"The Thundering Herd" Summer of 1960
Alan, DeAnn, Gayla, Ruth, Rosalin, Reed

Thundering Herd wasn't a name we thought about at the time but, as you can imagine, our mother must have been thinking about it frequently....it was the noise of six kids in the house that must have thundered in her ears from morning until night. We didn't hear the noise because we were constantly making the noise with our feet & our mouths. The luxury of having wall-to-wall carpet was not ours, we had noisy hard wood floors! (Oh my, how flooring preferences have changed in 50 years!) I'm sure we ran through the rooms of our house like wild horses, hollering to each other and slamming the bathroom door or the front & back doors without realizing the noise and commotion that we caused. Reed and I used to have fun kick fighting and toe pinching. DeAnn & Gayla dressed up with Dad's hankerchiefs on their heads & Mom's necklesses draped across their forheads and danced on top the piano bench. Ruth took delight in entertaining our baby brother, Alan, by giving him rides around the house on a tricycle.
I remember some of Mom's conversations with her friends and that she casually refered to us as "The Thundering Herd." Until I lived with my own noisy kids, I didn't think much about being compared to stampeeding cattle. Mom must have enjoyed the quiet house while we were all at school but when I stepped through the front door after school she was dressed up and on her way out the door. She never would tell where she was going or when she would be back, all she would say was, "I'll be back." She escaped for a little more peace and quiet before dinner time.