LEBANON – MONROW STREET

When I was three year old, our family moved to Lebanon. I think the first house we lived in was on Perry Street, which is behind Detroit Tool. At the time my grandma and grandpa Appling (Guy and Julia) lived on North 5 outside of Lebanon. At the time I always had to have my blanket to sleep with. One night, I went to spend the night with them and forgot my blanket. My parents had to drive up to their house to give me my blanket. I still have that baby blanket. I loved to rub the satin edge and just about wore that blanket out. One of my favorite foods at the time was butter. I would eat butter every change I got. Guy and Julia had an interesting house in the country with a gold fish pond on their property.

I went to half day kindergarten near Donnelly school in Lebanon. After kindergarten, I would go home and watch “As the world turns” with my mom. For my kindergarten graduation, the school put on a play. We all had costumes to wear. Steven Smooty, I believe, was a lobster. I was a frog. I wore a custume which my mother made. My lines in the play were "croak, croak." Kindergarten graduation even included caps and gowns. My kindergarten teacher was a large woman with red hair.

My first memory of living in Lebanon was when we lived on North Monroe Street. It was while living here from around 5 to 7 years of age that I met some of the people I would interact with for the rest of my life. While I was living here, I met Mike Abbey, Gib Adkins, Steven Smooty, Nancy Brown, Alan Reeves and Sharon Barnett who lived up the street. Sharon was a little bit older than the rest of us and she is the only one that I lost contact with completely. Mike had this huge dog that was named Eli. He was ¼ wolf, ¼ coyote, and ¼ St. Bernard. I would walk down the ½ block to his house, but I was afraid to actually knock on the door. I would stand out on the sidewalk and call his name to come outside. At one point, we found a nest of 3 baby squirrels. We split them up to try and take care of them. Needless to say, they all died although Mike insists that his was the sickest but lived the longest.

The house on Monrow stree was great. It had a basement that was big enough for me to ride my tricycle around when the weather was bad outside. And since the house had originally been heated with coal, there was still a boxed off room in the basement and a window for the coal to come through. While living here, my Grandma and Grandpa Appling moved across the street from us. One time I was spending the night at their house and decided that I had had enough. I put on my cowboy boots and walked out of the house during the night and went home.

I began first grade in this house going to Hillcrest elementary. I joined cub scouts while living here also. My mom and Nancy Brown’s mom were Den Mothers. One riddle I remember puzzling over in cub scouts was “Railroad crossing without any cars, can you spell that without any R’s?” It was tough at the time. While living here, we also had many animal funerals. Any dead birds or squirrels or turtles would be placed in a coffin (cardboard box) and buried with proper formal Christian ceremony. I believe my brother Phil usually preached the sermon.

It was here I learned the joys of fire. Once, I went next door with a friend and we played with matches. We were in the back of a neighbor’s yard and we built a little fire. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing and soon the fire got out of our control. Before too much damage occurred, an adult found us out and put out the fire.

And it was here that I had my coolest toy. It was a robot with a remote control. It could shoot ping-pong balls out of one hand and launch rockets from the top of it’s head. They just don't make toys like they used to!