I clearly remember the Lower Broadway playground where we played a lot of marbles and baseball games. We used a broomstick and a small rubber ball like the girls used to play jacks.I remember a Wild West Indian coming to Broadway school and doing a show on the playground. He traveled in a big 1933 Packard Limo. We had never seen anything like that. The show cost us 3 nickles. I have a vague memory of Ken Maynard and his big van with his horse painted on the side. That was around 1937 or '38 when I was in the 2nd or 3rd grade at Lower Broadway. A Miss Magruder was my teacher.
Paul Townes was a brief friend. He was a year older than I. I went to school with his sister, Marie and of course his older brother Garland was my hero. One year the Hazard Bulldogs were to play in the District Basketball Tournament but it was against Viper in their gym. Paul and I were in a bad fix. We had to go but we had no ride and no money, honey. So after putting two devious minds together we came up with a plan. Paul would bum us a ride and I would come up with the coin. After school on Friday we eased on over to my house and got out the old man's steel piggy bank. He made it himself and said it was burglar proof. But I took the double edge blade out of his razor and broke it in half, slipped it into the slot and fished out eight quarters. Plenty enough for the trip. But it was all in vain. The Bulldogs lost. Steele and McGuire had sprained ankles and couldn't get the job done. Viper's Dupree brothers killed us.
The first thing I noted in the photo was the chute that we all had to use to ready us for a fire in case there was one. I was terrified of it, but Ms. Mobley standing behind me giving me orders to "go" motivated me for I was scared more of her than I was the fire escape chute. I don't know which teacher in Lower Broadway I dreaded passing more in the hallway, Ms. Mobley or Ms. Oldham. Both of them rarely wore a smile unless they did when looking at themselves in their mirrors. :) :)
ReplyDeleteMrs. Waltman was the Principal at Upper Broadway during my 7th & 8th grades. We had a mutual disrespect for each other. I hated her daughter, Joyce, who was in my class. She told mommy everything on everybody while being little miss perfect herself. They had a white cat with one green eye and one blue eye. One Fourth of July we tied a pack of firecrackers to his tail. Quickest I ever saw a cat run up a telephone pole. Ah, Yes, those days of our youth are gone forever.
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