|
Family Stories and Trivia |
|
|
|
Stories by Emil Tayar |
|
RIDE OR CRASH Lawrence, George, Rod and Ralph were all very close in age, with a longer span between Ralph and me. This pretty much made me the tag-along and a definite target. One day in Piper City, George decided it was high time I learned how to ride a bicycle. The lesson started at the top of a hill where he sat me on the seat, pointed the bike down the hill and gave me a nice push downward. I remember crashing, but you know, I could ride a bike after that. Nice brothers I had! Circa 1921 WINE INITIATION Also in Piper City - age around 10, probably. Don't remember much of the details, but one day Dad, Lawrence and George were in the yard with a large jug of Dad's homemade wine. When it was ready to be bottled, it was done by siphoning with a tube and letting the wine fill the smaller bottles. By drawing on the tube, you would always get some wine into your mouth. I pestered them into letting me draw on the tube. End result: I swallowed wine, got drunk, and brothers and Dad really caught it from Mother. 1926 BAG SWING Also in Piper City, Rod and Ralph (yep, again) had a bag swing hanging from a large tree by the house. It was long enough to swing from one tree to another - probably 25' to 30'. A bag swing is nothing but a gunny sack filled with foreign materials, and you jumped from a platform in one tree onto the bag and swung to the other tree. I, of course, talked them into letting me have a go at it. They finally got me up on the platform, swung the bag from the other tree and told me to jump onto the bag which, of course, I missed, fell to the ground, and broke my nose. They took me to Dad's store and called the doctor who patched up my nose as well as he could. It was all worth it because Dad got me an ice cream cone and I got to spend the rest of the day at the store! 1925 SHOOT AND CARRY Again in Piper city, Lawrence used to go rabbit hunting in the winter. I remember asking him to take me along and showing me how to hunt and shoot. He finally gave in and one cold, snowy day we went rabbit hunting. Soon he shot a rabbit and hooked it on a belt on my waist. He shot another one and hung it on me. This went on until I was loaded down with dead rabbits . Finally we stopped and he skinned and gutted the rabbits, packed them in the snow and then we would do it all over again. After several hours of this we headed for home and he said, "now you know how to hunt". Nice to know my big brothers loved me so! I'll tell you one thing, though...they had fun with me, but you can bet no other kids picked on me!! DEFEND, OR ELSE Because my brothers were so close in ages and close as friends, they never had any problems with other kids who knew that to pick on one Tayar, you automatically had FOUR to deal with. We were always taught to walk away from trouble if possible - but defend your honor and family if forced to. I still had this lesson to learn: Between our home and the school lived a bully, Johnny Diddy, At times Johnny would chase me all the way to school and back home. I'm not sure which brother found out about it, but I think it was Lawrence, which surprises me as he was always so serious and more mature than the rest. Anyway, Lawrence took me to the barn and slapped me around pretty good. Then he told me he had hurt me more than Johnny could ever do and to go out and defend myself or he would really hurt me. Well, the next time Johnny started chasing me, I stopped - and he stopped - then I ran and he ran. Then I chased HIM all the way to school and all the way home, which ended that problem. This was a lesson that really came in handy, because every time we moved, I had to prove myself all over again. However, in Sayre, Oklahoma, I gained a good friend and neighbor by the name of A. D. Flowers who supported me in a fight or two. A. D., you may remember, ended up a well-known "special effects" man, winning an Oscar for his work in the movie "The Poseidon Adventure". You know, I believe I had some pretty good brothers at that....and the sisters weren't bad, either!! COMMENTARY: I'm told that Mother took the train with some of us kids from Piper City to Bloomington to visit Grandmother. When she arrived in Bloomington, she forgot me on the train and the train left without me. Don't know how it all was resolved - just remember the family talking about it… (An aside from Gracie): Can you imagine having five sons, with the oldest around 7 or 8 years of age, and with no help? Mother said, in looking back, she didn't know how she did it. She was quite a remarkable person. |
