Part four

By CARDINAL CHARLIE GILL

Uncle Billy Shukert had an orchestra sponsored by the WPA.
Cart got free lessons from him and tales of war when Billy was a 10-year-old in the Prussian army.
He said Uncle Billy could play a mean drum.
Carson played a snare and Clair King a bass.
Frances Shellenberger had a nearly new cheap drum set, but he wasn’t very good and didn’t practice. He went swimming in the creek behind the Round Oak factory, got his foot caught in a tree root and drowned.
Cart’s buddy, Charlie Price, had one or more Model T coupes and Tom Clark had a 1932 Chevy coupe. They used to race around the triangle behind Clarence Paul’s store.
Charlie went too fast and tipped over. He either repaired it or bought another and painted it like a loaf of Wonder Bread with colored discs.
Charlie also had a Model A coupe with a rumble seat and spoke wheels.
The Larkin boys had an American Bantam, a little buggy, and guys used to pick up the rear end.
When Cart lived across from Richard Dillman, Dick had a Johnson-Smith catalog and they sent in for magic tricks, itch powder, handcuffs, etc.
He said I was in the picture for some of the tricks (this I don’t remember).
Fred Patchett’s mother did her best to make a sissy out of him. We kids used to lead him astray, crawling through anything to get him dirty. She sure didn’t like it and if Fred turned out okay it was no thanks to her. (I met Fred many years ago; he was a clerk in the Niles Sears store.)
Two doors down from Cart’s house was Earl Anthony’s dairy in the back of the house. He had a son, Howard, and two daughters, Doris and Janet (of course, I’ve written about Howard in my column several times).
Lisle Borders had an old car. In the summer he made runs to the lakes.  He charged kids 10 cents to ride on the outside on the running board. Cart said there was seldom room inside as he was dating Dot Leitz and she had to babysit her younger brother.
There were twin teachers, Miles and Giles Morton. Miles taught at the Oak Street school and was also Cub Scoutmaster. He was old and when they went on a hike, he drove and the kids walked.
Notre Dame invited all the Cubs to their first home football game.
Cart said he came out the wrong exit and was lost. Someone took him to an intersection, where a cop was keeping traffic moving.
He took Cart in a squad car with the flashing lights to where Cart was supposed to be, so it ended well for little Cub Carson.

“Cardinal Charlie” Gill writes a nostalgic weekly column about growing up in the Grand Old City.
Email him at cardinalcharlie@hotmail.com.