MEMORY LANE - Descendants of Caleb Jobe and Martha Emily Brewer http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~ajobebrown/jobe/letters_cale_j_brewer.html (Part 5) When we lived on the North Side, there was not a time that one could not find an animal or bird of some sort on the premises somewhere. At one time, we had 40 dogs pregnant dogs all at one time. I have had various breeds, ranging from chichualas, fox terriers, weimers, collies, German Shepherds, poodles, Pomerans, to Pekingese. I have also had a spider monkey, turtle, and several types of cats. Among the varieties or species of birds, I have had a parrot, mynah bird, ducks, chickens, sparrows, canaries, and finches. Once I even had a red bird which we caught ourselves in a trap which we built. I used to put all my pets on the front porch and play life I had my own pet shop. Used to get some weird looks from the motorists that would come by and see the strange sight that would their eyes would see. My fourth grade teacher was a Mrs. Furney. She was of French descend. She got out and did things with the students. There was no way that anyone could not like her. During elementary school, a friend, Gary, and I used to play cowboys and Indians on our bicycles. I used to always get mad because I had to always be the Indian. I wanted to be a 'good guy' sometime. Gary also had a parrot which I did not care for because he would always tell when I was coming. There was no way that you could surprise him, no matter how quiet that you would try to be. Linda, another friend of mine, would ride with us. We had our own little crowd. We used to have a 'strange way' of deciding what I wanted to play at a particular time. I would write down every game that I could possibly think of even though there were some that I knew that I definitely did not want to play. Then we would all vote on the game that we wanted to play. By the time that we had decided what we wanted to play, there was no longer time left to play the game. My favourite things to play was 'house'. I would always be the teenage sister. My friends during this timed were Cloie, Barbara and her sister, Patricia. We always likes to eat out in the yard or in the garage which we had made into a playhouse. We would all bring something and have our own 'little feast'. My fifth grade teacher was Mrs. Baker. From the beginning, she and I didn't really get along. She had her favourites and greatly showed her prejudices. She disliked everyone but her select few which all seemed to share a common interest in being an artist or extremely creative. However, this year was not a total loss. I tried out for the relay team which was mostly comprised of sixth graders. I was very thrilled when I made substitute. Really I did not think that I was all that good and did not think that I had any kind of a chance of making the team. The regular girl got sick and I was sort of scared when I was told that I had to run. Though we lost, it was really a great moment for me. I actually got to be in the team that represented my school. It really can give one great pride in oneself to know that they have really accomplished something. Not only was I representing myself but everyone in that school. Even though we did not win, we did our best and this made us all feel like we had really accomplished something. "Year of Change - Sixth Grade" (This was never written and my story ended right her)