Mrs. Miller

The year is 1951.  I am three years old. Here we are standing in front of the Brookside parsonage with Mrs. Miller.  She was our babysitter at the time and she lived two doors down from us on Brookside Avenue.  She and her husband lived in a small house that sat down in a little valley (low spot) on our block.  Babysitting was a natural fit for older women at that time.  With five kids in our family, a mature woman with parenting skills was a plus for a babysitter. My younger brother and sister were only eighteen months younger than me.  When they were born (my mom didn't know until the ninth month that she was expecting twins) the delivery doctor looked at my dad and said "You WILL take your wife out on a date every week."  This is how us kids got to know Mrs. Miller so well.  She was a great babysitter.  Bonus thought: At that time the topography of our neighborhood was rather up and down.  Our house actually sat at the highest point and the houses on either side of ours sat a little lower.  As kids we used to roll down the little hills that separated the back yards.  I remember our mom getting on us and saying we shouldn't roll into other people's yards.  Ahhh, but that was so much fun.  Hey, Mrs. Miller!  Rollin' your way.