Sun-Daze....

’S a quiet, durn near sombre day here on the street where I live…

Crestline Avenue in Olde Fair Oakes is basically two short blocks ‘cept one of them ain’t got no homes at all ’n is pretty much just an alleyway…’n I ought’a know alleyways having spent a number of my formative years in Beattyville, Ky where all the streets were alleyways, cinder ’n gravel they were, tucked betwixt the C&O railroad tracks ’n the mighty Ohio River…

We lived in two houses in Beattyville tho’ not at the same time of course which might’a made for an interesting story if we had BUT we didn’t…

We lived on the southernmost street in our little corner of the world, next to the railroad track ’n across from Big John Stephenson…in our 2nd house…

There wuz a driveway (alley) separating us from the first house we lived in which wuz a brick home, pretty much uninsulated ’n hard to heat in the wintertime…mostly, I remember it being cold….well, that ’n the big plum tree in the front yard…

The Craycrafts moved in there after us…Barbara Craycraft wuz a little bit older’n me ’n a cheerleader…I remember she ’n other girls ‘ud practice their cheers in the yard…purple ’n gold, their outfits were, short skirts ’n sweaters…I don’t recall all of the cheerleades from my daze at SP school but I suspect I’ll never forget Barbara ’n Yvonne ’n Betty Jo…

Anyway, on our side of the street, there wuz our house ’n the Craycraft ’s ’n the Keith’s…across the alley from the Keiths wuz Delbert ’n Iva Fultz ’n next door to them wuz where my Aunt Billie ’n Uncle Fred lived, ’n for the life of me, I can’t remember who lived across the alley from them ‘cept the house wuz kind’a hidden behind a tall hedge…

That wuz just one side of one street in that little village where ever’body knew ever’body else…now, I live on a short street where I’m on a wave ’n smile acquaintance with most of my neighbors (save one that I make it a practice to ignore, but that’s another story) even tho’ I don’t know all their names…

“It don’t matter at all where you lived before, California’s a brand new game.”  The Gatlin Bros