A story of my mom's childhood

In the last few years my mother has opened up and started telling me a few stories from her childhood.  She may have told me some of them in the past but recently she's been talking more openly about some of her life's childhood stories. 
Recently during our family reunion my grandson Ryker along with one of Gail's grandson's Emilio found some small bottles of craft paint and they had a hey day breaking the small bottles and smashing them making a paint splashed mess on our back patio.  My mom was here when this happened and was interested in if the little boys cleaned it all off, so when we talked on the phone tonight it was a topic of conversation that came up.    
This incident with Ryker sparked her to tell me this story of herself.  I wanted to get it written down before I forgot it, so I'm posting it on my blog to get it recorded for my kids.
As she began telling me this story I began to remember hearing it before but now that I'm older and wiser and I realize that I won't have her forever either I'm interested in writing these things down and having them for my posterity. 
She began with how there was a family the Walter Hoven's that lived down Hallowell Lane from where she was raised, which was also where I was raised as a child so I'm quite familiar with the area. This family lived about 2 blocks away and then you had to turn down their driveway which was about a half a block long to get to their house.  They had one boy who was 2 years younger than my mom, the same age as my mom's sister, my aunt Merie.  His name was Harley Hoven. My mom and my aunt Merie used to walk down there and play with their son Harley.  My mom said that she was about 1st grade age and she was old enough to know about and to have played a game called Jax at school each day.  This game is played with a small red ball and some little metal jax.  You bounce the ball and you have to grab one of the jax before catching the ball using only one bounce.  As you get all the jax picked up this way then you toss them out on the sidewalk again and you have to grab 2 at a time with a single bounce of the ball until they're all picked up, then 3,4, 5 in each single bounce of the ball until finally you have to grab all 6.  The first person to be able to do this wins.  Well my mom had played this at school but she had never realized that people could actually own a set of jax themselves, she thought they were just a game that the school had.  So she told me that when this Harley Hoven had a set of jax she was fascinated that he owned them but was especially fascinated with that little red ball, so after they were through playing it at his house she slipped the little ball into her pocket.
Later that night when she was home she was bouncing the ball and having so much fun with it when her mom asked her where she had gotten it.  She told her mom that Mr. Hoven had given it to her, but her mom knew better and she told my mom that she would need to walk down to their house and return it that very night.
It was pitch dark and Hallowell Lane didn't have any sidewalks plus the houses were spread further apart and people never left their lights on like they do now days.  My mom said she was so scared to walk in the dark the 2 1/2 blocks to their house.  She said that she walked slowly because she was scared to death and like petrified to be all alone in the dark and walking clear down to their house alone to return it.  When she got to their house she had to turn down their drive which was another half of a block long to get to their front door. 
She said that she knocked and was so happy when Harley's mom opened the door and she was able to return the ball. She told me that his mom just said to her, "thank you, he'll be glad to have this back because he needs it to be able to play the game."  So then my mom turned to walk back home and she got out to the main road and saw something move in the dark near her.  At first she was so scared but then she realized it was her mom and that her mom had followed her all the way there to make sure she would be safe.  She said that she was never so happy to see her mom and she ran to her as fast as she could then happily skipped all the way home.
She told me it was one lesson she's never forgot, "never take anything that doesn't belong to you."  and it's been more than 70 years ago since that day, but she told me that she can still remember her feelings and the lesson she learned just as clear as if it had happened just yesterday.
So now this brings me to what happened here with my grandson Ryker and Emilio.  Both of them had to pick up all the tiny pieces of glass by hand and with a little scraper dig up the excess paint as best they could, then they had to scrub with sponges that have the scratcher side on them and we had to use paint thinner on the concrete.  We never got all the paint off but we got it somewhat better.  Both boys worked with a good attitude and Gail's other grandson Abrahm, who didn't even have anything to do with it came down to help clean it up too.

Grandson Ryker scrubbing the paint mess he made.

Ryker and Emilio

We all hope it was a good lesson learned and that they'll remember not to do anything like this again.  My son Tyler who is Ryker's dad supervised the cleanup and got some pictures of them.  I had to laugh about it all because I remember our oldest daughter Traci throwing mud and smearing it on a neighbors garage door one time when she was about the same age.  The neighbor called us and we had to take her and the other little boy who had helped and make them scrub it all off too.  So all kids do things like this and it was just another Idaho memory for my grandson Ryker.