Carroll Boys: The Courting Years (mid 1980's)

I got started at King's College just when your Dad was finishing there (he took classes part-time my freshman year). In the meantime, Dad was hired to work as an insurance agent at American General Life Insurance, probably in 1983. Here are memories from this time.

Living with my grandmother Phyllis Rivers (your GrandNana) worked out well, she was a sweet lady and extremely generous to me. Her home was at 21 Lehman Ave, just a short distance from where Aunt Pam now lives on Davenport St. I learned a lot of family lore during the years I was there, including about the McCausland and Walker families in Webster, MA and older generations of my grandfather's family in Cambridge, MA and St. George, ME.
I did not have a car (remember, my family didn't have extra money and to my knowledge didn't help any of us kids get vehicles). The LCTA is the reason this entire arrangement worked. I took the bus back and forth from Dallas (route 6) since my grandmother's house was 2 blocks away from the 5-way intersection in Dallas - you know, the one with that now has a roundabout. The bus went to Wilkes-Barre public square, where King's College was 3 blocks away. Also there was a bus from Wilkes-Barre to West Pittston (route 11) that went across Market Street into Kingston, then north on Wyoming Ave where I got off at 7th St in Wyoming, 1 block away from Dad's house. It was fine especially since I was accustomed to public transportation.
Dad did have cars. He spent a lot of time driving back and forth to Dallas, let me tell you!! When I first knew Dad, he had a boat-sized Mercury Montego (rust red) that had previously been a Maryland State Police car and he got through Uncle Melvin. Uncle Melvin worked as a mechanic for the state police. Dad was not happy when I accidentally knocked over an open bottle of Grandma's home-made dill pickles and his car smelled of pickle juice for a few weeks. Also, Dad had a cool sports car he used in good weather only - a Triumph that previously belonged to Jimmy Rogers. (You can ask Jimmy or Sheri about it.) As you'd expect, quite small and low to the ground. Fun except I could imagine tractor trailers literally flattening us. Later, Dad's first new car was an efficient Renault Alliance (metallic blue) that he brought in New Jersey. After I graduated, my first car was a small sedan given to me by your Grandma Carroll i.e., when she got a newer car. I can't remember what make it was, and by the time I was 22 I was really happy to have a car of my own.

Mercury Montego, June 1984:

The Renault, in front of GrandNana's house - June, 1984:

Dad had a Sunday newspaper route. This may seem odd, but he had been delivering newspapers since having a daily paper route as a kid. Also, remember this was pre-internet so many people had home delivery of newspapers as a primary source of news. Once Dad was driving, he got a Sunday paper route delivering the Sunday Independent (which discontinued publication in the 1990's sometime), the Pittston Dispatch and out-of-town papers like the Scranton Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, and NYC papers. I remember the Daily News and NY Times. This was quite a business - people would leave money under a mat or in the mailbox, so typically there was no need to collect at another time. Initially, he had routes in Wyoming and West Wyoming/Toy Town. Eventually, he ended up with just the Toy Town route, which continued into our early married years. So guess what this meant? Getting up at 6:30 am on Sundays, getting started around 7 and delivering until 10:30 or so. It was ok except when weather was bad, especially rain or extremely cold/snowy. So I typically stayed over at Dad's house Saturday night (slept on the couch) and helped him. Besides black ink on hands & clothing, one of the other problems was getting away, since it was not easy to have someone else deliver the papers. Our most faithful "backup" carrier was Uncle Jason. yes, really!

Here's a picture from Atherton Ave, Wyoming in winter, 1984. The house in the background is on 8th Street, the house where Jim & Kevin live and you guys have gone for hair cuts:

We spent time on the weekends with friends from King's, and as time when by with friends that Dad met at American General. One special thing we did was coordinate canoe trips. College friends would come and often Aunt Julie, Aunt Di and Uncle John would come too - which meant staying over in Dallas or in Wyoming. The canoeing was based from Camp Lackawanna, since Dad and I knew the caretakers there (Don and Alice Kocher, who I still talk to occasionally since they are members of Trinity Presbyterian in Dallas). Don had been my boss when I was the camp maintenance person, so I had known him fairly well. We rented camp canoes, which Don transported up the river on a trailer pulled by the Camp truck - typically to Laceyville. We paddled back to camp, which took a good part of the day and included stopping for lunch at a public river access next to the Mehoopany bridge. These trips were usually on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend - the river water tends to be higher in the spring, which is helpful for a longer trip. Lots of fun.

This picture is probably at the Mehoopany boat launch - May, 1984:

Over the summers, we would go camping. One favorite spot was at Assateague State Park in Maryland, about half an hour from Ocean City. You should remember crabbing (dropping lines baited with chicken pieces into the bay) at the park's "Old Ferry Landing" dock - we typically went over each time we spent a few days in Ocean City MD. Sometimes Dad and I camped locally, like at Hickory Run State Park with Cindi and her boyfriend Dennis. Dad loved to travel. He tended to put off coming home as long as possible, as your Grandma said to me "he'll stay until the last bell rings!". Dad could drive for 10-12 hours a day without getting excessively tired (which I think is unusual). One particular trip I remember was to Tennessee where we camped near the resort town Gatlinburg and the Great Smokey Mountains national park. It was hot, humid and beautiful - interesting to visit (the Gatlinburg area was much less developed than it is now).

These pictures are from camping at Assateague during the summer of 1984. The wild horses would eat almost anything that was left out, including ketchup packets.