'll wait and divide these items later after we finish going through all the cabinets.  I know there will be some flat tin lids that I will want.

In going through our treasured memories, my brother, sister and I can get a little overwhelmed at times - there is so much to go through.  But then I look at the covered glass hens on the window sill all covered in dust and see the copper teapot clock on the wall that no longer works and a feeling of peace comes over me and brings a smile to my face.  Thank you Mother and Grandma for such wonderful treasures and memories.