PICTURE THIS 

CHAPTER 6 

We had a beautiful shiny golden oak player piano in our living room.  Mama kept it so clean and polished that it reflected like a mirror.  We had stacks of piano rolls and it was great fun to play them and pretend that my fingers were bringing forth all those melodies, especially when I disliked the piano lessons.  When it rained it was very interesting to play and see the reflections of the rain from the windows running down the piano front.  One day a cousin, Helen Medbourn, came to my home.  Her Mother and mine had gone to the Ladies Aid.  We got out the piano roll and started to play.  Somehow we pumped too fast or something and the roll got loosened up.  We thought we could take it off and roll it tighter.  This was not such a good idea as it kept rolling a little crooked.  Then we would unroll a little more and try again.  It kept getting worse and worse and we were trying so hared.  Finally we had the roll spread out through the hall and into the dining room.  Just about this time our Mothers came.  They were not too happy with the sight and we were not too happy either!  In fact, we were probably told to leave the piano alone when no one was there to supervise! 

One of my summer playmates was Virginia Hamilton, whose Father was vice president of Pennsylvania Railroad.  They had a big summer cottage and came with their servants to vacation.  Mr. Hamilton came often in his private railroad car, which was set on the siding behind the cottage.  He brought gifts to Virginia and me from the city.  One time he brought pogo sticks.  I learned to jump all up and down the block, go up and down steps and keep from falling off for quite a period of time.  They were great fun.  I remember going to dinner at their place and being attended by a butler.  I was quite awed by all this, but the butler liked little girls.  He would wink at us when Mr. And Mrs. Hamilton were not looking and it broke the tension. 

Virginia came to our house often to play.  She liked my playhouse even though she had one with two rooms instead of one.  Also she liked my bicycle and one day got me to let her ride to the top of a hill.  I was to ride it down then.  The bike did not have coaster brakes so the pedals went on revolving if you removed your feet.  The speed was so great going down the hill that I took my feet off the pedals and couldn’t get them back on.  When I neared the bottom of the hill, which went into Main Street, I couldn’t get slowed down.  There was a car approaching so I tried to turn onto the sidewalk going south.  The maneuver did not work and I ran into a big maple tree.  When I was able to get up and went to pick up the bike it fell in two pieces.  It was made like a boy’s bicycle with a bar between the two wheels.  Virginia and I were stunned and did not know what to do.  My Mother did not know we had taken the bicycle away from home.  I knew that she would not have approved.  Mr. Cook’s blacksmith shop was nearby, so we carried the front and back parts over there.  He thought maybe he could weld them together, but we would need to leave it there.  That evening when I was told to put my bicycle away I had to tell what had happened.  I was hoping to get it fixed first. 

My folks were not very happy that I had listened to Virginia’s plan instead of asking for an okay.  My Mother always said, “When you do something you shouldn’t, something bad will happen.”  It was a good lesson but gave me a lot of worry, especially when I took my savings to pay.  Mr. Cook said, “Oh, it was going to break me,” but he was just kidding