Sally Louise and Her Friends

By Sharon Young

Sally Louise makes lots of friends as they do things together from making doll houses to give to less fortunate Allegheny girls at Christmas to climbing a tall mountain. Her closest friends become a "Gang-of-Four," but her best friend is always Greta. Sally likes Peter a lot, but sometimes he doesn't have a clue. Greta seems to be sweet on Tommy. But Bud, Sally's brother is her go-to friend whenever she is in a dilemma.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781365357923

Book preview

Sally Louise and Her Friends

Sally Louise:

And Her Friends

Sharon Young

Copyright c 2016 by Sharon Young

All rights reserved

This book or parts thereof may not reproduced in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

ISBN 978-1-365-35792-3

Cover design and illustrations by Sharon Young

1

Mama had her baby girl, and they named her Hannah.  Now I have a sister just like Greta, my best friend has.  Hannah is so soft and sweet.  I'm pretty sure she is not like me, but that makes it even better.

I learned how much baby powder is needed.  Hannah needed powder after her bath and any time Mama wanted to freshen her little body.

I also learned that little babies like to be held in a blanket close in our arms.

She was anxious to walk early like the rest of us Wilson’s.  She was crawling by the time she was six months old and walked when she was eight months.

Yesterday Hannah stood up for a second, and when she realized she was standing, she looked down at her feet and sat down right away.

I said to Daddy and Mama, Her cute little toes are so adorable that I want to polish them with a bright azure.

Mama said I would have to wait for that.

She said.  We have nail polish, but if you tried to put it on Hannah, it be would be all over the floor and all over you.

So, I will wait.

I have been tutoring one of the girls from the fourth grade in Math.  She lives in the poor section of the Alleghenies.  She’s a nice girl with curls and fair skin.

Sometimes after the study, we go out on her trampoline, and I get my exercise and have fun at the same time.

After we finish, her older sister brings us some lemonade.

I think I might want to become a teacher.  I enjoy watching someone learn with the delight of mathematics. I also want to be a nurse.

I wonder if I can do both.

My best friends are eleven going on twelve.  Greta is going to a private school this year.  I take two classes at her school on Fridays so we still see each other almost as much as we did when we were in the same school.

Greta and I keep our closeness, but we let Naomi be part of what we do and Jasmine is our new friend.

We collect leaves and field flowers.  We make decorations to give to our families.

We whisper about boys when Greta and the rest of our crowd spend an overnight in my attic bedroom.

C:\Users\Jeffery Young\Desktop\Documents\Sally Louise3\images\gang of four a.jpg

Greta, Naomi, Jasmine and I walk together through the Alleghenies to Mansfield.  We love to shop and go to the Dairy Bar for vanilla, chocolate or cherry Cokes.

A couple of my ballet dancers have become friends in the Dairy Bar. We put coins in the Juke Box and play The Dimensions, The Newsboys, Adele and others.

We dance to the music and sing sometimes.

Greta whispered into my ear, Those girls that don’t live in the Alleghenies don’t even know the latest music.

I whispered back, They are out of touch.

After we had our Cokes, we met Peter, and the three of us went to the women's small clothing shop on Main Street.  We let Peter spend time with us.  He’s friendly and cute.

We had fun trying on different dresses.  We each bought a scarf which is mostly all the money we had.  Peter just watched.  He said, How long does it take to pick out one scarf, and what do you plan to do with those scarves.

We stared at him as if he was nuts.  Guys just don’t get girls.

When we were finished, we went to Smythe Park and sat on the grass and made plans for our next project.  We always work to earn money to have gifts to give to poor girls at Christmas, and we are trying to decide what we should do this year.  It was hard to make decisions.  There are so many needs.  We lay on the grass and looked at the sky that was more blue than usual.

Look Greta, I said.  There is a white contrail from the plane.  It stretches all over the sky.  Maybe it’s a jet.

Then we studied the clouds, and we watched them fall into faces and animals.  Naomi saw an angel.

Last night, I asked Mama to join me on the porch.  I was interested in what she did when she was young.

I said, Mama, did you have much fun when you grew up with Grandma and the rest of your family?

It was difficult, Mama said.  Our country had many problems in our early years for my father to have a job that paid very much.  I used to do what you are doing.  I baby sat with families, and I used some of it to buy clothes or to go bowling.  I loved bowling.  I still do.  That’s where I met your father.

Mama, what did he look like when you met him?

Oh, he was cool.

Cool?

He had his hair spiked, and he wore a jacket that was grey with the collars up.  That doesn’t sound like a good way to fall in love with a boy, but I liked him a lot.

What did he do to earn money and take you to a movie or watch TV?

"He helped a farmer plant seeds in the early summer and gathered up the hay in the season.

"I liked another boy who was Billie.  He was tall, and he had bright red hair.  I remember once when we were walking to the Allegheny Park, he helped a squirrel that had fallen too far to the ground.  It was shaking and crying out.

He put it in a paper bag that he had brought along for our picnic.  Billie tried to save it, but the squirrel died.

I had the funniest feeling about Mama having a boyfriend and had fun like I do.

Did you do daring things like riding a bike with your hands off the handlebars?

Sally, is that what you do?

I didn’t answer.

Sally Louise, why are you asking these questions?

"I don’t know.  I just want to know what you were like before you were my mother.

"I’m still trying to write a short story.  I thought maybe I could figure out what to say, and I thought maybe you would tell me something that would make a short story be interesting.

When did you fall in love?  I said.

I was in love more than once.  There was a blonde guy who lived across our street.  He and I would take long walks and climb the Alleghenies.  We would walk downtown in Mansfield, and sometimes stop at the pet store.

Did you like kittens like me?

Yes.

What was its name?

The cat or my boyfriend?

She slapped me a little.

"I gave up because he was shorter than I.

C:\Users\Jeffery Young\Desktop\Documents\Sally Louise3\images\cheerleaders a.jpg

John.  He was my boyfriend, and he was always combing his hair.  I remember once when he and I walked along the Mansfield River.  He jumped into the river and hit his head on the rocks.  I felt sorry for him, but I didn’t want a show off for a boyfriend.

Did you go to football games in the park?

I have something to say you might be interested in.  My friends and I went to the games.  Two of my friends were twins, and they were cheerleaders.  In fact, sometime when I can find it, I’ll show you what they looked like.  I saved a picture of them for my photograph collection.

Mama pinched my cheek.  You need to find your own stories, or they won’t be original.

The trouble is that I don’t have many things to tell or write.  I haven’t lived long enough, I said.

"When did you start thinking you can’t do anything that you want to?

"You and Greta and the others have almost made something of a business.  When you are ready to make some money of your own, you will need a story that will be interesting to other people.

Imagination is really what stories are all about, Mama said.

Where can you find it?

It’s out there, Mama said.

Mama asked me to go across the yard with her and see the house that Daddy had finished making for us.

We trudged though the leaves and opened the front door.  It was red with some wooden panels placed around it.  We went into the house

Something didn’t feel right.

Sally, do you like this?

I’m not sure.  I didn’t think he would paint the living room yellow.

Wait until you see upstairs, Mama said.

We walked up the stairs, but they weren’t finished yet.

I didn’t say anything because the way Daddy always talked