Llewellyn as Microcosm

The online dictionary that I checked, defines microcosm as 'a little world; a world in miniature' and that is exactly what Llewellyn was.  The street was a cul de sac with houses in a semi-circle.  As a result, we were able to play outside on the street (and on everyone's lawns) without fear as there were few cars. 

On occasion, we would each stand on our own lawn and declare it the country of our ancestry with fierce pride and not allow anyone else to trespass.  Our lawn was Ireland - and across the street was England with the Newtons - and so on around the circle.   This would only last a few minutes until someone brought out their skipping rope and all the girls would immediately cry 'never ender' and race for position.  We had special skipping songs that we chanted while waiting to jump in and join the intricate 'double-dutch' game.  Another favourite game was Yogi which entailed a long line of elastics (rubber bands) joined together, that you had to jump over in a variety of difficult ways - one foot, hands behind back, and so on.  The boys would run off to play baseball or road hockey - or fight each other - a popular pass time much to annoyance of the parents of the 'losers'.

This was a not an elite or wealthy neighbourhood, and most were poor and struggled hard to provide for their families.  I was perpetually jealous of the single child families (Chrissy Crawford who had more toys than the rest of the street combined, and Marlene Burke who was called Little Miss Sunshine by her parents because they said she looked like the girl on the Wonder Bread wrapper).   There was a sense of security knowing that the parents were keeping an eye on all of us and would discipline any of us if necessary.  Parents were omnipotent in those days and no one would dare to disobey our own or any other parent - unless of course it was worth the risk!

There were so many children on the street that there was always someone to play with - or get in trouble with.  Little cliques would form and then change or melt away.  My recollection was that everyone was my friend (to a greater or lesser degree).  There were some older siblings on the street who were not part of the gang that regularly played together.  They had a certain aura of mystery around them - we did not know what they actually did all day long while we were out playing.   They were, however, always available to step in and settle disputes if necessary but that was looked down upon as being unfair.  Once Bernie Burley threatened to call his older brother Wayne to beat me up if I didn't stop teasing him.   I had a huge crush on Wayne so the thought appealed to me.  I chased Bernie and he actually climbed a spindly little tree on their lawn and started crying (he was older and weighed much more than I did so I had no remorse for terrorizing him).  Instead of the hoped for appearance of Wayne, it was his mother who came to his rescue shouting 'Bernard, get down out of that tree'.  Bernard?  She calls him Bernard?  He never lived it down and when anyone wanted to tease him, all they had to say was 'Oh Bernard" and he would immediately start crying!

In the summer when we were all out of school, we played from dawn to dusk - literally.  My younger brother described it well by saying that each day seemed like three - there was the 'morning' - and the 'afternoon' - and then the 'evening' - and each seemed to last for hours and hours.  We had races, we skipped, we played hide and seek, we built forts, we explored the 'bush'  (a stretch of uncleared land that ran behind our street) to find sticks (handy for fights), or just to jump back and forth over the little creek at the bottom of the bush.

In winter, we skated down the hill to the ice rink in Central Park - or had snow ball fights behind snow forts we made, that went on for days stopped only by the need for lunch, or dinner, or dry mitts.  My mother had placed a dish drainer on the radiator in the kitchen where we put our mitts and hats to dry and which fell off regularly with a huge clatter.   There were no ski  jackets in those days and we all had to wear wool felt coats with hoods - even the boys.  Our winter gear would quickly become soaked along with our mittens and hats.  I had chapped wrists for most of the winter but it never stopped me from participating in the Homeric snow ball fights!

As one of the older children in my family, I was forced to care for the younger ones.  This severely cramped my activities and I was always trying to figure out ways to avoid having to look after my younger brother and sisters.  I would tie my younger brothers to the big maple tree on our lawn with their harnesses (yes, kids wore harnesses in those days!) where they would dutifully sit while I played with my friends.  It wasn't as bad as it sounds - there were other younger children who would sit with them or play games - and their harnesses were pretty long - I swear!