Something Like Catherine Catherine

Catherine Catherine lived three houses away from my house and her backyard didn't have a garage for the family car; they always parked their Chevrolet at the curb in front of their house.  I didn't like the Chevrolet because the wheels had discs instead of spokes.  My father's car had spokes. They had a barn in their backyard.  Catherine Catherine said it was for horses and hay; but she looked very sad when she said that.  I was sad too.  They had to sell their horse because they wanted to have the Chevrolet. Catherine Catherine told me that the barn had a hayloft and to this very day still had a bale or two of the sweetest smelling hay.  She said that her mother allowed her to bring her many friends to play in the hayloft although she didn't have even one friend, that's what she said.  When she said that, Catherine Catherine looked sad again, just like when she told about selling their horse. Anyway, I said I would be her friend, and that's how our friendship began. Every day, almost, especially when it was raining, we would meet at the barn and climb the ladder to the hayloft. Once Catherine Catherine brought a box of Puffed Rice from her mother's cupboard for a snack and I told her how my mother didn't ever buy puffed rice because she said it wasn't at all nutritious. Catherine Catherine didn't know about the word nutritious and neither did I, but when Catherine Catherine's mother found out that we had eaten all of the puffed rice, she was very upset with both of us and said we were not to eat puffed rice without milk, ever, and that it was a wonder that we hadn't died of choking. When we met the next time at the barn Catherine Catherine said that she was very sad because the barn was to be torn down and a garage would be built in its place! And that is just what happened the very next day! When the garage was built, it looked very important, all white with green trimming and a separate door for people and a large door for the Chevrolet. My mother and father said they were happy that the barn was gone but Catherine Catherine and I were sorry never again to have a hayloft for our meeting place.

Something Like Augusta

Augusta lived down the street well, really almost next door to me, above the grocery store.  I lived above the shoe store and shoe repair shop. We were inseparable friends, well, sometimes we were separable - like when she had to have a bath on Saturday night and I had to have only a quick shower, because the shower took more water and my mother said that that is what made our water bill so high, just be quick and soap yourself all over and rinse and out, then she would hand me a towel and my pajamas and send me off to bed. My friend Augusta told me that she soaked in their bathtub, it had legs she said, anyway, and there she would stay, on the slanting end of the tub; the other end had the plug and was not the least bit nice to sit on in your nakedness. Her mother let her sit and soak AND read a comic book for as long as she wanted to, well, not that long because her little brother was only four and needed his Saturday night bath too. That is the Only time we weren't inseparable.  Augusta my best friend.