Chapter Ten - The Hood Topeka Style

Chapter Ten
The Hood Topeka Style

Our Hood consisted of just a couple of blocks. Across the alley from our home lived Roger Givens, Gary’s age, and Dwayne Givens who was between Gary’s and my age. Next to the Givens was another boy about Gary’s age. Down Fillmore street on our side live Penn Morton one of my BF’s and on the corner beyond him was Joe Morgan. There were a couple boys up the street that got into some of our activities but the ones I named were really our group. Across the street from our house there was a vacant lot that was about 40 yards long and 20 yards wide (it seemed bigger). The lot was our football field. On the back of the Given’s garage on the alley side was a backboard and rim, our basketball court. The alley was also our “kick the can” arena. In “kick the can” one person is IT and everybody else hides. If the IT person finds someone before they can run in and touch the home base yelling “free”, then they’re caught and held there at home base. Now here’s the good part, if someone can run in while the IT person is looking for people and they “kick the can” everyone is set “free”. The IT person has to reset the can and start all over again. Boy! That was fun. (unless you were the IT person)



One more memory involving a group of us kids. There was an elderly couple that lived next to our football lot who were not the friendliest of people. One Halloween a group of us went “Trick or Treating” and to our surprise when we got to their door they invited us in. So, we were already to receive some candy for our treat when the old man pulled out his “jew’s harp” (or mouth harp). A mouth harp is a small metal instrument made in a U shape with a thin rectangular piece attached at the bottom of the U. A person holds the mouth harp in one hand and with their lips grasps the edges of the protruding parts of the U. Then they vibrate the thin metal piece rhythmically with the other hand using the mouth as a resonator. All the old swashbuckler movies had a crewmember that would play a “jew’s harp”. So that was our “treat” --- or maybe it was a “trick”. (To hear what they sound like click here)

There’s a strange phenomenon that occurs with a group of boys when they get together. They try to get somebody to get into a fight. Well, I was one of those somebody’s. Joe Morgan was the other somebody. Joe was physically kind of a “bully” type but wasn’t really a bully as far as I remember. Even though they would egg us on, especially the older boys, Joe and I never obliged them.

A couple of other memories of my younger days in the hood were more of a personal nature. During World War II most kids’ daily life reflected the events going on in the world. Penn and I would be down in his basement and we would turn some chairs over on their side adding some boxes to form our B17 Flying Fortress. With our vivid imagination we would be on a bombing run over the heart of Germany. As Indiana Jones would say, “I hate Nazis!”

A couple of more memories of World War II, in our home we had wooden sliding doors between the living room and the dining room. Gary and I would recreate adventures from the war movies popular those days. The sliding doors would actually be a hidden entryway to our secret radio room where we would send the allies important espionage intelligence. Of course, the Gestapo would never find us out.

Another of my BF’s, Gary Rowles, and I got this small, illustrated book on Judo. The illustrations would use an American GI executing the different judo moves on a German soldier. We would go to the church gym and put a mat down to learn and practice the judo moves. It was a good thing we never had to actually put our skills to use.

As I started this section of World War II a host of memories came flooding back to my mind. “Lucky Strikes goes to War!” Luck Strikes was a popular cigarette of those days. I don’t think they still make them. In those days it was mostly men who smoked cigarettes and it was kind of a Marlboro thing. Anyway, at that time they would use an aluminum foil wrapper on the cigarettes. Aluminum was needed for the war efforts so kids and adults would collect old Lucky Strikes aluminum wrappers and turn them in to be recycled for the war efforts. The makers of Lucky Strikes decided to package their cigarettes without the aluminum foil wrapper and thus “Lucky Strikes goes to war!” Chewing gum was also wrapped in aluminum wrappers and were collected too.

US Saving Bonds was another big patriotic thing of the war. School kids would buy stamps for 10 cents or a quarter and paste them into these Saving Bonds books. I believe when you filled a book you could turn them in for a $25 Saving Bond. So, school kids were lending money to the government for the war efforts.

I probably could go on and on, the Andrew Sisters, Glen Miller and the German POW’s detained at the Veterans Hospital on the edge of Topeka, but I won’t. I do remember though when the war ended. First the war in Europe, people went wild in the downtown streets of Topeka when the news of peace in Europe was announced. I don’t really remember the announcement of peace with Japan.

Next Chapter – The Coed Theatre