One adventure which I participated perhaps with Tommy Thompson and Peter Beale was sneaking into Mrs. Lawrence's stables and seeing all the horses (Dan Ruby, were you there too?) We routinely disregarded all the "Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted" signs to walk through her woods at will and catch crayfish in her creek, but sneaking into the stables was something else again. Another interesting Green Valley Drive personality several years older than myself was Tom Ammons, or as we called him in Pig-Latin, Mot Sanomma. He was sort of a philosophical beatincky type; a bit like Maynard G. Krebs, if I recall. Tom Thompson was probably a year older than me and therefore closer to Tom Ammons (who lived 2 or 3 houses way from the Thompsons) than I was, but I sure admired his inflappable, almost existentialist hipster style.
Walter
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Mot Sanomma!! Oh, yes, I had forgotten that! What wonderful words and memories everyone has been pulling up!
ReplyDelete-Wendy
Who was with me the time we were snooping in the stables at the Lawrence Estate and Brownie (the stable master) entered? We ran up to the second floor and came out the door that opened to the curved cobblestone driveway, ran across the lawn, and hid under the corn crib (speaking of rats).
ReplyDeleteAnother time we opened every door at the stable. Behind the last door (at the end of the long arch way) was a man in an armchair smoking a pipe and reading the newspaper.
-Nancy
Walter,
ReplyDeleteRemember the "gold" buckets in the stables and the "gold" plates with the horses' names? Probably brass, but I thought they were gold.
My father always said that Mrs. Lawrence called the homes on Green Valley Drive "rabbit hutches."
Remember the wild dogs? My father, who was not overly protective, used to make us carry sticks we walked around a bend on winter nights (since the wild dogs were hungrier in the winter).
Do I dare tell you my memory of Tom Ammons? I was just pretty young when I heard him say, "Why fart and waste it when you can burp and taste it?" I'm sure he'd be thrilled to know that is how I remember him. His existential hipster style was quite evident to me when I got a tour of the solar house he and Janet built. I also remember the wonderful song he wrote with my brother, "These Are the Things I Keep under My Bed," to the tune of "These Are A Few of My Favorite Things."
Nancy
Tom Ammons still lives in Hampton near Poff School in a geodesic dome-like house. Tom
ReplyDeleteWe actually did a whole parody ala Mad Magazine of the Sound of Music. I still have all the words we worked up.
ReplyDeleteTom
Would love to see the lyrics!
ReplyDeleteNancy
Dan,
ReplyDeleteI think I speak for all Green Valleyans when I say, "This is terrific. Thank you."
Walter