Precious Memories

A true story, by, Ron Doring
Part 1 

It was sometime around the summer of 1960, when the Nix's moved across the street from us. This was at our first little home in Corpus Christi, on Moravian drive, before we moved over to our second home there, a two story house over on Panama street. Sadly, the Nix family was a broken one, and so it was just the mother "Nelda Nix," and her teenager son Larry.  And at that time the Nix's were the only family I had ever known, who had been divorced. And boy, how different a world that was back then, than the oh so sad one we now live in, where in many cases, many Kids now probably only know or a family or two that has not been broken up by divorce! Anyway this meant Mrs. Nix worked hard, long hours to try to provide a living for her self, and for her only son, Larry. I think she was a waitress somewhere. But wherever she worked, she worked long hours, because she was never at home during the day, and she seldom ever got home before five o'clock in the late afternoon.
Mrs. Nix was a tired, careworn, kindly looking lady, probably in her late 30's or early 40's. But she was one of those naturally thin ladies, and she smoked as well, so, I think she might have been a few years younger than her actual appearance told. But looking back on it now, I realize the little Nix family was as poor as the proverbial, "church mouse". As such, their furniture was sparse, meager, old and fairly worn out. But I did not pay much attention to such things back then, being so young. I would have been between the ages of 8 and 10 years old at the time of the entire “Nix era”.
I distinctively remember Mrs. Nix always kept Kool-Aid, so when we would go to the kitchen, and Larry would open the refrigerator to pour us up a glass, the fridge was mostly barren, with little in it, except for the plastic picture of Kool-Aid, and it was just a simple plastic one, with the Kool-Aid in it. Then, there might be a half of a package of bologna, a package of wiener's and half a jar of miracle whip and a jar of mustard, and maybe a small jar of sliced pickles, a few eggs, and a few carrots in a bag, etc. But I do believe Mrs. Nix got to bring home some leftover food from the restaurant where she worked in the evenings, for their supper, and no doubt, this was their salvation.
Now you might be thinking this was a recipe for disaster, since Larry was alone and unsupervised at home during most of the daylight hours, and especially in the summer's, with no school to help with that situation. But such was not the case at all! Because this kid was as good as gold! He was very tall for his 14 years, or so, easily topping six feet tall! 

Part 2 - The Pied Piper!
And Larry was like the "pied piper" for all of us younger neighborhood street urchins of Moravian street! I once heard Mom and her best neighborhood friend, Virginia Steussey, laughing together about how funny it looked with us smaller kids, all crowded around Larry, with us younger boys, the tallest of us coming barely chest high to Larry, as he would be out there in his front yard, horse playing with his little flock of street urchins. :)
And this is another area where this sad old world has gone down so badly, in that, nowadays, if people saw a big kid horsing around with a bunch of smaller boys, of 3 to 5 years younger than himself, and all being so much smaller, he being like "a man among boys”, immediately many people would be alarmed, and would become suspicions of some kind of sexual improprieties going on, or whatever. But such a thing was the farthest thing from any our minds, and not even a hint of anything like that ever happened.
We did play "strip poker", a few times at Larry's house. But whenever someone got down to their "drawers” the game was immediately over, and then embarrassed party, (me more than once :) ) would put our shirt socks shoes and pants back on, and a new game would begin. But me, being the most outgoing of our gang, and living right across from the Nix's, I spent more time over there at his house than any of the other's of us street urchins. And so it was often just me and Larry, for hours on end, by ourselves, watching some sporting event on TV. And most of that time I spent with Larry watching some kind of sports, on their. TV, was on Saturdays.

Part 3 – Larry, The Sports Nut!
And this is one area where Larry was so instrumental in getting me interested, not only in baseball, but in any and every type of other team sport that happened to be in season, and on Television at the time. Because Larry Nix was a "sports nut"! :) He was a huge Yankees fan, and he was also big Notre Dame football fan. I believe his pro football team was the Chicago Bears, and his basketball favorite was the Boston Celtics. So he was big into the Northeastern sports teams. But he loved all sports. So in football season, on Saturdays, I would sometimes go over and watch whatever college teams happened to be playing, that afternoon with Larry. And Mrs. Nix was never at home on Saturdays either. So the poor lady apparently was only off on Sundays.
Anyway, not that I was that interested in college football at that time, but I loved watching sports with Larry, simply because it was so much fun to hear him commenting excitedly about the game, and then he would become so animated and enthusiastic, especially when his team was doing well. And when they scored a touchdown, Larry would holler and jump up and down, and go crazy, and then I would get happy, because he was so happy ! ha! ha!
The Nix's had one of those big cube shaped black and white television's, that were so common in the 1960's. It sat up off of the floor two and a half feet or so, on four tube steel legs, on a turntable, so it could be turned to whatever direction in the room where the viewers were seated. And may televisions of that era were set up the same way, as was our very own TV at the Doring household.
But like everything else in the Nix household, it was old, and about worn out. And all they had for an antenna was a small set or "rabbit ears”, (remember those?) so, the picture was never that great. But Larry would fiddle around with those rabbit ears, and he would mess around with the TV's control knobs, until the picture came into focus, and the game was at least watchable.
But there must have been a bad solder connection or a loose connection in that old TV set somewhere, because occasionally the picture would suddenly blip into a kaleidoscopic zigzag's of jagged lines, and of snow, etc. And whenever that happened Larry would get off of the couch, and go grab a baseball bat from the corner, just to the left of the TV set. Then he would rare back with that bat, and give that old TV set a good, measured slap of that bat, flat on the right side of that cantankerous old thing, a time or two, and then the picture would suddenly snap back into focus! ha! ha!

Part 4 – Our Youthful "Coach"
But Larry Nix was more than just a chum to us street urchins. He was like a young coach, to us, and he also was a mentor to us all as well. And whatever the sports season was, he would organize us into teams to play it. So, during basketball season, we played basketball at a goal they had on their garage, which I think had been put up by the previous occupants, the Thompson's. But no few houses in that neighborhood had cement driveways at the time, so our “basketball court”, was the standard oyster shell base most unpaved driveways had put on them at that time.
Anyway, in the summer, Larry had us playing sandlot baseball, and in the fall, we played football. And he coached us all along the way as well, showing us how to stand in the batter's box, and how to catch and how to properly throw a football, and a baseball, etc. And when he was organizing us a game, he picked our teams out as evenly as he could, so as to not make it a route, for one team or the other. And any team Larry was on could easily beaten any other team we could have cobbled together. So to keep that from happening, Larry would appoint himself as the pitcher or the catcher for both baseball teams.
When we played football, Larry was always the quarterback for both teams. And we all knew he was, “fair to a fault", so we all had complete confidence Larry tried equally as hard for both teams. And he was ever conscious of how much bigger and stronger he was than the rest of us "shrimp's", as he called some of us who were of the smallest of the ragtag lot of us, which were little Noe Garza and myself in particular. So, if Larry got "flushed out of the pocket," in a football game, so he was forced to run it out, he only did so at half speed. And when two or three of us had latched onto his legs, Larry would allow himself to be "tackled”, with hale and hearty laughter, so then he would slowly “melt" down into the ground, rather than actually falling, being ever careful not to hurt any of us "shrimps" in the process. So us tackling Larry was more like a willing mugging, by overwhelming numbers of rowdy street urchins, as Larry eventually would disappear under a growing “dog pile" of us "shrimp's"! And all the while he would be laughing so hard, that he could hardly have remained standing up anyway! ha! Ha!

Part 5 – The “Kid” in Larry
Larry was a kid though, so he did tease us at times, using his size advantage, as in a game of keep away, in which we could never get the ball away from him until he let us do it, which usually wasn't a very long time. And I remember occasionally, if he caught an ornery streak, he would pin one of us down on the ground, and looming over us, he would torment us, by letting a big thick string of slimy saliva, slowly drool from his mouth, in a long string, sometimes 8 inches or so long, down towards our face! Of course we would laugh, but we would also be begging him to let us up! But Larry would just grin, and suck the spit string back up into his mouth. Then he would start the agonizing process all over again! And he would do that process to one of us maybe a half dozen times, then he would let us up, laughing all the while. But he never let the spit hit our faces! He had made a real art of that “torture method”! ha! ha! And I still don't know how he did it, because my spit won't string down like that! ha! ha!
And also, a few times, Larry would pin one of us down and get a piece of long grass, and stick it up into our noses about a quarter of an inch or so, which of course, made us sneeze and it drove us nuts! But Larry never carried any of those little teasing sessions to a point of real consternation or discomfort, etc. We would get up and then maybe several of us would gang up on him afterwards, to try to give him back the same. But it was futile and to no avail, because the guy was indeed like a man among boys! But he loved it when we would dog pile him, and at times he would turn it back on us, squashing piling on top of us half dozen of or so urchins, so we could not get up.! But the moment anyone cried out from towards the bottom of the pile, Larry was instantly up, and he would quickly begin un-piling the mass of tangled bodies, so as to be sure no real harm came to any of us, shrimps.
Larry Nix was also the guy who taught us to play “tackle the man with the ball”, which we had so much fun doing on cooler fall days, when maybe we were short on enough bodies to field two team's. And the way the game was played is someone would toss the football up into the air to start the game, and whoever came down with the football was “it”, and the rest of the gang would do their best too tackle the guy with the ball, while he did his best to evade the would be tacklers. But of course, when you are in a small yard trying to evade 6 or 8 tacklers, no one ever lasted long, until they were tackled. But then the way it went, the guy who was being tackled, as he was going down, would toss the ball as high as he could into the air, and whoever could snag the ball, became “it” again, and the process would be repeated. So, that game could last quite sometime, usually until we were all too tired and worn out, to to play the game anymore.
And this was another instance, when, if Larry got the ball, and he was “it”, had he not wanted to be tackled, we would have never been able to get him down. So he would run around with the football a bit, and then he would maybe tease us with his superior speed and height and strength for a short time. But before long, Larry would allow us to catch and tackle him. And it would usually end up with him melting down into the ground, as usual, being mobbed by the whole lot of us little goobers, and him ending up in one of those classic “dog piles”, with Larry on the bottom, and him laughing his head off all of the while!
And I wish my readers could have heard that laugh! It was the most raucous, loudest laugh I have ever heard to this day! And I can still hear his laughter in my mind, these many decades later!

Part 6 -  Kind Yet Tough
Larry Nix was such a kindly young man as well, who always seemed to know just what to do, in any situation. One time in particular I remember I fell on a football, someone having tackled me, and it knocked the breath out of me. I had never experienced such a thing before, so I was very distraught! But then suddenly as I lay there gasping in agony, Larry straddled my prone body, telling me not to panic, and I would be OK. And then, as he was speaking those words of comfort to me, he gently placed his hands on my solar plexus, and gave it a very gentle push or two. And then the air came rushing back into my lungs! And I was so grateful to him!
But what I remember the most about that incident, was the kindness in his eyes, and the concern he showed, with the gentleness of his speech and the kindness of his manner to me. To this day, that one simple act seems to me be one of the most kindly things anyone ever did for me!
Larry was sometimes a bit tough, but he was never brutal. I think when he was sometimes a bit rough on us, when he was trying to make a point, to help us "man up" a bit. Because I have also heard him chide a kid or two, who was laying in the grass, whining a bit, if Larry thought they were over dramatizing about the situation, he would say; “Come on! Yer not hurt! Get up, and let's play ball!”. And it seemed always to be the case, because Larry seemed to know when it was really a kid's pride that was mostly hurt. But if someone was actually hurt, Larry was all solace and support, and patience. He would then examine them carefully, and check for any broken bones or a sprain, etc, until a full recovery was made. Then when he knew the kid was OK, he would praise them for being tough, and give 'em an “atta boy”, and a pat or two, and then the game would continue.

Part 7 – “Nixie”! His Legacy Yet Lives!
And as I said before, Larry was a huge NY Yankees fan. So, as it turned out, he was extremely tuned into that memorable season of 1961, when Roger Maris was chasing Babe Ruth's single season home run record. So because Larry Nix was interested in that quest, all were all of us shrimpy "follower's of Nix," were also interested in it as well.
So, Larry Nix not only got me more interested in all sports on all levels, he was to all of us "shrimps" a gentle giant, a teacher, and a mentor, who we were all extremely fortunate to have had in our lives. There is much more I could say about Larry Nix, and not a negative word could I ever think of to say of him in the process. And when I look back on those brief two years or so, while the Nix's lived on our street, and Larry befriended and coached and mentored our ragtag band of street urchin shrimp's, I stand amazed! To me is like the stuff movies like, “The Sand Lot” are made of!
But I do not remember any of the details of why or when the Nix's moved away. But suddenly they were gone. And I distinctively remember a few times thereafter, when I would amble through their grown up backyard, and be feeling quite melancholy, while contemplating the quiet, empty, lonely old house, where we, that little band of street urchins of Moravian Drive used to have so many good times.
I did hear later on, perhaps in my mid 20's, Larry had joined the Navy, and he had also gotten married. But thereafter, I know nothing of what may have become of him, and of his sweet mother. But at that time, I think Mrs. Nix was probably a few years older than my parents, so by now, I figure the kindly, careworn Mrs. Nix, has likely passed on. And bless her sweet heart, I hope I see them both in Heaven!
And when I contemplate that whole scenario, it makes me to know, there is no reason poor kids, with little supervision, always have to be punks, and hoods, and so forth. So I will forever have a soft spot in my heart for old "Nixie". :) And, if he is yet with us, hopefully, my prayers are following him, wherever he goes.
So that is my tale of a very unique kid, who was as poor as Job's turkey, and who had nothing but a Loving Mother, a baseball, a bat and a glove, and a TV set, and perhaps a worn out football, who nonetheless, was never bitter about his situation at all.
And I will never forget that amazing young man! I hope you all have enjoyed this story, every word of which is exactly the way it happened, to the best of my recollection.
- Ronnie Doring