(I’m the little guy on the right with my friend Billy on the left. I wrote the article in 2008. My Dad passed away in 2007. Mom passed away in 2015, and my older sister in 2021.)
Christmas 2008
My earliest memories are of my family living on Lewis Street. Those memories from my early childhood there are special. I had three close friends, Billy, Mike, and Carol. We were the same age except for Billy, who was a year older. So as far back as I can recall, our gang and I met in our front yard on Christmas morning to compare presents. One year the boys and I all had cowboy outfits, and another year, football uniforms. But my favorite Christmas - we all got Army uniforms. We were all decked out in our uniforms and prepared for war! We played war games in those days fighting the ‘Japs’ and Germans (We didn’t know what political correctness was!) Occasionally when the guys pretended to have fought the enemy all day long, Carol would pretend to be our nurse.
In the early sixties, we lived in what seemed to be a “Leave It To Beaver” world. Our Moms stayed at home with us - families had one car (I remember our 63 Chevrolet) and one black and white television. We played hard back then until the streetlights began to come on, until I heard my Mom say,” Bobby, come in - it’s getting late!” During the summer months, we caught lightning bugs. Usually, I was getting scared by then because many times we told ghost stories while sitting on the sidewalk. I miss those simple days.
I watched the first episode of Batman on television with my friend Mike, and I also remember the first episodes of The Adams Family and my favorite, Combat!
I woke up this past Christmas Eve morning feeling nostalgic. I miss my Dad and my old friends. So since my wife was cooking that morning (she’s a Proverbs 31 woman!) I decided to go to Broad Street, get a cup of coffee, and walk around downtown Gadsden. That’s where we shopped before we had a Mall, Walmart, and all the other new stores. We had a movie theater downtown where all the action was. There’s still one Variety Store that we shopped in when we were growing up, the name has changed, and it still has that same smell of varnished wooden floors and popcorn. I took a stroll on those sidewalks that had been a part of my formative years. And while enjoying the cool air and Christmas music - I reflected on the past.
Somehow I felt I was starting a journey back in time, so my next stop had to be at my old Elementary school, which I had attended until the second grade. I pulled up at the school only to realize I hadn’t looked down those halls since I left in about 1965. I just stared - it was like going back in time. The halls looked the same as I remembered. I could see my first-grade classroom, but the playground seemed much smaller than I remembered.
There was no stopping now - I had to visit Lewis Street. It was not my first time returning to the Lewis Street Baptist Church and looking at our old house. But this time was different. I drove slowly behind Lewis Street and gazed into the woods - where we played behind our house. There was a large flat rock near the woods that we kids believed the devil lived beneath! In those days, we had great imaginations because all we had to do was to play outside. No video games!
As I turned the corner to Lewis Street, I stopped the car and stood for a few moments taking in all the memories at the corner of the woods, where I had spent so much time so many years ago. I looked to the left where the ” Little Store “had been, at least that’s what we called it. The store was expanded and eventually made into a diner.
I drove slowly past my old Church across the road from my old home. Carol and Mike lived on the other side of the Street from me. Billy’s home was next to mine. I could feel the memories. I don’t think I’ve ever looked so intently at our old house as I did that day.
The large lot we had played football on was not as big as I had remembered as a small child. My old house was for sale again. Oh, how I would have liked to have gone inside. The memories just kept flooding into my soul. As I turned left on Nunnelly Avenue, I remembered as if it were yesterday how I had somehow slipped out of the house unnoticed and ridden my tricycle to Nunnelly. I can still feel the horror as my Dad drove up and put me and the tricycle in the car. He was angry, and that was the worst spanking I ever got! I didn’t ride my tricycle back there again!
My first memories of Church, Sunday school, and Vacation Bible school happened at the Lewis Street Baptist Church. The Church was across from our home. My first thoughts about God and the prayers I prayed were in that neighborhood. That’s where I learned how to make and relate to friends. God doesn’t want us to live in the past. But there is something spiritual about remembering and honoring those formative moments and people from our past.
(To all those that are feeling lonely right now and missing loved ones – hang onto the good memories and Merry Christmas 2022.)
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