Dan and Arlene Obillo and their three sons, Keith, Kirk (also called Steve) and little Ricky, lived on Elm Street in Hanson on a nice piece of property in a very nice house. Dan was from the Philippines, I’m not sure where Arlene grew up; she was a nurse at Brockton Hospital and a very attractive lady with a good sense of humor. Dan was also a furniture maker and upholsterer and made beautiful couches and chairs for their home and also a long and comfortable lobby sofa with a nice back rest to sit and relax on in his barber shop. His son Keith and I were about a year apart in age, me being a year older at age eleven. Keith will always be one of the nicest boys I knew, and a good friend. He was quiet, didn’t talk much unless he really had something to say, and we both liked listening to music. He had a nice radio, that wasn’t too big, that he carried with him and his father let us come into the barber shop many times because we behaved and were quiet. We sat on the lobby sofa that could seat quite a few customers, where Keith played the radio very low while we read comic books, drank soda, and watched customers come and go inside the barber shop.
One nice September day after school, when a few of us were playing in the Obillo’s yard, Keith’s mom was baking cakes. They smelled so good, we ended up peeking in the kitchen window and Arlene invited us in. There on her kitchen counter was a two-layer pink cake and one two layer light brown cake. She asked us if we’d like to have a piece of cake. Her three sons said yes and so did I, Larry Fest, and Preston Brine, two of the neighborhood boys. They were two of the most delicious cakes I ever tasted. When I asked what kind they were, she told us the pink frosted one was a cherry cake and the light brown frosted one was a peanut butter cake. I was amazed, I’d never heard of cherry or peanut butter cakes. All of a sudden, Larry, Preston, and I heard our whistle signals; we knew we had to go home. Arlene asked what it was all about. We told her the Hanson Police had given all the moms on our street a big, white police whistle and each one had a different signal so us kids knew when our moms wanted us. Arlene smiled and said she’d have to get one; I’m pretty sure she did.
One late Saturday afternoon in September, when several of us were in Obillo’s yard with Keith and Kirk, we found a big hole filled with water that we had never seen before. We looked at Keith and Kirk and they shrugged their shoulders as if to say they hadn’t seen it before either. To our delight, it was filled with big brownish- colored frogs. We were so excited. We carefully lifted them out of the water and set up frog races on the grass away from the hole. My sister Penny and I were the only girls there with Keith, Larry, Kirk, Preston and our cousin, Buddy. We were having the best time when Dan came out of the barber Shop, very upset and yelling at us to stay away from the water hole because it was part of a septic system that he was working on! When we heard that, we were very glad we had taken the frogs out of there. As we moved the frogs into the woods near a pond we knew about so they’d be safe for the winter, Dan was so upset he began to yell at us in Filipino; we had no idea what he was saying. Arlene stepped out into the yard calling to all of us to go home. After we took care of the frogs, we all ran for home. When Penny and I got home, our mom told us Arlene called every mother to let them know the water in the hole was not contaminated, it was new, and Dan was in the process of bringing a cover out to put over the hole when he saw us with the frogs. We all got stern lectures from our parents about being old enough to know about staying away from a water hole. All of us were grounded for a week and couldn’t go out of our yards.
In the spring of the next year on April vacation, we all were in each other’s yards. The Fest’s yard had a flat sidewalk and also an area of packed down dirt where we played marbles. That day, three of us won a game, Johnny Fest, Glen Fest, and Penny. I still have my marble collection, including the cat’s eyes. After a game of tag and dodgeball, we all got bored and went into my cousin’s yard which was next door to the Fest’s. My Ibbitson cousins were all boys. Their dad worked for Coca-Cola and he dumped a nice truckload of sand in his yard for his sons. We all helped make a village out of sand with all their Tonka trucks. I liked it because my dad was a bulldozer operator and I loved going to work with him, riding on the dozer; he made it purr like a kitten. When we were helping to make the sand village, it was inevitable that someone would mess up someone else’s work without meaning to, a fight would break out, and kids would leave. Those of us that stayed did get the job done and were proud of all the little buildings and roads we built out of sand.
It being April vacation, it seemed all our moms were busy visiting one another with all the little ones and most of us ended up at Keith and Kirk’s. On the left side of Obillo’s yard away from the house, was a spacious piece of land that bordered the woods. I started walking around, looking at the trees and went to the far end of the yard. I kept staring at the trees and looking up. Johnny was beside me and I said to him that we should be swinging from the trees. He was thin and lanky. He grinned at me, reached up to a branch, and started swinging from tree to tree, yelling and laughing. I was next, and before I knew it, all of us were swinging from tree to tree. The forest had several specific tree species which allowed us to safely glide from one to the next. When I reached for a branch that was closer to the street, I saw a familiar car go by, then I saw five more and realized all our mothers were driving around looking for us. I decided to keep on swinging for as long as I could. About five minutes later, all six cars pulled into the Obillo’s driveway and I saw all our mom’s get out of the cars and I could see that our baby brothers and sisters were in the cars. I kept swinging. I was waiting for them to all pull out their whistles but they didn’t. Three of the mom’s stayed with the cars and three walked over to the edge of the woods, waving us down. Slowly, we all came down out of the trees.
We followed the three mom’s back to the cars, expecting the worst. The worst didn’t happen. The only thing that was said was that if we ever did this again, not only would we not be allowed to come here, but it could cause serious problems for Arlene, Dan, and all of us. We all promised and we all kept that promise. However, when we got home our dad’s made things exceedingly clearer.