Little Roof Jumpers

Chapter 18 Privilege & Slumming It

Mattie and Catty attended Greenland grade school, in prestigious Greenland Park across the street from our neighborhood. The homes in Greenland Park were ornate and large. Most all the family's belonged to the Country Club. The city widened Ruby Lane so that the children in Greenland Park could ride safely to the Country Club where they could swim and play golf or tennis. The city also built a bicycle bridge in Greenland Park so the children could walk or ride their bikes across the ravine that ran through the middle of their neighborhood.

The GP kids were privileged and they knew it. They rode their bikes to the neighborhood grocer or pharmacy and soda fountain, charging their purchase to their parents. We gazed in awe at the beauty products, candy and sodas their parents paid for while we paid for our own bottle caps and penny candies. We all wondered what it would be like to live in one of those magical homes with their housekeepers and beautifully manicured lawns. Their parents weren't around much so their homes along with the bicycle bridge were open to our weekend boozing or make out sessions when we got older.

We loved the park pool but the water was cold and the broken cement deck was not a comfortable place for us to put down our towels and sit in the sun. The bathhouse we had to walk through to get to the pool was dark. The cement floors were slick and slimy and the bathrooms had wet toilet paper stuck to the floors. We walked through to the cold footbath that opened to the pool at our own risk.

A trip to the concession stand meant another run through the cold dark bathhouse but once outside the sun felt wonderful on our shivering bodies that were covered in goose bumps. Navigating the hot cement in our bare feet and side stepping to avoid the hot gooey gum stuck to the sidewalk or the ants that had gathered around an ice cream cone was just part of our daily summer park pool fun.

Even though we loved all our friends at the park pool, the three of us wanted to be lucky enough to belong to the Country Club with its beautiful amenities. Every once in a while when we were ten or eleven we would try to sneak into the Country Club pool using a name of a member we knew. After a dive or two in the pool, one of the Greenland Park kids would point us out and tell a lifeguard. We would then be escorted off the premises. The Country Club was so close to our homes. The pool was heated and it had chase lounges near the pool. Who wouldn't want to belong? I would ask my father why we couldn't belong and he would explain it was too expensive. I use to ask my dad what kind of job the other dads had that they could afford a country club membership. Sometimes I think I offended my father by asking questions that embarrassed him or made him feel indicate. I didn't mean to make dad feel bad I really wanted to know how we could make enough money to belong to such a great place as the country club.

After dinner we played in our neighborhood or rode our bikes across the street to Greenland Park so we could hang out at the bicycle bridge. There was a group of boys on Orange Crates and Sting Rays that acted as if they owned the bridge and would block one end so we couldn't pass. They were defending their territory and we were the girls from the wrong side of the street. One day I suggested why not ride to the bridge in the afternoon when Beeb's and his gang were at the Country Club. So that was exactly what we did.

During the day while the rest of us neighborhood girls went to the park pool, Karin and her little brother went to the country club. Karin took me once to the country club pool and that was when Beebs and his buddies noticed us as something other than the girls from the other side of the street. Once in a while they came to the park pool and played tag and try to drown us. Secretly we loved the attention and knew we were welcome at the bridge for an evening of fun and adventure.

As we got a little older and entered junior high school, things began to change Mattie and Catty were cheerleaders at their junior high along with another girl from Greenland Park, Gracie Ford. Gracie was seventh of eight brothers and sisters Beeb's was one of her older brother's.