By Staff
A strange thing happened to old Charlie not too long ago.
It was on a Sunday morning as I was looking at the obituary notices in the South Bend paper.
It is a common thing I do, just to see if my name is in there (ha ha).
I was really quite surprised to see a picture of Juanita Townsend, who used to be a next-door neighbor of mine in 1944.
Back then, the Raymond Townsend family consisted of four children – Serena, Richard, Billy and Loretta.
They were some of the cutest kids ever, and my mother and I thought a lot of the Townsends.
They built a new home on the corner of Division and Clarke streets and left Orchard Street, to our regret.
In the obituary I saw where the oldest girl, Serena, lived in Mishawaka, Ind. I made a call to her and she was so surprised and glad to hear from me.
She told me her mother had been cremated and would be brought to Dowagiac for burial at a later date.
I told her to let me know and I would be there for the burial service.
Serena let me know later that it was to be on Saturday, June 17, 2006.
It was a funny thing, but right after I had the call from Serena, I had a call from another of my readers, Sharon Hippensteel, and I was telling her I had just talked to an old neighbor girl who had lost her mother.
When I said it was Mrs. Townsend, Sharon said when she used to live on Prairie Ronde, next to Murphy's Greenhouses, she and Serena were friends and she used to come over to the Townsend house and play with Serena.
Peg, Sharon and I were the only non-family members at the burial service.
After the family moved to Indiana, I lost track of them and didn't know Mr. Townsend had died and was buried in Dowagiac.
She said when she and her mother used to come to Dowagiac, they parked in front of our house and her mother would reminisce about when they lived next door. Of course, they didn't think I still lived at 611.
If they had only come to the door, they would have been surprised to see me with a wife and two boys.
One sad thing happened after they moved to Division Street.
Their youngest son, Billy, drowned by the cemetery bridge.
I was so happy to see Serena and Loretta and their sister Carol, who was born after they left Orchard Street.
I told the girls I have so many good memories of their family as neighbors.
Little Billy and Richard used to lie on our front-room floor and give our little fox terrier Trixie competition as he ate his little dog biscuits from Flemming's Feed Store.
I remember once when Juanita got her arm caught in the wringer of her washing machine.
I told the girls their father's favorite singer was Jo Stafford.
I also remember Raymond showing me how tight he had to roll his clothes to put in his duffel bag when he was home on leave from the military.
I told the girls I have five or six pictures of the family and would like them, when possible, to come for a visit and talk of the good old days.
I'm sure looking forward to this visit.