Friday, April 9, 2010

Family Clubs! By Aunt CB



One club, started by Uncle Adin, I have already written about, but has it been put on the cousins blog yet? If you do not know of the 'Roll Down Stocking Club', read on, and if you already know this story, skip to the next club!

One summer day, Adin put the Taylor kids and some of their cousins, Lil Baker-Howland’s girls, in his flatbed wagon with horses and they all went out and picked stones from the field.

“We were all helping him,” Doris remembered (taped several years ago by Jim Kinsella), “and Lord knows our stones were probably only about two inches round. So, we sat down to have a drink ‘cause boy, you’d be working and sweating and hot and everything so we all had our ankle socks—you know, girls had ankle socks then—and Uncle Adin, all summer long, wore his long underwear. He never took it off. ‘Come on, why bother,’ he’d say. So he said, ‘It looks like the Roll Down Stocking Club’ and he pulled up his pants and his underwear and he rolled his socks down and the password was ‘Bullshit’ (said in a whisper).”
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Our Taylor Family Club was probably started by Arnon, who named us all and became, of course, President!

He was Windy Bags, Esther was Big Bertha Puffy, Doris was Stinky Pot, I was C-C Balls, and Harold was, I think, Squirt. Es was treasurer (of what I have no idea, but she knit a little change purse to have, ‘in case’), and we had a notebook made of a cardboard cover from a box, with paper sewn inside to make a book.

Was Doris secretary, or was Arnon? I don’t know, but I know dinosaurs were big then, as now, and we cut one out of an ‘Ally Oop’ cartoon strip and pasted it on the front of the notebook.

Where was Ruth when we had the Taylor Family Club? You must remember Harold and I were the last of the bunch, she and Arnon were the first. When we moved to Geneva, she was in high school and a quiet, shy young lady. I imagine she was so busy trying to make new friends in a strange place that she had no time for the rest of us (she ended up knowing half of Geneva!). So, she alone escaped yet another nickname from brother Arnon!

Picture One: Cousins!
Front: CB, Doris, Gladys, Phyllis, Harold
Back: Sylva, Ruth, Leona, Esther, Arnon

6 comments:

Pat said...

I have been trying to think if we Kinsellas had family clubs. Well, we did search for ghosts by looking through the ears of our small dog, Winkie, and at 2846 our yard hosted the fights between the rival streets of Seville and Thorndyke that we lived between, but clubs....?

In Canada, at Otty Lake, we and our Canadian group of friends around the cove all decided to make forts in the woods one summer. Each person had a tree fort or a fort on the ground, or just a spot. We called it 'HayAffKinTa' after the four families. Not sure what we DID in the forts, but we did beat on 'the Big Drum'--a HUGE fallen tree' and made hikes to the mica mines and nearby dams....

Anyone else have family clubs??

Anonymous said...

No family clubs for me, but as Freshman in high school a group of us girls (6) formed a knitting club. I was the only one who knew how to knit (thanks to my mother), so I was to teach the rest how to knit a sweater. We got together once a week at someone's house. As we were all taking algebra in school, we came up with the name N square( haven't that 2 symbol)C, which stood for "nutty nitters club".

Results were fair : each had a sweater in the end---not always wearable!!!

Pat said...

The 'Nutty Nitter's Club comment was posted by Evelyn Taylor, wife of Bryant Taylor, who was the son of Floyd (twin to Lloyd).

It reminded me of my daughter Alison who liked to act in our community musicals. With many ages represented, they ALWAYS had a group of knitters who showed the younger girls how to knit (and HOPEFULLY kept the over active ones, quiet!!). Ali learned a very useful skill this way, one I myself never quite managed!

CB said...

Isn't it funny how 2 or more people can live the same incident and see it differently!! The story of the ROLL DOWN STOCKING CLUB told here is by Doris and yet I remember it dirrerently!Harold, Doris , Gladys and I were with Adin in his woods across the road from the house. He had been clearing brush from the trees and we had piled it on the wagon. It was hot and we sat dwn by a very cold spring puddle while Adin smoked a cigarette. Twisting our socks, Adin suggested aclub and named it [ for the action] and Yes, we DID whisper tha password and all felt very deliciously naughty!!! Same story, different view!

Ali said...

Actually, Pat/Mom, I do believe that I learned the lovely skill of knitting not from this club you speak of (although I did enjoy knitting at rehearsals), but from YOUR mother! I even still have the very first piece I knitted in the living room of 2846.

Pat said...

Alison,

I stand corrected...

Amazing that you kept that piece of history!

Love you and the one who taught you to knit,

Mom/Pat