NEIGHBORS

   When Mama and I lived in Coronado I don't remember ever knowing any of our neighbors, maybe 'cause Mama never believed in being too friendly, and I don't remember knowing any of Grandma's neighbors in Navy housing though surely Grandma knew some 'cause she was always friendly. But once Grandma and Daddy moved to Imperial Beach and I got to go be with them all the time, I got to know all the neighbors. And after Mama moved there to the Little House, she broke her own rule and got to be friends with Mr. Hinkle, and I got to know him pretty good too. So after he died it just seemed kind of natural to be like Grandma and visit the neighbors. Especially 'cause a lot of them had kids my age.

    The Hancock's lived across the street from Grandma and Daddy, and they had four kids. Two of the kids, Kitty and their oldest son, were big kids like Leo and Annabell, but the other two kids, Jimmy and Roonie, were my age, around three and four. The Hancock's were from Texas and I think they were the first people to live on Donax Street. At least they were there, along with the Alstatt's, when Daddy moved our house over from the highway and they were the first to offer help. Mr. Hancock worked in his garage building things like cabinets and stuff like that for people, so he was around a lot to help Daddy. Mrs. Hancock was the only mother on the block who worked beside0s mine and Tony's. She worked at a place called Rohr, and she wore pants to work every day. Sometimes the rest of us kids felt kind of sorry for Jimmy and Ronnie 'cause their Mama worked, but they said it was more fun having their Dad take care of them during the day 'cause he didn't watch them close like their Mama would of if she were home.

    The Alstatt's lived on the same side of the street as Grandma and Daddy to the west. There was a big empty lot between us and them where sometimes Grandma would play baseball with us kids. The Alstatt's had a bunch of kids but the only one close to my age was Okie Joe. When we first moved to Donax Street I sometimes played with Okie Joe, and he came to my 4th birthday party at the little house. Mama got a picture of a whole bunch of us kids at that party and Okie Joe was one of 'em. But soon after that Okie Joe quit playing with us littler kids and started hanging out with his older brothers. All the Alstatt boys were bad boys, Grandma said, and it was no wonder 'cause the Alstatt's were poor white trash from Arkansas. Mr. Alstatt never worked, and him and Mrs Alstatt fought a lot when they were drinking. The boys were hardly ever home and their only daughter was mostly gone too, out chasing boys, Grandma said. Even though Grandma taught me to always call the grown-up neighbors Mr. or Mrs. and never to call them by their first name 'cause I was just a kid, before long everybody was calling the Alstatt's Old Man Alstatt and Old Lady Alstatt and us kids never got in trouble for doing it too. But all the same the Alstatt's were neighbors even if they were poor white trash and we'd all go to help them if they needed it just as fast as we'd go to any other neighbor. That was the way Okies and Texans did in those days.

    Norman Herman and her older sister, Viola, and their mother lived in a big white house with a high white fence right across the street from the Alstatt's. Mrs. Herman wasn't too friendly, and we all figured that was 'cause she didn't have a husband and was a Mexican. Norma used to get mad about that and say her mother did too have a husband - he lived in Spain - and her mother wasn't a Mexican, she was a Spaniard. Even though Norma hung out with me and Ronnie and Jimmy, we never got to know her big sister, Viola, or her mother very well. Her big sister was snooty and her mother was kind of strange. She didn't like us kids much 'cause we were rowdy and barefoot most of the time, and she didn't let Norma play as much as we got to. But still and all, when Norma could play she was just like the rest of us kids. In fact, sometimes she was worse. Once her and Ronnie got brought home by the police 'cause they'd been caught climbing on a big billboard over by the highway looking for pigeon eggs. Ronnie just got bawled out, but Norma's mother was real upset and she made Norma stay in the house for a long time after that. But they were neighbors too and Grandma said once in a while that she would go to help even them if they ever needed anything.

    Tony and his little brother lived with their folks a few doors up from Norma. Both their Mama and Daddy worked, and most of the day they'd just play out in the street. Grandma used to get kind of upset about that, but she said they were just poor folk doing the best they could to get by so she told them to tell Tony and his little brother to come to Grandma if they needed anything while their parents were at work. And they did a couple of times, too. Once Tony stubbed his toe real bad and was bleeding all over the place. Grandma doctored it up real good and put a big bandage on it that Tony showed off for days. After that, until they moved, Tony and his little brother were down at Grandma's house almost all the time during the day.

    Up at the very corner was a girl named Sandy who never played with us much 'cause she had polio and couldn't walk very well. But Grandma said the real reason she didn't play with us was 'cause her mother thought everybody else on the block was poor white trash. Sometimes when she talked about Sandy's mother she'd get real mad at the Alstatt's 'cause she thought they were giving all the Okie neighbors a bad name even if the Alstatt's weren't really Okies, but instead were from Arkansas. But then Grandma would kind of sigh and shake her head and say it didn't matter; they were still neighbors and deserved all the help they could get. Besides, the Alstatt's and the Hancock's and the Elsey's were all from about the same part of the country while the rest of the neighbors were foreigners or Californians. To Grandma's way of thinking, birds of a feather flocked together and, white trash or not, she was sticking by her own kind.

    For me, it didn't matter who came from where. All I cared about was having friends my own age to play with, and I had plenty. Me and Ronnie and Jimmy and Tony and his little brother and Norma when she could play were inseparable friends, and the seasons past fast as we played our way through the days on Donax Street.

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