Mulberry Trees and the Last Post

Paul's HUGE junior high (7th and 8th grade). Indoor pool, huge stage, very very nice...weekly rec nights til 9 pm...all the soda you could drink (although the cups were those 6 oz ones!) Cool thing about this school is that you can not see it from the street. The road winds behind a pasture/wooded area, dips down and then up and then here it is! David said he wants to move here this summer so this could be his junior high!




Anyone know why flags are at half mast?

Pauls elementary school. To the right is Pauls fourth grade class and behind him and past the hallway is his fifth grade class. He swears the school doesn't look different at all. Showed the boys were the old hopscotch was painted on the courts (and hadn't been repainted since Paul was there judging by the looks of it), and showed the boys were the brick was slightly dinged...Paul swears from years of wall ball!

This is also the spot his fifth grade teacher brought a horses trough and gave everyone a sack of dirt with real gold in it (gold at the time was regulated to $32 an ounce) and taught the class how to gold pan. Paul says it is this teacher who gave the "west" such a good name and is one of the reasons he went to AZ. His sixth grade teacher is the one who painted the "Paul the Pro" picture hanging in his office. Paul didn't have the teacher who married and was then "Mrs. Weiner". The boys love that name!

Mulberry bushes/trees line the side of the elementary school. paul had us all try them and the boys fell in love, so Paul showed them how to get the really tasty, mature ones (bring high branches low).

Fingers, ears, shoes are all stained purple. Sigh...

Four square. Boys LOVED doing this. Paul remembers playing this for hours and also, just kitty corner, is the outline for the softball field and Paul remembers going home for lunch (can you imagine??) and running back in time to get picked to play ball!

This is the Howell Homestead. Beth's window is the one on the right, and her parents were on the other side behind. The window to the left of Beth and right of the door is a bathroom window and the window to the left of the door is the room the piano was in which could be seen by both main rooms. The house is painted a lawn green and at that time, the fence was green too, but it isn't anymore. The house backs up to a radio station (wrok) that is still there with HUGE satellite dishes--and a new building which looks nice but takes up some of the football space Paul used. There is also a big hill there that the kids would sled on.

Paul remembers Scott and him going to the bank and buying pennies and dimes, taking out the wheat pennies and ??? dimes, rerolling the rest and doing it so often, they were getting back their own rolls, so they had to wait a month for "fresh coin". paul was also into CB radio at this time and was in a club of about 150 people. He remembers staying up really late and talking on his CB.

Day 13

Paul remembered his paper route and told us who tipped well, etc. He had to collect every two weeks, but those he didn't find on collection day, he'd stop on his way to bowl and then use the money at the alley (games were .50).

Paul has a very vivid memory of being in the car with his Dad waiting to turn left out of the subdivision, and across the street a lady, (25 y/o or so), jumping around... jumping high, waving, etc...completely NAKED!

He also pointed out which house they thought was haunted and which house had an indoor swimming pool. I think he remembers pretty much everything about Rockford! Many of the restaurants and corner stores are still hill ... not all, but quite a few.

We had a picnic where his family used to picnic--they would bring KFC to the park, and while driving around, Paul said his mom's favorite restaurant had frog legs and she would let him eat her leftovers.

Paul showed us the apt building his dad owned (by the rr tracks) and told us funny stories about Clarence, one of the renters.

The church Paul went to was nice...two story high stained glass windows, Paul said it was so beautiful inside.

It was three hour tour yesterday (w/o me) and five 1/2 hours today..and I could tell Paul didn't want his Rockford tour to end; so many happy memories for him and he was really excited to share them with us.

Well, I've taken close to 700 pictures (probably 1000, as I delete every so often) and I am ready to go home. I tried making a photobook at Walgreens, but I couldn't get the book to take photos from multiple albums...so it is half done and I probably won't order it.

good trip and lots of great memories. We'll be home tomorrow night and I hope to hear from everyone!