1311 MYRTLE AVENUE, CINCINNATI, OHIO

"...I enjoyed my buddies in about every sport from mumbelty-peg , to football, basketball, baseball, tennis, swimming, marbles and games we made up."

We finally were in our own home. A three-story frame house. The kitchen and dining room, the furnace, and the coal bin were below ground level. The living room and bedrooms were on the first level. The second floor was an apartment and the third floor, a small area for living. There was a front porch and swing. There was a large lot on the north side of the house. There was a brick wall on the north side with a walkway and steps for entrance to the kitchen or dining room from outside.

Most of the family was together there. My brother, Mossell, may have been in school at Wilberforce with the aunts and grandparents some of the time – you get the picture – most important is the happenings were during the 6 or 7 years we were there.

My friend, Paul, was in a different school most of these years. Also, he was an indoor kid during these early school years. For me, indoors was only for sleeping, unless ordered otherwise! The side yard was a playground for me and my friends.

During these early years, my two older brothers were involved in their own friends and activities and I enjoyed my buddies in about every sport from mumbelty-peg , to football, basketball, baseball, tennis, swimming, marbles and games we made up. I never knew where my brother, Charles, traveled. He was only two years older. I was never more than two or three blocks away from the house. I think he was really a wanderer.

Shortly after we were settled in the neighborhood in Walnut Hills, my friends and I were playing in the side yard, and Charles happened to be there. We heard this fire engine in the distance. When we realized it, it was turning down our street. We all ran to the front and saw this huge red fire truck speeding towards us. The siren was screaming and the bells were ringing. We all stepped back a safe distance and waited. This was in the l920s and technology was nothing like it is today. Lo and behold, the fire engine came to a sudden stop, noise and all, right in front of us. We were all stunned and scared. Our eyes fixed open. The driver looked down at us and shouted, “Any of you kids know where Lincoln Place is?” We just stood there, with our eyes about to pop out – but my brother, Charles, spoke up immediately and said, “I do.” One of the firemen jumped off the fire truck and tossed Charles up to the crew and away they went, bells ringing and sirens screaming.

It wasn’t very long before they came back and dropped Charles off. It was a big deal for him. He was soon gone again. Just wandered off…?

Sometime after that incident, I knew the neighborhood quite well, and had even ventured a few blocks outside of our immediate area. My brother, Mossell, had taken me to the zoo a couple times, up to McMillan go right and after passing the General Hospital, keep going and follow the signs to the zoo. When I got to the zoo, I would turn around and come back. I followed my plan. The hospital seemed to be a little further than I thought. When I finally got there, the building seemed much larger than I remembered. As I stood there across the street observing the buildings, a bus pulled up to the curb. A lady passenger got off. As she walked in front of the bus and across the street, a speeding car hit her. As she lay in the street, two men rushed to aid her. They picked her up and carried her directly into the hospital.

I immediately headed for home. I was frightened thinking of the sound of that car hitting that woman. It was a sound that I had never heard before. The whole situation made me long for comfort and words of understanding. How a person could be living in this world one moment, and suddenly taken away…There was no doubt in my mind that that woman was no longer among the living. I wanted someone to put their arms around me, close, and tell me that would not happen to me or those I loved.

That evening at the supper table, I was quiet. Every time someone spoke I would look at them and thing that they could be taken away just like that. The thought made me almost cry, yet I had not said a word about the accident, not because I was afraid of the punishment that I might get…my parents would never use physical punishment. I just didn’t want to explore why I was so far away from home by myself. It’s strange because every now and then when there was a quiet moment, I would have an urge to tell what happened. I never said a word then or ever.