Marlee Asks Mrs. Owens To Tell Her A Story

Marlee loved the band music. They listened to it for awhile and kept walking up the street. Mary Owens showed Marlee what the main strip used to look like. It had drug stores, grocery stores and banks. There were all kinds of things  that weren't there any more. She pointed to the left and then she pointed to her right. "Things keep changing in my little town. People buy and sell their property all the time. Some stores stay for years but sometimes people just decide to move to a different town. I know you are awfully young, but I have seen some buildings built and torn down four (4) times."

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Marlee said, "Well that store over there looks like a cafe that we go to eat sometimes." Mrs. Owens barely acknowledged her as she seemed to be on a mission. She held Marlee's hand tightly as they crossed the street. She said, " I want to show you something."
Well it seemed to be too much for Marlee. Her little legs were tired. There were benches all along the front of the stores. People were just sitting there visiting with each other. A lot of the people were standing around and some were even sitting on their knees. They seemed like they knew each other and if they didn't they still visited and said, "Hello."
"I want to sit down for awhile, I'm tired. Okay?" Mary couldn't refuse this cute little girl. She reminded Mary of someone, but just couldn't put her finger on it. Two year olds have a tendency to have a short attention span and Marlee was no exception. She looked up at Mrs. Owens and said, "Do you know Grandma Lu? Mary shook her head "no." Well, my Grandma Lu isn't really  my grandma. "B" and Lollie are my grandmas but Grandma Lu tells me stories sometimes when I ask her. Will you tell me a story?' Grandma Lu always tells me stories when I say please. Will you please tell me a story?"
Mrs. Owens looked down at Marlee and asked her if she would like a funny story. Marlee grinned and said, "Yes, I like to laugh. Will I laugh?" Mary said, "Well you just might. I think it's funny now, but I sure didn't think so when it happened."
Well about 1940 I guess it was. Years and years ago, my husband and I and his father and our son, Dude, and my husband's nephew who was about fifteen at the time all lived in an old one room house. Up north of town, up where the Care
Center is now in that area anyway. Well, you are probably too little to understand, but it kind of made me frustrated. When I was home I constantly tried to figure out a way to make more room for all of us plus our furniture so I guess I rearranged furniture a little too often for my husband's liking. He told me repeatedly not to move the furniture around because he was always stubbing his toe on furniture when he walked in. He said that I always moved it right in his way. That's what he said anyway. Well one day while I was downtown you know what he did?" Marlee shook her head no. First of all she couldn't imagine five (5) people sleeping and eating and cooking all in one room.

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"That husband of mine mixed up some cement and cemented the bed to the floor which was also cement. When I got home I asked him why in the world he had done that. He said, "now you won't be able to move things around anymore." I was not a bit happy with him, but now I think it was pretty funny. Eventually we bought a place right down the street a ways which had a lot more room. It used to be the old telephone building."
Of course, Marlee didn't understand what a telephone building was because she lived in the time where most folks carried their phones with them. They were called cell phones, Smart Phones, I Phones, and some people had little flip phones. They fit in ladie's purses and and men's pants pockets. Some people even had a watch that was called a Smart Watch. Grandma B and Grandma Lu also had what they called land lines which meant that the phones would stay in the house and some would even work without electricity.
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The house that Mary and her husband, Rick bought was the old telephone building. At one time it had a real switchboard in it that required a switchboard operator.
At one time I had a close friend that lived in a very small town in Iowa that had a switchboard in her home. It was in her living room and it would buzz when someone wanted her to call someone for them. Of course, she listened in to their conversations I am sure. She was a 911 operator in those old days when there was not such a thing in her town. She would call the Sheriff if someone was in trouble. She also knew everyone's names and their children's names. Interesting times and only about 60 years ago. (Big grin.)