The Adventures of Jennifer and Sherry: Summertime

By Jennifer Brogle

Follow the adventurous Naylor sisters, Jennifer and Sherry, as they explore their rural Kentucky life of wading creeks, climbing trees, exploring barns, and swimming at Lake Loraine. Experience the summer thrills of Dime Day at the Brodhead Fair, Fourth of July parade in Crab Orchard, and Vacation Bible School at Drakes Creek through the eyes of seven- and eight-year-old girls who truly enjoyed their humble surroundings. Enjoy reading about Jennifers bold inquisitive nature versus Sherrys congenial personality along with their fun-loving neighbors and cousins. Together, they demonstrate the fun of creative play and imagination building lifelong memories. Although these girls grew up with little monetary means and limited opportunities, they made the best of their circumstances in Preachersville and capture the essence of childhood innocence during the summer of 1974.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Feb 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9781466975590

Jennifer Brogle

Jennifer (Naylor) Brogle is the author of this charming and entertaining childrens chapter book filled with true tales of her childhood accompanied by her younger sister, Sherry. Now all grown up, both sisters are still residents of Kentucky, with Jennifer living with her husband and three children and Sherry residing with her husband and three children. Happily, they evolved into well-educated women and occasionally reminisce about their fond childhood memories.

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© Copyright 2013 Jennifer Brogle.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Created in the United States of America.

ISBN: 978-1-4669-7560-6 (sc)

978-1-4669-7559-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013900473

Trafford rev. 02/05/2013

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Dedication

Dedicated to the memory of my loving father,

Marion L. Naylor,

who laughingly enjoyed proofreading

the adventures of his mischevious daughters

before passing in Oct. 2011.

Table of Contents

Summertime

Almost Drowned

Saturday – My favorite day

Sunday School

Dripping Springs

Pappa Heisinger

Dime Day

Lake Loraine

An Amazing Fourth of July

The Picnic

Beans! Beans! Beans!

Vacation Bible School

Summertime

The first day of summer break was always exciting since school was officially out and I had the whole summer ahead of me, not to mention sleeping in a little extra each morning. It was the summer of 1974 and I had just completed the third grade and very glad to be out of school. Before brushing my unruly brown hair and peeling the sleep from my dark brown eyes, I usually enjoyed playing a silly trick on my little sister, Sherry, just to wake her. I didn’t want to be the only one up even though I knew my parents were up and preparing for their day. Since I shared the same full sized bed with Sherry, I would hold my face as close to hers and whisper silly things to her or breathe unusually strange noises to get her attention. When she gradually opened her eyes, she would jump since we were nose to nose. At first,she was mad and then she laughed softly , Oh Jenni, you scared me. With her sandy blond hair and blue eyes, I thought my little sister was pretty as a doll, and she was. Sherry would get me back another day to be sure.

We could hear mom and dad throughout our small white frame house getting ready for work. Dad worked at Whirlpool, a factory that made refrigerators, and mom worked at Palm Beach Co., a factory that made suit coats for men. We got dressed and gathered up our Barbie dolls since we would be spending the day with Mamma Naylor, our grandmother and babysitter. She lived in the small town of Crab Orchard which was just a few miles down the road from our little community known as Preachersville. Daylight was peaking over the hillside when we jumped in the family car, a blue Ford Pinto, and headed for town. My tummy was rumbling for something to eat as we sped down the road, however, a hot breakfast would not be waiting for us at Mamma’s, only Corn Flakes. My dad’s parents were divorced so Mamma lived alone and let us know that she didn’t receive enough money from Social Security to feed us very much. I was told never to ask for bacon and eggs which is what I really wanted. Sometimes we did get toast with butter and a little left over coffee with milk and sugar.

As the summer ritual usually began, Mamma would work in her little garden during the morning hours while Sherry and I would play in the back yard. Mamma could keep a watchful eye on us. She would hoe weeds between the rows of green beans, turnips, tomatoes, corn, and cucumbers while we gathered clover and made necklaces, rings, and bracelets to adorn ourselves with. When we had made plenty of jewelry, Sherry and I would find a comfortable spot under a shade tree and play hand jive games. Sherry’s favorite rhyme was See, see, my playmate while I enjoyed My father went to sea, sea, sea. We would start out slowly and build up a speedy tempo each time we played these games together. I guess you could say that after constant practice of these rhythmic common time games, we became very good and accurate with our hand movements. Sometimes when Mamma went inside the house, I would quickly climb one of her tall pear trees in the backyard just to see if I could get to the top and back down again before she came back outside. Sherry would be my look out and let me know where Mamma was in relation to the back door. Why do you like to climb her pear tree so much? Sherry asked when I had completed my climb. Because I can and because I’m not afraid to do so, I boastfully responded. Later that day, our nine year old cousin Stephanie came to play with us while her mother went on an errand. Sherry and I loved cousin Stephanie since she was funny