(Incidentally, the Trevaskis house was the twin of the Rohrer house and was
built by the same contractor. However, Dr. Trevaskis was not the original owner of
his house.)
Mrs. Trevaskis was a dignified, soft, roundish woman with a cultivated way
of talking. She was a pianist and at one period was giving lessons to Alan.
Sometimes she let me watch during the lessons and I was duly impressed, for I had
taken a few lessons (from another teacher) and had got nowhere. I suppose she was
a good and understanding soul and had forgiven me for cussing her out a few years
before when she called me down for some transgression - justifiably, I’m sure. She
lived to be l00.
I was about five when my cousin,Pershing Rohrer, about seven-and-a-half,
came to live at the big house. It was then I began to have more fun indoors. Now I
could whisper secrets to another kid and giggle with him about the adults. In a little
singsong, which let everyone know it was just a game, we would comment on our
elders’ peculiarities:
“Ma always sings her church songs."
“Grandpap always wears that coat on Sundays."
“Nets (Aunt Jeanette) always says ‘Heavenly Father’."
Also “set to music" was our unconventional ways of coming down the
polished front steps - backwards, for example, or on our bottoms. We would sing Oh,
let’s go down this way, pretending it was the first time. Another jingle was Butter first
and then molasses, please -the way we wanted our bread to be spread for dessert.
Outdoors, Pershing took over the playtime leadership because he was older
than Alan. Our games now became more sophisticated and somewhat organized.
Pershing lost no time recruiting a few other neighborhood boys so we could play
cowboys.
One of the older boys would call out, “Let’s play cowboys. I’m TOM MIX!"
Herb: “BUCK JONES!"
Alan: “HOOT GIBSON!"
Billy: “I guess I have to be Fred Thompson again."
Tom, Buck and Hoot were the big movie stars then, so little Billy, youngest
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