Snakes, Pogo Sticks, and Tennis Shoes

Living out in the country meant living with all kinds of creatures around the house and sometimes in the house. Once when my mom stepped out into the utility room she found one of those creatures. Lying on the utility room floor was a nice large black snake. You would have to know my mother – she hates snakes. There was quite a scene that day as we made sure that snake was gone and checked to see that no snakes could ever come into the house again.

One of the memorable gifts my brother and I received while living in the country was a pogo-stick. There where a lot of competitions to find out who could stay on the pogo-stick the longest.

My brother and I have both competed with each other from time to time and it was no different when we were children. I always remember the times I win and so I have fixed in my mind one particularly satisfying moment. Phil had discovered that bleach will whiten things. Since we both had tennis shoes with the usual amount of dirt and grass stains on them, we decided to clean them up with bleach. Since Phil was three years older - he had control over the bleach bottle. One Sunday before church we decided to bleach our shoes. In order to make sure my shoes didn’t get as white as his, Phil poured a lot of bleach on his shoes and used only a tiny bit on mine. Three hours later when we got home from church, Phil's shoes were certainly whiter - but the bleach had also eaten through the canvas in his shoes. They were white but worthless. Ah - the sweet feeling of winning was mine!