This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: edmaxwellvtours Surnames: Clendenen,Shroyer,Sopher,Wilson, Criffield,Parrish,Borders Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.michigan.counties.kalamazoo/20152.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: >From a newspaper article that appeared in the Dowagiac Daily News (unknown date). I tried to copy everything word for word. My corrections are [in brackets .] Life on Walnut St. elicits rush of good memories By Lisle Borders 404. 404 Walnut St., that is. When I look back to my early years, I think of Walnut St. That's where I was born and lived until I was 20 years old. The earliest I recall was that my grandma took care of me because my mother, Carrie Ellen Borders, was a seamstress and did most of her sewing at the home of the ladies for whom she made dresses. I remember I used to run away and grandma tied me to the big cottonwood poplar tree in our front yard. I recall that before I was out of grade school I already had been in the hospital four or five times. I had my appendix taken out and two ruptures -- one on each side -- my tonsils taken out and had a badly broken left elbow. That happened on Oct. 2, my birthday. These things always happened on my birthday. Grandma used to send me get well cards on my birthday as she figured I'd be in the hospital then. Kennie Sopher, my cousin who lived two doors down south of us, decided that because it was a half day of school we'd put a wire in the barn and learn to tightrope walk. The reason it was a half day of school was that they always let school out for half day so we could go to the Hartford fair. Kennie took the wire to the east end of the barn and I took the other end to the west end of the barn I reached for a cross beam and it broke loose. I fell head-first about 11 feet. My left arm was instantly thrust forward to break the fall , which demolished my elbow. I was out of school the rest of that year, as in the winter I fell downstairs and broke it in the cast. I remember Dr. Green took the cast off on Memorial Day. I then carried a small pail of sand around a lot and I always carried pump water with my left arm. I got so I had about 50 or 60 percent of full use of my arm that way. When I got a little older, George Wilson, who lived three houses south of us, started teaching me to polevault and I think the jerking during vaulting straightened my left arm a little, also. Across the street from us lived the Places. George was about my age. He had an older brother, Enos, and a younger sister, Helen. I can't recall, but he might have had an older sister, too. Enos was named for his mom's maiden name, I believe. I know that a couple years later a kid who was their cousin moved here and his name was George Enos. He later married a cousin of mine. Well, I guess they weren't my cousins. They were my grandmother Selena Shroyer's brother's kids. Anyhow, their mom was always known as Aunt Hattie. Aunt Hattie made some of the best oatmeal bread I've ever tasted. They lived one block over, on the corner of Chestnut and Lowe streets. Between Places and the next house south was a vacant lot that was always used as a garden by Mr. Mather in the next house. He had two boys, Bob and Jake. Jake was a boxer. The house next to ours on the south was Jean Heck's and then the next one was my cousins, the Sophers at 408 Walnut. My Aunt Grace, my mother's sister -- and her husband, Jerry, had five boys and two girls. Their names in order were Kenneth, Ernest, Francis, Robert, and Jerry. Then after thinking that was the end, a couple years later they had a long sought-for-girl, Virginia and then Darlene. Make a lot of kids from within just five houses. Kitty corner across the street from Sopher's was the Clendenings [Clendenens]. They had a couple girls and boys. I don't remember the oldest girl's name. The younger girl was Geraldine. The boys were Bob and an adopted brother Norman Williamson. Next to them lived the Rectors, Merle and Vera. Then back to the west side of the street was one vacant lot south of Sophers and the the Wilsons. George, Sr. was the fire chief. They had four children -- two girls and two boys, George and Don. Both boys were good athletes. George went on to George Williams College with Dean Parrish and both became Little All-Americans. Florence and Barb were the girls. George taught me to polevault, broad jump, high jump, shot put and throw the javelin and discus. I did compete in the broad jump, pole vault and low and high hurdles. On May 16, 1936, I broke the state record in the 200-yard low hurdles in 23.6 seconds at Kalamazoo in a regional meet. Next door to the Wilsons lived the Criffields. They had two boys Dean and Doyle. Dean was a big, stout kid and Doyle was younger. I remember Doyle had six toes on both feet. They had a chicken fenced-in area out back and he had been running around inside the pen and stepped on a slat with a nail in it and it drove the nail right up through his insteps. We broke the ends of the slat and he was taken to the hospital. It turned out okay. No infection and he was fine in a few days. Next door to the Criffields was the Pollards. They had only one son, Orlan. He was a little older than me, but I think my two sisters thought he was the nuts. Between the next house and the Pollards's was a little-used dirt alleyway that led back to the end of Maple Street. The Killins lived just south of the alley and they had a garage that was situated about 20 feet from the alley. We kids used to play basketball there with an old barrel hoop nailed up on the end. We even played out there on cold, snowy days. I recall that one day Ernie and I were down there and I suggested we try going down the hill standing up on our sleds. I made it quite a ways but Ernie only made it about halfway and he fell and broke his collarbone. I felt terrible 'cause it was all my fault. Out in front of Killin's where the street ends was a great big hickory nut tree. Right next to the tree the road turned into a small sand trail that continued south until it met the old streetcar tracks and then it turned east over to S. Lowe Street. Just across the tracks was Valdes greenhouse. They had two boys, George, the older one, and Shindus. He was a whale of a football player at the same time as George Wilson and Dean Parrish. Mention Dean Parrish brings to mind that Dean had a younger brother who married Helen Place who lived from across the street from us at 404. They lived farther down Lowe Street across the Dowagaic Creek at the corner of Lowe and Pokagon streets. North of my house and left on Chestnut Street was Ray Ropp. He had a younger brother, Kenneth. First house west of him lived Lee Iliff. Lee married Ester Abbs. She lived around the corner from Lee on Maple Street. She did at one time live next door to us in the house that Jean Heck lived in at 406 Walnut. Later on, Jack Thomas and his sister Donna lived there. I recall that for a long time after they moved in, I thought Jack was a girl because he had a beautiful head of long blond curls. Their dad's name was Floyd. He also worked at the fire department. Farther north of us and around the corner of Walnut and High Street lived another Thomas family. They had one son, Brooks. In later years he and I ran around a lot together because we were the only younger guys left in town. All the rest were in the Army or Navy. Sprague and Madge were his Mom and Pop. Sprague was some kind of boss at Rudy Furnace Co. One of the nicest guys I've ever had the privilege to know. A regular Abe Lincoln. Madge sang in the Federated Church Choir and Brooks and I sang with them from about junior high on. I remember one time Madge had Brooks and Glenn Andrews and I sing for some woman's group. Maybe it was the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She could have been the president for all I know, only she didn't carry an axe. She lived to be about 99. She was also one of the best known Republicans in Michigan. Later on I'll tell you one of the funniest things that ever happened to Sprague. Kitty corner across the street from my Aunt Hattie's on Chestnut Street lived the Gieslers. They had two boys, Albert, always called Al, and Edward. Edward was much younger, but he used to be over in our gang of kids and played basketball down at Criffield's and football at the field between Sopher's and Wilson's houses. Those two lots were vacant all the way back to Maple Street. The southwest end was the most level and we used to play football there. The lot nearest to the Sopher's was many times used to stake a cow out to graze by Jerry Sopher. Had to watch out for fresh cow pads on the way to the football field section or you'd slip on a fresh cow pad. Jerry Sopher had an old big Atwater Kent Radio with about six dials on it and a big horn speaker. Sometimes during the day Kenny would have it set at WLS. Ernie and I didn't care for that music so I remember one day we sneaked in and turned to another station. Ken chased us through the dining room and through the kitchen and out the door that led to the side porch . I heard Ernie yell and we stopped running. We found out that Kennie had grabbed a granny fork on the way through the kitchen and heaved it at Ernie. It stuck him in the heel. It must have hurt plenty, but we never changed the radio on Kenny again. One day my Aunt Grace called us all in and said, "Who was the one or ones who got into my dresser drawer and took a chocolate bar?" Of course we all knew nothing about it. She said okay then, she'd find out later. And sure enough she did. Turned out it was on Ex-Lax bar and Ken had eaten the whole thing. I really didn't like to have any of the boys get caught as their Dad Jeremy always whipped them with a razor strap. That time I don't recall Kenny getting whipped, but I am sure that he never took another bar of chocolate and ate the whole thing again. Whenever I got a spanking it was done by grandma. She had a large wooden spatula that she used to press water out of the butter and it was curved just right to find my buttocks. She spanked me and then made me sit down on the warmed-up bottom. I usually got the point, too. I only got it when I needed it. At times 404 was a full house. I lived with my grandma, Aunt Helen, my mother, and sisters Virginia and Florine. I was always outnumbered by women. Sometimes my grandpa, Dan Shroyer lived there, too. He had a small farm just across the creek on the M-62 on the south side of the road. It ran back to the street car tracks. Before he sold off part of it, it ran all along the tracks to M-40. The farmhouse sat where Hale's Hardware is now. They moved north and east a short ways and in that new plat. Grandpa stayed out to the farm from about April to November and then came to town and stayed with us at 404. I remember one year during the Depression, my Uncle Ramey and Aunt Luella and their kids Don and Jean Shroyer, came to live with us for the winter. Really had a full house then. Sometimes my mother could afford to buy a half-ton of coal from Franklin's coal yard. I don't remember where we all slept, but I do remember it was my job to take care of the fire in the Round Oak stove and to haul the ashes and sweep a path to the outhouse. I remember Virginia got tired of that cold flat and tacked fur collar on it so it wouldn't be so cold. Yes, 404 brings back a lot of memories. Good memories. Lisle Borders, 78, lived at 404 Walnut from 1917 to 1938. The 1937 Dowagiac graduate lived at 312 Orchard St. in Dowagaic until moving to Eau Claire eight years ago. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.