Once I get a memory in my head it leads to many others waiting in the shadows. If you have read the blog before this you will know a page out of my past, but just a small one. I only spent two or three years in the little town and then my father had saved his money and bought a large 50-acre farm with a wonderful farmhouse, a cottage, and a glorious barn for way under $1000. In the distance was a long, low chicken house. (My niece Nancy gave me the watercolor shown at the bottom of this essay of this wonderful place.) Wonderful once my mother and father got ahold of it and turned a disaster into a beautiful space. I remember weekends were always spent there in the brambles and neglect and then on Sunday going back to our other place to work hard on the jobs and to look forward to the weekend of work ahead. Then, after a year, it was done up and in we moved. The wonderful town of Malta/McConnelsville was a delightful experience with kind people and a tight knit community. I don't remember a mean person in all the years we spent there. He sold that place when I was in college for $13,000. That was a bargain.
I was just finishing up my 7th grade and wanted to take a Saturday in Zanesville before we left for good. I needed to make a purchase. I had saved my money, but it didn't cost a lot anyway, I needed my first bra and my parents were not into introducing me to the private things of life. I had to deal with those problems myself. I could do it because I was brave enough to fire my babysitter at the age of five and watch myself so that I would not have to suffer another witch like the one cast upon me. So off we went for the last shopping time in Zanesville. I headed for the Five and Dime to buy a bra...the smallest they had by the way. They are called training bras now and many girls get them way before 7th grade. The price tag read 69 cents and then it was mine. I wore it every day with pleasure even though I didn't really need it.
