Our neighbor lady entertained the troops

Lyman County, South Dakota's Genealogy

Our neighbor lady entertained the troops


   We lived in Long Beach, Calif. in an apartment complex that consisted of 24 apartments - six up, six down and on both sides of the block with a playground/meeting area down in the center of the complex. Ed worked off-shore (Seal Beach) drilling for oil.   This little four or five-year-old boy, Walter,  and his mother, Cindy, were our "next door" neighbors, upper level.

  Kind of like an orphan, he was. Something reminded me of Walter the other day so I figured it would be something light and airy in this world of all the bad news we are subjected to from around the nation. Walter was a "catch colt" (a term I have learned after we moved back to South Dakota from my mother-in-law that means Lord only knows who the father is.) A darned good term it is, too. Poor Walter had a major problem with his mother � Cindy was her name. How do I even remember that?  Who knows and who even cares, but I digress �

  Cindy had apparently decided somewhere along the line that it was her patriotic duty to entertain the  troops of the US Navy and was much more patriotic than the average girl on the street. Her business was very good and she was open 24 hours a day. Sailors lined up at her door! I just thought of something � is that where the term, "little trooper", comes from? Hunh. Food for thought.

   A few times, after dark, sailors would knock on our door! Needless to say, we kept the door locked!

    But, back to Walter. This little guy was kicked out of the apartment as regularly as the sailors were let in. Where was he to go? He busied himself going from apartment to apartment and was a frequent visitor at ours. It was not unusual for him to just walk in, pull a chair up to the cupboard and get a slice of bread, a cookie or cracker or whatever he could find.

    One day I told him he needed to knock before he came into the apartment and not just walk in. The first few times he forgot I made him go back outside and knock and wait to be asked to come in. That didn�t seem to be the solution, so when he would walk in I would remind him of the rule and he would just smile. One day when he came in, I told him to turn around so I could kick his butt (lightly, don�t get excited) for walking in without knocking. He turned around and pointed his little butt at me so I could kick it. It was quite laughable. For the next few days he would walk in and turn around for me to kick his butt. Then it finally dawned on me that by doing that he was getting the attention he so badly needed.  Sometimes a kid�s gotta� do what a kid�s gotta do.

I wonder whatever became of that little boy........


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