Notes About Childhood Events

Editor's Note No. 1:
Yesterday, after I finished transcribing Grandma Audrey's essay about the term "Senior Citizen," I turned the stapled pages over and found the following notes she'd written on the back of the last page. There was a list included in those notes, and many of the items on it had been crossed out. 

Not to get too technical, but the blog template I'm using for Audrey's Ambition doesn't accept the standard html code that would let me strike through the same words Grandma (I assume) did, so I've compensated for that by making those words red. 

Anyway, here's what she wrote:

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by Audrey Barclay

I lay awake a few nights ago recalling, in my mind's eye, other mem other events of my life in Stotts City, many of which I hadn't tho't [about] for years. Among them were these: Burning baby, funeral flowers, music lessons, scholarship, colt, cleaning cisterns, miner and the measles, country school. Walking typhoid -- 1st quilt top. Halley's Comet, inferiority complex -- Denver, Chester -- Halloween -- Who's what, and why in Mo. -- church activities, political -- schoolteachers. WW1 -- R.R. strike. WW2 -- dolls -- Hallowe'en in S. City. Grandma's knitting, caskets & wagon wheels -- strawberry crates. Writing -- Plays & other programs. K.K.s in 1920s -- Lillard fire -- Cherry St. farm. Division St. home. Mrs. Sears.

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Editor's Note No. 2:
I wonder if Grandma crossed off those topics after she wrote about them. If so, I wonder what happened to those stories. The topics intrigued me, so, in the absence of Grandma's version of events, I went looking to see what I could find on the Internet:

• Click here, then scroll down the page to the "History" section and read about Stotts City, Missouri, where Grandma Audrey grew up.
• It's probably not the exact "walking typhoid" story Grandma would have told, but Typhoid Mary was big news in 1908 when Grandma was a girl. Click here to find out more about Mary Mallon.
• Halley's Comet made a rare appearance in 1910. Click here to learn why Grandma might have thought this would make a good story.
• I Googled "wwi stotts city missouri" and was rewarded with a fascinating article about a World War I medal winner who lived in Stotts City at the same time Grandma did. His name was Charles D. Barger. Click here to read about him.

Okay, folks, that ought to keep you busy for a while.