Feedback

I really enjoyed getting all the E-mailed comments relative to this new project. Many thanks to all.
Thanks to Kim, who found her way around the posting roadblock and entered her comment under the Waverly Street piece. I want to share some of the E-mail comments I've received.. These shed some light on the sleeping porch phenomenon and touch on other memories of days gone by.:

Hi David:

I just had to answer this one! I not only slept on the "sleeping porch" (only in summer), but each year on the first of June our breakfast table was removed from kitchen to the "sleeping porch" also. Our reasons for doing so were that it was much cooler! In winter I slept in an unheated attic! Wish I had known about the Sears catalogue - we just had a mountain of heavy wool quilts for cover along with flannel sheets. Oh so cozy, but hard to turn over - the weight was tremendous on young bodies!

I lived at 1405 West McCarty - at the bottom of the hill down from Oidtman's grocery. When it snowed, loads of kids gathered at the top of the hill further east where there was another grocery store - started with an H perhaps. The police would close McCarty street there so we could sled all the way down to what might be Industrial Blvd. now.

Ah the memories! Swimming at McClung?

Jeanne Garrett Owens

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YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY FAMILY THAT SLEPT OUT SIDE! WE DID ALL YEAR - NO MATTER THE TEMP/WIND/RAIN/SNOW/BUGS/OR ANYTHING ELSE!! THE ONLY REASON FOR IT WAS 1.health; 2.coal fumes, 3.bedroom space(inside), 4.our parents said we had too!! NEVER LIKED IT AND NEVER WILL--THE ARMY DUTY REALLY MADE ME KNOW HOW MUCH!!

YOUR WIFE IS CORRECT--CRUEL!!!

BEST WISHES--BT

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David: Thanks for the memories of Waverly Street. I was just the other day reflecting on Forest Hill (our second JC address) and in swimming at the hole at the bottom of the Dix Road hill down from West School. Highway 50 runs through there now. I learned to swim there, the bigger guys threw me in the deep hole. Good old Dog paddle. It was right near the old Bagnell branch which ran from JC to Bagnell, near the dam. They called it the Tri-weekly, It tried to get there weekly but didn't usually make it.

Keep the old memories coming. Jim Callis

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Jim,
I too remember the swimming hole under the bridge at Dix Road. What a great swimming hole that was. I will always remember the disappointment I experienced the year the "No Swimming Allowed- Spinal Meningitis" sign went up out there. Sure ruined our summer fun, didn't it? Dave