Playing Marbles

Greg or Evan and I would chalk a circle on the sidewalk in front of Grandma's and play there until Uncle Clair would drive up and give us a ride to Mary's in the back of the pick up. 

~Jeff H

We would play marbles in Gramma & Grampa's tiny "parlor", the room off of the living room.  There was furniture in there but I never saw anyone in there except when we used the floor to play marbles.  One day someone thwacked a big clear marble so hard it shot right under the sofa.  I slid my arm under there to get it not realizing  the marble had spit into several pieces.  It sliced my arm and really opened it up.  It bled like crazy and probably needed a stitch or two.  I still have the scar!
~Penni

The Rail Road Tracks

We found our first fossil shells on the tracks.  From that first day, we would go every reuinon to find them.  Of course, flattening coins was fun, too.
~Jeff H

John and Gene used to put a penny on the track and she the trains flatten it.
~Candy

Terry's Hairy Legs

Let me think... he dried them with a hair dryer!?!  ~Jo

I used to pull the hairs on his legs ~Candy

Candy was relentless in teasing cousin Terry by pulling the hairs on his very furry legs.  It must've hurt like crazy but he was so patient with her!  ~Penni

The Player Piano

All the cousins have fond memories of that piano.

~Marilyn H

Endless fun on a rainy day.  We could play and play until a grown up said enough is enough.

~Jeff H

When we were too small to reach the pedals, we'd take turns kneeling on the floor and working the pedals while the others sat and pretended to play the keys!

~Penni Mc

I loved playing it and singing with it.

~Candy O

The Gas Station/Grocery Store

I always thought it was a candy store.  We always went and bought button candy.  Dad never knew what I was talking about when I said I wanted to go to the candy store!
~Alana

The boys always went to the store for penny candy!! 
They always had 2,3, or 4 dip icecream cones! 
~Marilyn Hahn

Sold anything you needed... and more.
~Jo

They had cream soda that tasted like homemade icecream
~Candy

Buying smoke bombs to stick in the spokes of our bikes, chocolate-covered ants and giant pixie stix.
~Jeff Hahn

It had a creaky old wooden screen door that slapped shut behind you.  A gas station with a screen door!  and groceries, too!  An original convenience store.
~Penni

     

The Neighbor's Swimming Pool

My first brush with death.  Somewhere between 10 and 12 years old, I was walking around the edge of the pool, just as I was told not to do.  And I fell in the deep end.  As I was looking up, slowly sinking to the bottom I saw my dad diving in to haul me up.  The weird part is, as I sank I never thought anything was wrong.
~Jeff Hahn

We watched one time, peeking through the fence, when some church was doing baptisms in the swimming pool.  People were wearing choir robes in the swimpool! Someone was dunking them backwards under water!  I was so dumbfounded!  It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen!  Our parents tried shooing us away from the fence and kept shushing us but we gravitated back.  Weird!
~Penni Mc

I remember one time when Jeanne jumped in and lost her top.  Terry had to dive down and get it for her.
~Candy O

The Strusacker House

The Strusacker house was the biggest house in town, the biggest house I ever saw as a kid.  It sat on the curving corner past the Grainery.  I wonder if the made their money in Grain?  They had a big woods just past their backyard and a play house at the edge of it.  That play house was a tiny version of a real house with real child-size furniture within.  I never saw a child anywhere near the Strusackers except for us, which made it all the more mysterious.  I always felt as if we were sneaking in even though the Ney cousins said it was okay.  I couldn't imagine people wouldn't care that kids trespassed like that.   I was such a city girl!

Besides the tiny furniture (even a real sofa!) and dishes there was also a bookcase with books and comic books. That little house was a wonder to me.  When I went back years later as an adult, the "big" house on the corner wasn't big at all!  I really wanted to sneak back there and see if the little house was still there... but I didn't.
~ Penni

Sneaking down to the playhouse behind Strusackers and finding a bottle of pop there.  It wasn't soda.  Someone had used it for something else...
~Jeff H

Riding in the Grain Wagon

Pretending that you were sinking in quicksand in the desert was one of my favorite games.  ~ Jeff H

The wagon would be full of grain and cousins of all sizes standing, grain up to their waists or buried to our shoulders, as Uncle Clair drove into town to take it to the Grainery.  Oh, how I loved that!  ~Penni Mc

I used to love going to Uncle Clair's and riding through the woods in the grain wagon.  Now my daughter gets to go ride on his tractor.  ~ Candy O

The Stop Light on the Highway

Why, again, was it there?!?  ~ Jo

There was a woman sheriff that gave out many tickets to drivers running that red light.  ~ Marilyn Hahn

Everyone in Town Knows Who You Are!

Dating a girl from Ney was like dating your sister.  ~Alan baker

City girl me, always had to remember that no only God, but every human in town had their eyes on you.  ~Jo

Whenever we'd walk around town (what else was there to do when you were bored?) everyone knew we were "Alan's kids".  Who were these people?  ~ Penni Mc

The Milking Machine

Didn't the milk go slow when the electricity was off?!!  That's when we milked by hand!  ~Alan Baker

Unfortunately, the milk machine couldn't tell an "already milked" cow from a first timer so when Pop was out-of-town Al and I milked some twice.  (Forgot to close the gate between teh entrance and the exit)  ~Jo Baker

The Rain Barrel

Some of the boys would catch frogs, then tie strings to their  legs and watch them swim in circles in teh barrel.  ~ Jeff Hahn

We always brought the fish we caught from Little Lick Creek and put them in the rain barrell, then watched them for days.  ~

The summer time was a chance to jump into the rain barrel.  We would sit onthe bottom as long as we could and hold our breath.  This was always a contest to see who could stay down the longest.  ~Marilyn

The Porch

My first ever experience with a screened in porch was Vern and Mary's.  Took me 50 years to get one of my own.  ~ Jo

When we were in Ohio on vacation we usually congregated on Vern and Mary's porch.  One time we made so much noise playing a game that Aunt Mary was worried the neighbors would be upset.  ~ Marilyn H.

We played UMO on Vern and Mary's porch.  ~Alan 'J' Baker

The Morning Glories on Grandma Baker's porch, so, so pretty.  ~Helen

Ney City Park/Ney Homecoming Reunion

We liked to take our vacation the week of the Ney Reunion.  ~ Alan Baker

Ney Homecoming at the park.  There were games and food galore.  Do you remember whenthe cousins all threw balls to dunk Beth into the water?  ~ Marilyn Hahn

The first time I took Vince with me to the Ney Homecoming they had games set up throughout the park.  One game was to throw a football through a hanging tire.  He was the only one who could do it!  My hero.  (He played it down, of course) ~Penni

What a wonderful park... wet footprints across the tennis courts' cement was fascinating!  ~Jo Baker

Making out with Vicki Husted on the swings...  ~Jeff H

I remember the Hahn boys winning a little red wagon and pulling it to Grandma's!  We always enyed getting together for this event! ~Alan

Dave Hahn and I played BINGO at his expense.  I kept winning and he kept losing.  I won at least two cakes.  Mom tried to make me give him some stuff but he wouldn't take it.  ~Alana

Still like to go sometimes.  ~Jo

One reunion we had a "pig roast" (yum) but a new experience.  Now it's a big thing in Connecticut years later.  ~Marilyn

The Little House Out Back

The yellow pages of the Sears Catalog were put to good use!  ~Alan Baker

Long walk on a dark night.  ~Jo Baker

Nasty Tasting Water

That nasty tasting water was good compared to the neighbors down the road! (yuk! Sulpher!)
~Alan Baker

I loved it if it was cold in Grandma's fridge and served in the colored metal glasses!
~Alana P

It was fun.  It was like "Fizzies".
~Candy O

It wasn't quite as foul if you could wait out the fizzies.  I'd set a little glass full of water on the edge of the bathroom sink all night.  In the morning it didn't seem to taste so bad when I brushed my teeth.
~Penni

Barn Bucket Swing

The bucket hung from the ceiling of the barn on a big fat rope.  We'd climb intothe big bucket with out feet inside and hang on to that rope for dear life as we were pulled to the far side of the barn and let go.  Swooooosh!  We laughed all the way as it swung back and forth!  It was so exciting! A gigantic swing set.

~Penni McNellis

The town kids in Bryan would come out and play!

~Alan Baker

The Wind Mill

We used the well part of the windmill, when we first moved to the farm, to store our milk for household use.  In other words, we used it as a cooler!

~Alan 'J' Baker

Gramma's Dishpan Cookies

Mom made these cookies by the dozens and put them in a Marshmallow Can then teh next week she made another batch!

~Alan Baker

To this day, if someone says "This is the greatest cookie ever!", I think , they're not Gramma's Sugar Cookies.  It took mom Hahn years to get teh Hahn boys to admith that she could get it right, too.

~Jeff H