The prompt for Week 25 of
52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History is
Neighbors.
Who were your childhood neighbors? Have you kept in touch with any of them? Do you feel the concept of “neighbors” has changed since then?
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| Betsy Brown, John D., me, Bill H., Karen - 1974 |
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| Lisa and Diane McKimbell, 1966 |
From the summer of 1964 through the summer of 1985, my family lived in the
Sharpstown area in Houston, one of the first master-planned communities in the country. Our next door neighbors on one side were the Browns. They had a daughter named Debbie around my age, but we weren't close. Another daughter, Betsy, was my sister Karen's age, and they were friends a long time - they might still be in touch. The Browns had a swimming pool, but I don't remember swimming in it much. I'd usually go to the nearby
Lansdale Park Pool to swim.
Our first next door neighbors on the other side were the McKimbells, who had two daughters, Lisa and Diane, about the ages of Karen and me. They later moved away and another family with two girls about the same age moved in, but I wasn't close to them and can't even remember their names.
I think the reason I wasn't close to these neighbor girls was that none of them went to
St. Francis de Sales, as my siblings and I did. My friends at Catholic school lived further (outside of biking distance) away.
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| Karen Geutche and Mary, 1969 |
Down the street lived a family named Geutche. They had young daughters I used to babysit. One was named Karen and was around the age of my youngest sister Mary. They also had a great tree in their front yard that I loved to climb.
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| Bismarck and Alex, 1973 |
Also down the street was a family with a female basset hound named Alex. We fantasized about a romance with our male basset, Bismarck, but that didn't happen, I think because Alex was too young and her family soon moved away.
A few streets away was a family called the Jordans. Mrs. Jordan was my Girl Scout Leader a few years. Daughter Vicki was Karen's age and also in the troop. There were two younger girls, Beth and Carole Marie. Sadly, the entire family died in a crash of their small plane around Thanksgiving 1970. My eighth grade class sang at the funeral and I'll never forget it.
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| Carole Marie and Beth Jordan, 1968 |
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| Ardis Bartle, 1974 |
My high school,
St. Agnes Academy, was one mile away, and it wasn't until I started there in 1971 that I found a friend in my neighborhood (albeit half a mile from me). Ardis Bartle is still a friend today, and she's the only "neighbor" I've kept in touch with. She sends the greatest Christmas cards!
My two brothers had classmates just down the street and around the block that they are still friends with today.
I think the concept of neighbors has changed since I was a kid. It seems people spend more time indoors on their computers or watching TV, and it makes it harder to meet people and really get to know them.
© Amanda Pape - 2011 - click here to e-mail me.
The photo above was taken at All Saints Cemetery in Des Plaines, Illinois, by one of my Streff cousins before the graveside service for my Nana, my paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Florence Massmann Pape, on January 19, 2000. Nana was born on December 23, 1902, and passed away on January 13, 2000. She was buried next to my Grandpa, Paul Robert Pape, who was born on July 1, 1896, and died on April 24, 1970. The photos at left and below were taken by my parents, Frederick Henry Pape and Geraldine Margaret Guokas Pape, at various times over the last 11+ years.
