Life on Hadley Road

We helped the Couch family moved into their new house on Hadley Road. There were a lot of "firsts" involved in this move (for me). For example...

1) It was the first time I saw a moving truck that big. When we moved from our apartment to a house, there were pick-up trucks and cars involved - no moving truck :).

2) I had never seen a house that big.

Some perspective for you. The house that they lived in on Kyle Road (I believe it was rented from the Toor's), was approximately 800 square feet.

This is an aerial view of the house they moved into on Hadley Road.



I would guess the house is at least 2500 sq ft. - maybe more. The driveway - which pretty much looks the same, was black tar-like material that sloped downward. In the winter time, it made it tricky to get vehicles in and out but during the mid to late 70's, Hadley Road was more of a side road. It didn't have the traffic that I'm sure it has today.

Other things I remember about the house...

No one ever used the front door - it was much easier to drive down the driveway and enter the house through the garage (which sat under the house).

The first floor, which had the living room, family room, dining room, 1/2 bath, and kitchen - was sparsely furnished in the beginning. In fact, the official "living room" and "dining room" had nothing in them and we would often use that area to goof off....Ericka would show off with her fancy gymnastics moves and I would twirl around and tap like I was Fred Astaire...

All of the bedrooms were located upstairs. Ericka kept her room kind of plain - it had her white, four poster canopy bed in it along with her dresser and night stand in it. Her younger brother (Aaron) though, wanted his room painted dark blue and I think he even had bunk beds.

For the first couple of months, things were different - obviously - because I just couldn't walk over to Ericka's house on my own (nor her to mine), however, we settled into a comfortable routine whereby I was able to spend the night with her often. Kind of like our own slumber party.

On one particular Friday, Ericka introduced me to a record - and an artist that I had never heard of - Elton John. Music was always in the background of my life but it wasn't until that very moment, that I honed in on my first artist and my first set of "serious grown-up albums".

In the front room area, we had our bowl of Jiffy Pop, our pitcher of grape koolaid and we put on the toons and sang and danced. Stand out tracks included: Island Girl, Crocodile Rock, Bennie and the Jets, and Honkey Cat.

The Frazier's and The Couch's

The map probably looks familiar because I've posted it before. It's my memory of the kids that lived in my neighborhood, plotted out on each street. When I was in Fort Wayne in May, I stopped by the old neighborhood and snapped pictures of the houses where each one of my friend's lived. That one up there is the house where the Couch's lived.

In 1971, I made a lot of great friends at Indiana Village Elementary School. One in particular was Ericka Couch. We sat at table #6 (Miss Crouse's afternoon Kindergarten class) and I think we bonded because one of the other girl's who sat with us (her name was Smokey - I kid you not) - well she kind of scared us. We paired up out of fear - I guess there are worse things to start friendships over :).

Like me, Ericka was the oldest child with one sibling (her - younger brother Aaron, me - younger sister Patty).

We also happened to live in the same neighborhood - well kinda - as she was on the "outskirts" or what was known as Kyle Road. Not that I was allowed on Kyle Road at that age. It might as well have been Sandpoint Road as far as my parents were concerned. Crossing over to it was like asking for a car to hit you. Really. They were convinced that Kyle Road was a main thoroughfare, with wildly - out of control cars and trucks - that struck innocent children - dozens of them.

Another biggie: we also had staunch Catholic mothers and non-religious fathers.

But none of this came to light until one day when my mother dropped me off at school. Ericka's mom was there too. They introduced themselves based upon the fact that they had heard each other's daughter talk about the other (of course they never did know about the "fear" factor and they must have assumed we had gobs in common to bond so quickly).

Before we knew it, my mom (who had recently left her KMart job) and Ericka's mom, Selsa, had made this arrangement in which my mom would babysit Ericka and Aaron during the week. Selsa was an elementary school teacher at Ward Elementary and was looking for help with her two kids during the day. With me and Ericka becoming instant friends, this situation looked very perfect to our moms.

And I absolutely enjoyed having someone else aside from my sister to play with. Although Ericka wasn't really into Barbies, she was adventurous and would play in the ditch with me or on the swings and she was definitely a fan of Gilligan's Island and the Brady Bunch. And she's also the one that showed me how to climb trees. There was one at Scott's Court that was great climbing material - it was a cherry tree and many cherries were collected for pies from that tree...

But anyway - this friendship between our families was a big deal because as I've mentioned previously, my father was extremely racist. And the whole babysitting situation almost did not come to be...because Selsa wasn't white.

But she wasn't black. I'm saying this from the perspective of a six year old because when it came up in a discussion between my parents (of course I was listening - duh!) my dad flat out asked if Selsa was 'that word' which he always associated with non-white. That's when I learned that Selsa was born and raised in Taos, New Mexico and that she was married to Larry who was white. So even though my dad labeled this as an interracial marriage, the fact that Selsa wasn't black but "Mexican" must have been okay. I didn't understand the reasoning then (or even now) - I just know that this distinction is what made it okay for our families to socialize together.

"I only see clearly what I remember"

Kristina Michele Frazier
1972-73

Kindergarten Picture

Taken at Indian Village Elementary School
Afternoon Kindergarten Group

Teacher: Miss Crouse
Principal: Dr. Schroeder

Quote Courtesy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

As soon as I stepped through the next set of doors, the smell of the school re-awakened decades of stored memories.

To the right, there is a door. That used to be where the nurse's office was. Not anymore - something else was there. To the left, there used to be a school administration directory. That's where you'd see that Miss Crouse was Room 1 and Mrs. Lawson was Room 19. It was a black, felt, square punctuated with white letters and framed with a glass case.

As I walked forward, to the right was the "Principal's" Office. Before I entered, I noticed that to the left was the school gymnasium and straight ahead - HEY WAIT! It was gone. Yes, straight ahead, there used to be two restrooms - one for girls and one for boys. It wasn't there anymore!

In the office, I introduced myself to the woman in charge. No - not the "new" Principal (well - new to me - but Ms. Stephany Bourne has been there for awhile). The real heart and soul of this school - Mrs. Ross. You see, I don't specifically remember Mrs. Ross, but she's been at Indian Village almost since the beginning of time. Her wildly successful daughter - was just two years behind me - so she was the perfect person to give me a tour of the facilities.

I should mention that I picked the absolute worse day to do this. It was the afternoon of the fifth grade convocation. There were tons of kids and parents everywhere (never a bad thing generally) however, I wasn't able to get all of the pictures that I wanted to get because I had to be careful, making sure that no kids ended up in my shots.

Alright - let's start the tour.

Mrs. Ross and I stood in the middle of the office area. We acknowledged that not much had changed (in this area) since the place was built. The long, light oak counter where I would stand in line to purchase my bus pass ($1.50 per week I think) or the place I would stand to turn something in to the school secretary - it was still there.

Oh my! This was the spot where my mom and Dr. Schroeder had a throw down over the buses.

Mom: I don't understand why we have to pay for our kids to be transported back and forth to school.

Dr. Schroeder: The way the rule is set up, if it's under a mile, then we have to charge you.

Mom: It's more than a mile!

Dr. Schroeder: Not as a crow flies.

Mom: Pardon?

Dr. Schroeder: The rule is, mileage is based upon the flight of a crow. He points to a map. From here to here is just under a mile.

Mom: Points to the map too. My children have two legs and no wings therefore, you should be measuring based upon the route that they would have to walk she points to Kyle Road, Sandhill Drive, Tielker, Engle Road. THAT is over a mile.

Dr. Schroeder: I'm sorry Mrs. Frazier. I can only go by the rules set forth by the school board.

When I told this story to Mrs. Ross - she immediately knew where I lived. It was a humorous moment :).

When we walked out of the office, I pointed out things (the school directory, the restrooms) to Mrs. Ross - mostly - out of a need for some validation i.e. was I crazy?! She was pretty amazed at my memory and she acknowledged that yes, I was right. And throughout our tour, she was a fantastic validator for me.

I asked her about Dr. Schroeder. Apparently, he had retired a few years back and during a celebration for the school (fifty years), there was a big to-do thrown for him and his lovely wife in honor of the school and his retirement. How sad that I had missed this (but of course - I didn't know about it).

As we started to walk down the hall - I saw a door on the right - right before the first hallway. Hey - that used to be the teacher's lounge - where they all went to smoke.

Yep.

And what happened to the restrooms? They weren't there anymore. Instead, the library had been built out from this area.

Mrs. Ross: When the school added on the wing (2001), we also did some rearranging. That included changing the set-up of the library.

And stepping into the library, it was a beautiful site to see. Well maintained. Lots of books. And now, a great view to the outside - to this grassy, gazebo-like, special place that was just established in the name of a student who had died a few years back (I'm sorry that I cannot recall the name of the student). On that particular day, they were planning on holding a dedication ceremony.

When we stepped outside and looked at the area, I was having some major cognitive dissonance. It looked familiar. But this was new. I didn't spend a lot of time in that girls restroom (that used to exist in this place). And surely, there was no window to look outside to this area. Hmmmm.....I said nothing - I was going crazy.

Or was I?!

Winter On Kyle Road

Looking Down Kyle Road
Originally uploaded by kristinafh

You are looking at the top of Kyle Road.

I know you can't tell from this particular shot, but there's a nice downward slope on this road.

And going up this with your bike is a bitch. It's more than a workout for a ten year old. It's like training for some marathon. Which is why we usually didn't take this route on our bikes. We tended to head the other direction where the road was smoother and flatter.

It was a different story in winter time.

Especially when crusty ole Lester Grile would call off school. School would only be called off in the winter time for one of two reasons. First, blizzard conditions. Second, icy conditions.

As kids, we loved both. The ice though, had its bonus points.

You see, didn't matter what the temperature was. A day off of school, with a fresh sheet of ice - just waiting for us - well - that was almost better than the ice cream truck dropping off free bomb pops.

So, this is how it went down.

We'd tell the parents that we were hangin' at Brian Rice's house (it's on the left - but you can't see it because the trees hide it.

If we had enough kids, we'd break into three groups.

One group would stay towards the bottom - looking for any stupid cars that might try to come out of Cedar Crest OR which might try to make its way up Kyle (up the slope).

Side note: Most drivers avoided this area when it was icy because it was a guaranteed wipe-out.

One group would park themselves at the top of Kyle, watching out for the silly drivers who might approach from Tielker Road.

The other group would grab their plastic, toboggan sleds (mine was red - got it at Mr. Wiggs I think) and ride them down the slope, holding on for dear life.

Things to look out for:

* Other sledders
* Mailboxes
* Utility poles

Otherwise, the name of the game was, see how far and fast you could go without injuring a body part.

And everybody would rotate.

And keep on slidin' down that slope - until it was time to go home for supper.

And that's how we spent our icy winters. Slidin' down the slope with our plastic, toboggan sleds.

Final note: if you've never rode down a slope on a plastic toboggan sled - you haven't experienced life. There's nothing like a thin piece of plastic between you and a sheet of ice and the wind ripping your face off as you hold on for the ride of your life. Guaranteed to erase all of your worries of the day.

I'm On A Mission - Need Your Help

NOTE: Special Thanks to Christopher for letting me know that this used to be called "Andy's".

There's a specific memory from childhood that is as clear as day.

When my sister and I were - oh around - 11-12 years old, we would ride our bikes down Kyle Road...turn left to Sandpoint Road...curve around (nodding to Mason Drive which was on our right - and where our second cousins - Rex/Rita/Robbie/Jenny used to live)....

We continued on Sandpoint Road - passing another side street or two (or three) and on our right, was a - well - a "mom and pop" place - almost like a gas station grocery store, but I think it only had one pump and I don't remember the name of the place.

So here's where I need your help.

What was the name of this place?
Who owned it?
Does anyone have a picture of it?
I'm assuming it is no longer there - but can someone verify that?


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So why did we travel such long distance (it was about 3 miles round trip)?

Because - this place had grab bags - the coolest, ultimate, greatest grab bags which contained candy in them. The bags were an ordinary brown kind, filled with penny candy, and stapled. It was great - you never knew what you'd get!

I believe you could could choose from ten cent, fifteen cent, or twenty-five cent bags.

Sometimes, in the 25 cent bag, you might even be rewarded with a dime! And that meant - you could buy another bag.

Seems kind of anti-climactic, eh? Not for us it wasn't. And get this! There wasn't any chocolate either. It was all hard candy and gum.

I can't remember everything in the bags however, this slide show takes you through some of the goodies...