This is about long ago, not today. You'll have to forgive me for going back to the Victory Flagpole now and then, but it was such a big part of my childhood. There seemed to be so much to do around there. For instance, the first thing I did every night after supper was to go out and run in wide circles over the grassy area around the flagpole. It was to get rid of all my excess energy-(I still haven't gotten rid of it!)
When schoolmates came over, we played all the childhood games there, from hide and seek and tag by day to "Starlight, Starbright, Hope to See the Ghost Tonight" by night. We also used the parkway as a baseball field when kids came over and we had great games.
Acrobatics were big out on the grass. We didn't have a gymnasium to practice in. We practiced on the park board's land. Classmates learned how to do cartwheels, somersaults and back flips, sometimes resulting in pain and a lot of grass stains. I have to admit we rode our bikes all over the grass too, and shame on us, but we didn't know any better. After all, there was no division of our property and the park board's and as I said before, we regarded the flagpole as our front yard.
These bikes later took us to far away places such as to the Camden pool in the summer, where we loved to swim (excepting for the mischievous little boys that pestered us) and to the wonderful Camden library. We were part of the summer program that inspired all the Camden youth to read more and gain a gold star for every book read.
A perfect place to rollerskate was on the blacktop sidewalks ringing the flagpole. Besides, there was the nice cement bench rounding the pole to sit on when we got tired. Years later we found this same bench was a good place to entertain boyfriends.
In the mid ‘30s my father had won a set of golf clubs and bag at work for selling the most refrigerators. My sister and I latched on to that gift right away! So where could we play golf? Ah, yes, up and down the green grassy areas of the Memorial Drive! Uncle Herman Nordby was a golfer, so he taught us the correct hand grip and how to hold the clubs just right. When lessons were over and we were on our own, we walked up and down the drive, causing untold damage to the lawn. Clods of dirt were flying and I sometimes wonder what the lawn caretakers thought when they saw the mess we made. One thing we knew was to replace the divits, in hopes that no one would notice! I belatedly beg their forgiveness! Another less damaging game was croquet. Aunt Henrietta Nordby, who lived in the house west of the flagpole, had a croquet set and put up the wickets on the green. She left the game up for days and everyone who came over was roped into playing it with us.
In wintertime, Grandpa Nordby would put up a snow fence across the flagpole area. The fence was a rolled up bunch of wood slats held together with wire, about 4 or 5 ft. tall and which had to be unwound to put out. I asked grandpa why he had to put it up and he said it was to keep the rabbits out. For weeks I kept looking for rabbits, but could never find any. Later, I found out the snow fence was to keep the drifts from blowing across the drive. One thing about that snow fence, though, when the snow came down and packed up against the fence, it made some nice little drifts which one could ski down. Therefore, we had our own little ski jump.
Oh yes, the flagpole holds a lot of memories. I don't think we appreciated it as much back then as I do when I think about it now!
