Wes & Hubert Robison Brothers at Play

Childhood memories, are such precious things. They ought to be filled with simple joyful things, like these two brothers shared. Tho sometimes they were naughty little scamps.

Grandma Lillie told stories of the kinds of things her boys got up to. How they climbed on the mink shed roof, and slid down, tearing their hands and clothes on the nails sticking out. She only found out, because they had to come up to the house to bandage the cuts on their hands.

Then there was the time Wes put a rope from the attic, which was up two stories, out the window to the ground for them to shinny down. Only the rope wasn't long enough, so he tied a length of wire in a knot to the rope, so they could slide down, only to once again cut their hands on the wire knot. These were typical boyish travails and no doubt there were many others, just these two seemed to stick in grandma's mind a lot.

There was of course Hubert's prank, of stripping all the pea pods of their pea's, but leaving all the pods on the vines for grandma to find, or Wes taking a can of tar and switching the label for one off a can of beans. Then he slid the can of tar, labeled beans, to the front of the shelf hoping grandma would open it, thinking it was beans. She kept pushing it back where it belonged, and the next time she went to the cupboard, there would be that can of beans out front again. It made her suspicious, and when she took too long to use it Wes finally confessed to the prank.

I don't think that there were two boys more suited to each other for the getting up to mischief, and tho grandma claimed, Wes thought up most of the pranks, I wonder?! It seems to me, Hubert had a very active imagination, as well as Dad.
Here are the boys, Hubert on the left, and Wes in shadow, riding a couple of old sawhorses. I wonder what the gadget is that Wes is holding? He always loved to tinker and was a wiz at all things mechanical.

I remember riding the sawhorses, when I was about their age at Grandma Lillies house, they very well could have been those very same sawhorses. But it wasn't long, 'round about when I was ten or eleven, step-dad, Richard Thomas, bought us the real thing, in the shape of two ponies. A tall skinny chocolate brown Welsh pony, named Brinky, and a short fat light tan Shetland pony, named Bronko. The latter being very aptly named. He liked to buck, even if it wasn't more than three inches off the ground. The stories I could tell about those two, and the run around they gave us children.These ponies were purchased, if I remember correctly, for my older sister Cheri, but I too rode them often, if not always well.

Brinky, the Welsh, was so bony he was like riding the ridge-pole of a roof, and Bronko, the Shetland, was so fat he was like riding a barrel. Both ponies loved nothing more than to rake you off on barbed wire fences, run you under the bar on our homemade swing-set, or run for the tall timber and try to rake you off on the nearest tree trunk or low lying limb. I am here to testify, that I experienced all of those things and more at one time or another from those two blasted ponies, and still can't figure out why I am not afraid of horses?! Maybe after being drug through barbed wire fences and dumped off repeatedly by those two, I just became immune to the fear of sudden death?!

I will also confess, that during the barbed wire fence incident, with Brinky, I gave him as good as I got. I don't recommend this, these days, but when he did this to me, with intent to injure, I jumped down off his back, punched him in the side of the head, told him to knock it off, and got back on, and rode away. He never tried to run me through a fence again. I don't know where those two ponies, picked up their bad habits, but I wasn't about to put up with it.

My recommendation is, to know the ponies you buy are well mannered and well trained before letting your precious darlings, ride them. We didn't have that luxury. If we wanted to ride, we had to put up with those two and their capricious wicked behavior. It's a small wonder that none of us were maimed or killed.
Here is a interesting picture of Hubert, he is wearing a child's size U.S. Army Uniform and looks to be carrying a very real single bolt action 22 rifle. The uniform had me puzzled for a time, until I found an advertisement for these things in an old time catalog from 1941-42 online. In it they sold all kinds of uniforms and other get-ups for kids. I wonder why Hubert decided on the army uniform? From the ones I saw, I would have gone for the Roy Rogers cowboy outfit, complete with chaps and six shooter. However, no doubt he was influenced by the start of World War II, and the price. His would have cost just a couple of dollars, but the Roy Rogers outfit cost more than 8. This would have been far more money than Grandma and Grandpa could afford.
I see from this picture that Wes has now got the gun and borrowed his brothers garrison hat, and Hubert is wearing a tin lid and also has a side arm. They both seem to be very well pleased with what they are doing, and I can only assume the rifle isn't loaded. I notice both boys are holding it properly, but boy have things changed. People would have a conniption fit if they saw boys that age nowadays, with an actual rifle. You can bet grandpa or grandma, were standing right there and the boys weren't really playing with it.

It reminds me of this picture of myself and my twin sister Linda, in front of Grandma Lillie's house, in Auburn, Washington. See Wes goofing off, and Hubert behaving so nicely?!
Linda on the the left, is clearly behaving, while, like my father, I am acting silly.
This picture clearly shows the difference between the two of us girls, when we were children. If you notice, my shirt is far from clean and my hat is festooned with crazy dingle-balls. Meanwhile, Sis is clean as a whistle and behaving in a proper manner, as befits a picture taking session. Hats off to you Sis, this picture always makes me smile. Can we say, strike a pose?! ha ha ha

Once again Grandma Lillie is taking the picture. It is in front of the house that she had in Auburn, Washington, that used to be an old country store, and sat at a, "T" in the road, across from the Grange Hall.



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