Chapter Eight: The Melting Pot

Woodsdale had an incredible mix of people. Elsewhere in this blog you can read about the Home Dingers, they resided at the children’s home, and were a constant reminder things could get worse. Probably the winner for the scariest, and strangest character was some old bum type guy who sometimes walked down the ally just as dark fell. He dressed pretty shabby and carried a gunny sack over his shoulder. The story was he lived in this little shack down near the park. According to legend he had a penchant for killing kids. He never said anything, and no one knew for sure who he was.

Next door was Aunt Freeze. She was no ones aunt, but dressed in a black dress and sat in the window of the old decrepit house next door. She looked like some strange witch. When she finally died she left her outline in the mattress on the bed she had been in one place so long. Her son or whoever he was lived with her and always smoked a cigar. There was some story that they were related to a famous baseball player by the name of Freeze.

The next home up the street was occupied by an orthodox Jewish family. They were a strange bunch, and my sisters had to go and light their stove on the Sabbath and do other things they could not on holy days. There was a fair number of Jewish families living around us. The reformed temple was just about a block away, and as kids we often watched movies there.

Since Wheeling was an old town it had a few of every nationality. You name it we had it. It wasn’t until high school that kids started to realize everyone was not the same. I am always amazed how I slowly learned blacks were getting the short end of the stick. What ever we knew about discrimination crept up on us somehow. Our parents or no one else I ever knew acted racist, but as we got older and mixed with other kids the subtle racism began to emerge. Our high school was integrated, and always had been as far as I knew. It wasn’t until high school that I ever remember meeting a black kid. Most of the black kids went to Lincoln. Lincoln was the high school in town. There was a small mining community in Tridelphia and that is where the small number of colored kids, as was the proper nomenclature at that time.

There was a whole list of people like popsickle Pete who sold ice cream and illigal fireworks. Butcher Bill gave haircuts for fifty cents. Dr. Hanger was the old pharmacist at the drug store. There was a lady named Mary that was a fixture at the drug store. Sometimes Mary would extend credit up to a quarter. We got to know the bus drivers, and sometimes if you were stuck in town with out money they would give you a break. There was some guy a few houses up the street who walked to town everyday to work. Town was about four or five miles.