The Apartment That Wasn't
Dad arranged for us to move into an upstairs apartment on
River Street in Hudson Falls. However while we were moving in the lady who owned
it told Dad there were too many of us and she'd changed her mind.
Clark 's Ice Shanty
Dad went to some friends of his, the Clarks who lived in
Kingsbury. They had an ice shanty that was parked in the hay field near them.
They let us stay there for about a month or so till Dad could find us a place to
live. I don't think they charged him anything.
I remember the Clark kids. David, Alan and Pam. We never
had much to do with Pam. She didn't come out much but Alan was in my class at
school the following year. David didn't impress me at all. He was Anna's age.
Mom told us that Pam didn't come out because she was
hurt. The story was that some time before, I think maybe a year or two, there
had been a bees nest in the tree near them. David took a roll of newspaper and
lit it on fire and held it up to the nest. The other two were watching on the
ground. The nest caught fire, the angry bees flew out and the nest tumbled down.
It landed on the little girls head and burnt her a lot but didn't kill her. I
remember the few times I saw her she had what can only be described as cheese
cloth skin. That's what it looked like to me.
The ice shack was a tiny pine box of a building with two
wooden bench "beds" built into the side and a tiny iron stove to keep the
fishermen warm. Mom heated stuff up on it. Most of us kids fitted into the two
bench beds and she and Dad and the baby slept on the floor. Sometimes I thought
Dad never slept at all but he must have. Looking back, I know it was a terrible
time and yet it felt like a grand adventure to me then.