Talking Snowman

Again we lived in Butte up on the hill by the School of Mines. Butte got a lot of snow and we were a little bored. There was a little girl who lived up a few houses from us named Annie (about 6 years old). We decided it would be funny to build a snowman around John and have him talk to Annie. We built the snowman, gave the the traditional nose, eyes, hat, scarf, etc. One of the boys went to get Annie. She came into the yard and was messing around, when the snowman spoke to her by name. She froze - the snowman spoke again and she ran. We laughed and laughed. We knew John had to be freezing by then, so we got him out by knocking down the snowman. In a couple of minutes Annie returned with her dad. The first thing he said was, "What are you Mabbott kids up to now?" We just continued to laugh. What fun!

Sledding

When we lived in Butte, my Uncle Errol used to take us sledding at Columbia Gardens with our cousins (it has since been torn down - shame). There were great runs that went under fences around curves and went for quite a while. We used to go in teams with the older kids taking the younger kids on their backs. John and Jim were going as a team. Again I don't know what possessed Jim, but he sat up right before they were going under a fence. It looked like a cartoon where the character smacks into something - goes up and straight down after hitting something. Jim was hurt AGAIN (nothing broken). I know it shouldn't be funny, but it was - even Uncle Errol thought it was funny. That ended the sledding trip.

Mumps

When we were growing up my dad loved holidays. Around Easter one year I brought home the mumps to everyone (I was always the carrier for all diseases contracted by the family). After I got the mumps so did all of my brothers born at that time (John, Jim and Jerry) and so did my dad. Bad I know. The doctor had to come to the house - dad could go nowhere (except the bathroom). Dad was really bummed because he couldn't take part in the egg hunt (he always hid the eggs). Mom decided that the way to fix the problem was to have the egg hunt in the living room where dad was recuperating on the couch. Eggs were even hidden in my dad's blankets. The hunt was a little limited, but dad got to take part and everyone was happy.

The knockout

I was watching my brothers while my parents were gone for the day. Jim and Jerry were teenagers and Fred was still a little guy. Jim and Jerry had been at each other all day and finally were actually fist fighting. I told them to stop it, but they were really mad at each other and just kept at it. I decided to make them stop and stepped in between them (very dumb!). Next thing I know Jim is patting my face and saying wake up, wake up. I am so sorry, don't tell dad. He kept saying that over and over. Apparently I stepped in just as he was throwing a punch and he knocked me out. Of course I never told, but they were angels the rest of the day.

Dish Partners

When we were growing up we didn't have a dishwasher until we were teenagers. Mom paired us up for the dinner dishes. Originally she had Jerry and John together and Jim and me. We thought this worked well because Jim and I worked fast, got the job done, and got back to what we wanted to do. On the other hand, John and Jerry played games with the soap and water and took a lot of time doing the dishes. One day mom decided that she had had enough of the game playing and decided to change the pairs for dishes. She almost lost a son! I was ready to kill Jerry. I just wanted to get the dishes done, but he wanted to play. This arrangement lasted about 2 nights and she decided to put us back with our original partners. Whew!

Adventures at Bloody Dick

We used to go camping a lot when we were kids at a place called Bloody Dick. John and I went fishing with dad one morning and at some point we wondered off and lost him. We decided in order to find him we should go up on the mountain so we could look down on the creek (very plush with overgrowth) to find him. We, of course, didn't want dad to know that we had lost him in the first place. So up the mountain we went. At some point John said, "Jo stand still - don't move." He sounded very serious, so I did what he said. Then he said, "When I say run - go as fast as you can back the way we came." Then he said, "RUN!" I ran. Later he told me that there was a rattlesnake just in front of him! What an adventure! We did later find dad just by following the creek. We never told anyone (until much later in life) about our little adventure.

When we lived in Butte, MT, mom bought us plastic covered mittens. We lived in a old house with a floor furnace. We had just come in from outside and were eating lunch when we began to smell something bad. Jerry had thrown his mittens on the floor furnace to dry (a habit from having mittens made from yarn) and the plastic had melted and was dripping into the furnace. What a mess - but funny! We were all laughing - except mom - of course. I still think it's funny!

Dangerous But Fun Game

When we had just moved to California from Montana we lived on a little culdesac in Baldwin Park. There were quite a few kids on the street and we immediately had friends to play with. John invented a game involving a bicycle, a trash can lid, and rocks. One of the kids would be on the bike with the trash can lid as a shield. That kid would ride past the other kids who of course were throwing rocks at them. The game was going well until Jim was on the bike and for some unknown reason dropped the shield, got hit in the head with a rock, and was bleeding everywhere. Of course at that point we had to get Mom to take care of the bleeding head. Needless to say, the game was OVER!