THE OLD HOUSE

Our family rented this old wood frame house sitting on a large piece
of property with a long narrow driveway. It had some trees around the
house. As we drove up to it, it looked scary to me, my brothers and
sisters all started telling my dad it looks pretty scary, my dad said
it's not scary it is just an old house we will be ok here. Mom said, I
like it, there is shade around it, and has a lot of room for you kids
to play, we will have fun here. As we all got out of the car I looked
at the windows, there were cracks in the glass and had plywood covering
them, some of the screens had holes in them and the water heater was
sitting on a large cement block along side the house leaning to one
side with a slow leak coming from a water pipe. I told my mom and she
said, your dad will fix it when we move in. Once we were there and went
through the old house and rooms and a round the yard we felt much
better. After being there for a few months, my mom and I would go sit
on this large piece of old tree that my dad chopped down and would cut
it in small pieces to use for fire wood and stack them next to the
garage. There were small and large pieces laying all round and my dad
left this one large piece for us to sit on. Mom and I would sit there
watching the clouds on cloudy days. Dad would be working in his little
workshop in the garage; my brothers and sisters would be playing around
the eucalyptus trees near our long dirt driveway leading toward our
house. My mom and I sat there on that cut tree very often and we used
to make different designs out of the clouds. My mom would say, look it
is an angel and we used to make different thing, all kinds of faces and
buildings and I would say there is a rabbit and a dog and lots of
animals. We used to make a lot of different things out of the clouds
and then one-day we were sitting on our piece of wood and I said what
is that? She said oh, it is that new airplane that your dad and I had
read about in the newspaper. I had never seen one like that, it looked
like a large wing it reminded me of a boomerang and it was the most
amazing thing I had ever seen. I could not believe it was airplane it
was shiny like a car bumper and it tipped from side to side, it was so
gentle and beautiful it was like a huge bird flying gently in the sky.
There was smoke coming through the back of the plane, I told my mom
that the plane was on fire, she said no that was from the engines. I
was almost nine I cannot understand how this huge plane was staying in
the sky. I told my mother I would never forget seeing it, she said it
was called a flying wing. After that day I used to tell my mother lets
go look at the clouds and see if we could see the flying wing, my
mother was so busy cooking cleaning house washing clothes and carrying
for my brothers and sisters. I would open the screen door and step down
on the wooden porch and let go of the screen door and it would slam. My
dad would be working in his work room, a little room that was attached
to the garage with a small window on the side and I would look at the
window when I came off the porch and he would be looking at me with a
smile, are you going to look for the wing today son? Yes dad I'm going
to look. I would go and sit by myself for a long period of time
watching for the plane, after a while I would get up and just walk
around and look at the old house and how far our neighbors were from
us. I would look at the oil well near our house and how tall it was,
our house was small and all along on this huge piece of property we had
big eucalyptus trees and a small garage and two little small building
that were added onto the back near the garage. My brothers and sisters
and I had plenty of places around there to play and find different
adventures to explore, we had only one close neighbor who had no kids
but they were real nice people. My dad would pass by me going to get
coffee and say did you see it? No, but I think it's up there in the
clouds somewhere. I am going to have some coffee, come on I will give
you a little taste of it. I would put in a little sugar and canned milk
in it; it was good, that is probably why I drink coffee today. We did
not have any sort of drinks and juices or soda pop or anything like
that, we could not afford any of that. My brothers and sisters started
using sugar and canned milk and they liked it much better. Later on in
the evening my mother said it was time for dinner so we all rushed
towards the table, my father said his back was hurting real bad so the
dinner had to wait. Will he have to go to the hospital we asked? My mom
said no I will take care of him. Dad lay down on his bed and my mom
massaged his back and he was in terrible pain. My mom told my older
brother to run down and make a call to the doctor; the telephone was
about a half a mile away at the little store. When he got back he
looked real tired; he ran all the way there and back. He told my mom
the doctor is on his way. She told all of us the doctor will come here
to the house to take care of your dad's back. It was a about two hours
and there was a knock at the back door and it was the doctor he said
I'd been knocking at your front door for two or three minutes and my
mother said we never use the front door, nobody comes to visit us. The
doctor said you live way out here and this is a big piece of property,
there is nothing out here well who knows maybe someday this will all be
built up out here. The doctor examined my dad's back and gave him a
shot of pain medication and some pills, he said keep some ice cubes
wrapped in a towel on it and some heat and then he left. We did not
have ice cubes only a block of ice that was in the icebox so my mother
chipped some ice off of it and wrapped it in a towel and put it on my
dad's back, he said it felt better as soon as she put it on his back
and as I was watching my dad he moved his hand and gently touch my
mother's arm and very softly said thank you honey and then turned his
head and slowly went to sleep. Its seemed like a half hour before we
all had dinner and then sat around this huge radio, it was as tall as
me, we gathered around near it, my brother's and sister's would yell
and throw stuff back and forth at each other. My mom and dad would say
the program is going to start now, quiet. Suddenly the room would be
quiet and we would be staring at the radio and listening and before I
knew it I was asleep. The next day my dad was feeling better and
walking around. Dad said that you and your brothers would have to help
him to gather some rocks from around the property and he would put them
around in a small circle and build a fire pit he would tell us to find
some long sticks. He would burn copper wire and tell us to take the
sticks and moved the copper around so it would burn off the insulation.
He would find copper wire wherever he could at different places along
the road and out where people dumped trash. He would accumulate it and
burn the insulation off. I asked him why do we burn it as I was
kneeling down poking at the wire, he looked down with a smile on his
face and said if you burn it off, it is worth more money. I said 0h, ok
as I kept poking at it. Be sure to get it all off he said. He would
keep the copper wire and sell it when he would fill a 5 gal. Can, then
take it to the junkyard with cast-iron that so we could have a little
extra to get by on. We were all happy to help him. Dad built some cages
for rabbits, he would raise them and a gentleman would come in a huge
truck and buy the rabbits from us. Dad would make a few dollars so we
could buy some extra groceries. Dad would tell us to get some bags that
were laying near the garage, as I was walking there I would glance
towards the clouds always looking for the Airplane, then as I look down
I saw were the bags were laying, big flour sacks that my mother and dad
used to buy from the store, he told us to get the bags and poke holes
in them and put two or three rabbits in each bag so when the driver
came to buy them he would open the bags and look at them and he and my
dad would negotiate prices. Sometimes he would weigh them from a scale
he had attached to the side of his truck. My dad and him would
negotiate back-and-forth my mother and us would stand together to see
how much money my dad would get. One time I ask my dad if I could have
10?, he said no go around and find some coke bottles and you and your
brothers take them down to the little store and cash them in. As the
months went by we used to find bottles alongside the roads and
sometimes near the railroad tracks. People would throw them from the
train, we would collect them and take them to the store and cash them
in for money. The man that owned the store would give us 2? a bottle.
We got 20 cents sometimes 30. We would buy big hunk candy bars for a
nickel and bubble gum. One day the man that owned the store told us if
you find empty quart bottles of lucky logger beer laying around he
would give us 5? each, he said they will be stamped refund on the
bottom of the bottle. We said let's start looking for those bottles and
we can make some money. We started looking all along the side of the
main road, we found five or six along the road and some coke bottles so
we put them all in a box and carried them to the store the next day to
cash them in. I remember asking the man that owned the store how much
the bubble gum was, he said it is marked, I didn't know what that
printing on the front of the bubble gum box meant. I don't know what
those numbers mean, It say they are 2? and then he said you better go
to school and learn something. I could not read spell or do math I
could not hardly count. My older brother and sister said to the store
man, don't pay any attention to my brother he is a little slow, I
looked away I was very sad and my brother pushed me and said don't let
it bother you someday you will catch on, I can hardly read or spell
myself but I am learning and you will to, half of the time I would not
go to school because the kids use to laugh at me. I had holes in my
shoes and patches on my pants, I never told my mom and dad, I'd just
made out that I was sick a lot of different times and I would stall a
round and miss the school bus and go back home and tell my mom and dad
I missed the bus. My dad's car did not run too good so he could not
take me to school. So I took my share of the money from the bottles and
bought some bubble gum for my Mom and Dad. When we all got home I said
mom and dad I bought this for you, my Mom was real surprised and hugged
me and my father said thanks son it has been a long time since I have
had bubble gum and then he reached over and slowly rubbed my shoulder
and back and he turned real slow and walked out the backdoor. I looked
through the screen watching him he pulled his handkerchief out and
wiped his eyes. A little while later it started getting pretty cold in
the house so my mom said let's get the stove burning I have some flour
I think I will make a cake, you kids get some fire wood for the wood
stove and we all went outside, as we got out there I glanced towards
the clouds looking for the wing, I never saw that airplane in the sky
again. My older brother started cutting some wood with the axe, my
sisters and I start gathering the wood for the stove and took it in the
house and stacked it next to the stove. Mom would put newspaper to
start the fire in the wood stove and little pieces of wood to get it
going. Later on we had a nice dinner and some cake I could never figure
it out when we hardly ever had food, my mother would always come up
with something good. The next day my brothers and sisters and I were
all out outside playing, we had these big mounds of dirt and our play
cars making little roads and tunnels on the dirt piles, we played there
for a while and then we started playing cowboys and Indians. It was a
lot of fun we used to make slingshots from the tree branches and my dad
had some red inner tubes and we used to cut them in long strips of
rubber and use them on the slingshots. My older brother said the red
tube would work better than the black ones they stretch better so we
use red and they did work better. We used rocks and shot them at the
trees and we had a little pine tree that we used to pick pines cones
from it and shoot them at each other, we would hide behind the
eucalyptus trees and around behind the garage and we would laugh and
yell, my mother and father would always be watching that we did not get
hurt. We had some chickens and ducks around the yard it seems like they
were everywhere. It was great, the ducks would chase us and we would
laugh and scream and we would grab our slingshots and we would shoot
the pinecones at them. My mother said, don't hurt them we are raising
them to eat and my dad would come out side and tell us to go play some
where else. We would go across the field about 2 blocks away near this
big ranch. The owner raised geese and we would chase and grab them and
play with them, they were huge geese they would chase us and we would
laughed and scream, we had so much fun playing with them and the owner
would come out and chase us away yelling, you will hurt them get out of
here and go home. We would work our way back towards the house and my
dad would yell out to us and say you need to feed the ducks and
chickens. So we finished up quickly and fed them and our dog so we
could go and play on the oil well, which was about a half block from
our house. I was scared of it, but I went with my older brother and
sisters. They climbed up near the top it was all made out of wood with
some corrugated tin near the back. I would climb about 10 ft. that was
high enough for me, I would yell out to them to come down, they said OK
they were way up high, when they got down they said they seen this
funny looking old man with heavy clothes and a lot of boxes and a
sleeping bag and my younger sister said he had a little fire going and
was cooking something near the trees where there was a small reservoir
that did not have water in. We all yelled out, what are you doing
there? What are you burning? I am not burning anything; I am trying to
cook something to eat. We all went to go talk to him but its started
getting dark so we went home. We told my mom and dad there was a
funnyman living around the reservoir by the trees, my dad said stay
away from him and my mom said you listen to your dad. The next day we
saw my father and my mother talking to the man. Two or three days
later, we asked my mom if we could talk to him, she said yes but be
careful. The next day my brother's and I went over and talked to him,
he had a long beard and long hair and had three big coats on; he looked
like he needed a bath. We talked for a little while, he showed us some
boats that he carved out of old tree branches and they were neat, I
couldn't believe that he carved these out of old tree branches he found
laying on the ground. He had been living there for a while. We did not
even know he was near the trees, we had no idea how long he was living
there, there was stuff scattered all over this small area pots and pans
and empty cans that look like they were open with a pocket knife laying
there all around, there was a small coffee can half open laying near
this small log he was sitting on. I looked at the fire there was water
boiling in this big old can; I said what are you going to put in the
boiling water? Your mother was kind and gave me some eggs and some
flour tortillas that she made, that sure was nice of her to go out of
her way to do that. We all looked at him and said we will see you
later. We went home, we asked my dad what kind of man is that, that
lives out near the trees that looks like he could use a bath and some
clothes, my dad said, don't get too close to him you can talk but watch
yourself. My younger sister and myself said, dad why is he dressed like
that living around the trees my dad said he is a tramp, we said what is
a tramp? A tramp is a guy that does nothing he never takes a bath or
gets his haircut or shaves he never changes clothes or does anything at
least a hobo will work odd jobs to buy a little food. A tramp walks the
streets does nothing much, that's his way through life so you watch
yourself kids, if he says anything that you do not think is right, you
tell me and I will fix him. Dad he makes boats out of wood, they are
really nice and my brother and sisters said yes Dad they are really
great and they're beautifully. He made one with windows and a little
sail on the top. I am going to ask him if I can show you one of them.
And he said no don't ask him I do not want to start with him, so we all
said ok. As time went on I would look through the window, my mom and
dad would give him a little food every once in a while and I heard him
say I will make the kids a little boat out of wood, I did not tell
anyone I was listening and heard that. After two or three months we got
to know him a little bit better, then one day he had carved this boat
out of a big piece of wood, it was beautiful and was about 3 ft. long
and about 9 in. wide, he had tried painting the best he could with what
he had, it was not a real good job of painting but it was neat. We all
looked and my dad said he did a real good job of carving, he said he
made it for us. Dad said you can keep it around the side of the house,
don't take it inside there is no room in the house. We kept looking at
it wondering if it would float we were way too far from the ocean to
try it and there was no water in the reservoir. My two brothers and two
sisters and I dug this large trench out near the back of the garage and
filled it with water, it was all muddy. We put the boat in the water
and it floated beautifully. We had so much fun there, we played for
hours. When we were done playing, we leaned the boat against the side
of the house. It seemed like a month or so later he was gone, no trace
of him or all his stuff that he had with him. We don't know what
happened but he was gone. Dad what happened to woody? my dad said how
did you know his name? Mom said, it was carved in the side of the boat
he made for us. My dad looked towards where the man was living near the
trees and said oh he did. He paused for a moment or so and turned and
looked at me and said in a loud voice I don't know don't ask me. I
often wondered if my dad was jealous of the boat he made for us and
told him to leave because a few days later our neighbor with the geese
asked me about the ambulance that was there a few nights ago near the
oil well. I said I didn't know that. I asked my mom about it, she said
it was nothing and don't ask your father. It seemed like a week or so
later the boat was missing nobody knew what happened to it, one morning
I asked my mom do you know what happened to the boat out side? She said
no and just get ready for school. No one ever spoke of him or the boat
again. I started getting ready for school, I told my mother I had a
hole in the bottom my shoe, I'll fix it, so she cut some cardboard off
of a box and put it in the bottom of my shoe and then she grabbed me
and hugged me. My pants had patches on the knees, I never thought about
them my brothers and sisters were pretty much the same, yes we were
very poor had holes in our shirts my mother would patch them and we all
knew that mom and dad were doing the best they could. When we would
take a bath it was cold, my mom would say put the towel around you and
quit jumping around. We would take baths in this huge water container
that we kept outside. My mom would heat water on the wood stove and
carry it outside where we would take a bath in this large metal wash
bucket then she would finish with us and then start getting things
ready for dinner. We never had much to eat but my mother would always
find something to fix, she would always be cutting something up and
fixing little things and boiling potatoes or making rice. As I look
back now it was amazing, I don't know where she would get all this
different food and things to make all the time. We would go out side
and mom would say to my older brother grab that chicken, he would chase
it around and grab it, mom would take it and cut the head off and let
go of it, it would run around for a few seconds with no head and she
would say ok tonight we will have chicken. My mom would boil big pots
of water on the wood stove, then she would cut the chickens feet off,
and dunk the whole chicken in the boiling water two or three times then
we would all sit outside plucking the feathers off of the chicken. We
would all help out then she would clean it and get it ready to cook on
the wood stove. It came out delicious and she would make biscuits and
boiled potatoes, we would all laugh and tell jokes at the table. It
seemed like we all had our own chairs and my dad would always sit at
the head of the table, it seemed that he always had a little special
food that my mother would make him for being head of the house. A few
days later, my dad said don't go far from the house because we are
going down to sell the copper wire at the junkyard. A few minutes later
we all piled in our old car. My dad and my older brother would always
sit in the front seat and my mother would always sit in the back with
us. We went to the junkyard and it seemed a long ways from our house.
We all helped unload the buckets of copper wire to have them weighed.
We all watched while they weighed the buckets, then the man would pay
my dad after he would sign the receipt. He said, thank you Mr. Meyers.
I did not know why he called him by that name. I asked my mom why he
called dad that name, mom said we are on welfare and he has to use a
different name. She said don't say anymore about it. My dad put the
money away and we left. On the way home, we stopped at the little store
by our house. Mom and dad went in the store while we waited in the car.
They came out with a small bag of groceries. My dad reached in the bag
and pulled out a box of cracker jacks and said you kids share this, and
we always fought over who would get the prize. About a year later my
mom went to the hospital and came home with a little girl. We were all
so happy she was born on New Year's Eve December 31st 1950 were all
holding her and making little faces at her we were all real Happy, my
older sister kept saying I have another sister. My dad had a smile on
his face all the time when he would look at her and pass by her we did
not know where she was going to sleep. My Brother's and I slept in the
same room with my dad. He had his own bed in the corner of the room,
and my two sisters slept in the front room, mom said she will sleep
with me in my room, It was a small house but it all worked out. I was
now 10 it was getting near summer. From Christmas we had little cars
and some metal fire trucks that we would play with on our dirt mound
that we would play on all the time near the rabbit cages that my dad
built. We had Roy Rogers Cap guns that my older brother and I would
argue and fight about who was going to wear them, my younger brother
would come between us to stop us from arguing over the guns he was so
young we pushed him aside then it seem like all at once the argument
would stop and we would just start playing and shooting caps at each
other and playing cowboys and Indians. We had some real good summers;
it seemed like we played all the time. Later on in the year when my
sister was just starting to walk, my dad was working on this car that
he used for parts, he had it parked near the rabbit hutches out in the
back, the tire was off of it and my sister stumbled and hit her mouth
on the lug bolt and it was bleeding badly. My dad grabbed her and we
all jumped in the car and rushed her to the hospital, the doctors fixed
her up ok. We were all happy to see her walking around the next day. A
month or so later my mother's sister came to visit. I was playing near
the garage on my wagon and my mom and her talked for a long time by the
driveway. I seen my mom giving her money and then she left. I asked mom
why did you give her money? She owns this house and I was paying her
the rent. I did not know she owned it, yes she has for a long time. She
put her arm around me and had a sad look on her face; I need to talk to
your dad. He was walking towards us, what's wrong? Mom said, we have to
move. Dad looked real surprised, what did you say? We have to move. 0h
no dam it I'll talk to her tomorrow. No we have to move, when we move
out she will move in. How much time do we have? She said, three months.
When all of us heard that we had to move, we were all sad, we did not
want to move out of the old house, we all loved it here. The next day
we all walked over towards the empty reservoir and sat on a mound of
dirt. We looked toward the house and watch my mom and dad walking
around and looking at the house and yard with our baby sister. We
talked about how we did not want to move, we had a lot of fun here. We
started talking about what we played and different things we did. We
talked about the tree house that we had and how we used to shoot rocks
at the pigeons in the eucalyptus trees. My sisters said what about when
you used to shoot wild strawberries at us with your slingshot and we
all laughed at that. We talked about all kinds of things that we did
through out the years, we laughed back-and-forth and pushed on each
other, and we sat there for hours talking. My younger brother said
maybe we won't move too far away, and we said no, when we move we will
probably move a long ways away and we were all saying we wished that he
was right. It was getting near dinner time we went home, my mom had
killed and clean three chickens and she was boiling them in this big
pot outside on the fire pit that we used for burning wire and paper and
boxes and other stuff, everyone used to burn their papers and trash in
their back yards. Mom said after we boil the chickens we will brown
them on the fire and put some sauce on them. We had a little table
outside that my dad made that we would sit around and talk and ate
outside on warm days. Everyone was hungry so we all start setting the
table outside, we had chicken and beans and mashed potatoes, a big pot
of boiled carrots, tomatoes and two quart bottles of milk. The carrots
tomatoes and lettuce my mother grew in a little garden alongside the
house. It was a feast. On the wood stove she made a stack of flour
tortillas, we all laughed and had a lot of fun eating and talking.
Shortly after a man was walking down the dirt driveway, my dad got up
and met him he asked if he could buy two rabbits, sure, OK my dad said,
he told me to grab a bag and put two rabbits in it. The man paid and
went on his way My dad reached over and gave my mom four dollars, hold
on to that, when we go to the little store pay the man what we owe him.
It seemed like a month or so later, my dad said we're moving tomorrow,
mom said, our three months are not up yet, dad said it does not matter,
we are moving. I found a place so tomorrow morning get the kids to help
you and start packing. Mom said, so you found a place Yes, I rented
this house not too far from here we all said good, we can all come back
here and play can't we? He said no, once we move you can't comeback,
start packing. The next day my mom and dad were moving stuff to the new
house two days later we were moving the last of the stuff out. We all
were in the car pulling away for the last time from here, as we were
going down the dirt driveway with my dad and older brother in the front
seat my three sisters and younger brother and my mom all in the back,
we all turned that were in the back to look out the window, we were all
saying different things we did not want to leave we all had so much fun
here. Mom aren't you going to look? No. My dad yelled out quiet we are
going to the new house. Is it brand new? No. But its new for us as we
pulled away it was sad knowing that we would never be able to go back
as I stared watching the old house fade out of sight.

Norman Clifford 1-4-2002

This is a short story, some stuff I had to leave out to make it short,
but there was a lot of things and a lot of adventures that I could not
squeeze in. I loved my mother and father very much and miss them.