Today is National Comic Book Day. This brings back so many memories for me. But my fondest memory of comic books, "funny books" as we called them, is my neighbor growing up, Gladys Swan.
Gladys and Walter didn't have any children of their own. But they loved kids so they kinda sorta "semi-adopted" us. They lived across from us on that old country road. It was nothing unusual in the summertime for us to ask Mom if we could go visit Gladys. The answer was almost always yes. We loved Gladys. She was like a favorite aunt that dotes on you. Of course, I'm sure the initial draw was the fact that she had one drawer in her kitchen that was all stocked with full size Milky Ways and Snickers for us to have when we visited.
But the thing that thrilled us the most was her stash of funny books. Gladys had a nice ranch house with a huge living room. In the middle of the living room was a fantastic oval braided rug. But the Piece De Resistance was tucked in the closet in the living room. Most people store coats or jackets in the living room closet. But not Gladys. Her closet was dedicated to funny books.
She would stack them in the floor of the closet, sorted by comic. There were always a ton from the Archie series. There were Dennis the Menace, Little Lotta, Dot, Sugar & Spice, and one of my personal favorites, Richie Rich. There were many others as well, plenty to wile away a summer afternoon with.
I can remember it so well. We would run across the road while Mom watched from the porch. Then we ran up Gladys's long drive way. She was always waiting at the back door with it held wide open and a huge smile on her face. She would always welcome us with hugs and that smile. We would go through the kitchen and stop at that candy drawer and get a candy bar. I always got Milky Way. Every time. Then we would head to the closet and dig through the stacks and pick out a pile of funny books that we wanted to read that day.
We would pile up on that old braided rug with our candy and our comics and spend the day. After awhile, the phone would ring and Mom would ask Gladys to send us home. I'm pretty sure Mom was glad for those breaks. With four kids under foot, she didn't get a lot of "me" time. Especially with it being summer and Mom didn't work, so she was always with us. But when Mom called, we put up our books and headed back home. Knowing we would be back another day.
Now, here are some fascinating things that I learned about myself when I sat down to write this post. Apparently, our early formative years DO make an impact on us a we grow up. To this day, my favorite candy bar in the entire world has been and always will be Milky Ways, even though I will stray and one will becme a new favorite for awhile, my Milky Ways are always still in the candy bowl. You will always find the candy bowl full at my house and are always welcome to share in my stash of chocolate. I still adore braided rugs and almost always have a couple somewhere in my house. Here I am at 54 years old and I still occasionally read an Archie or Rich Richie comic book. And my favorite movie to watch every Halloween is Casper the friendly ghost.
Gladys has been gone many years now. After Walter passed away, the property was sold and split up into a housing development. But in my mind it will always be that ranch house with the candy bars in the drawer and the funny books in the closet. Thanks Gladys for all the wonderful memories.
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