My wife makes the best applesauce ever. It is a little chunky — just the way I like it.

And besides, the cinnamon she uses, I make her add a lot of those little red hot cinnamon candies, which gives it a nice red color.

And a dollop of Reddi Whip makes it extra special.

Did when you were afraid of someone trying to catch you in a tag game, “run like the wind” or “run like the dickens?”

Ever heard of the game Relieves? You choose up sides and divide into “hiders” and “seekers.”

When a seeker catches a hider, he tags him with two hands and yells, “Relieves!”

The prisoner is put on a square of the sidewalk called the prison and a seeker was made guard.

If one of the hiders could sneak up to to the captured prisoners on the block and yell “Relieves!” they were all made free and would have to be captured again.

Did you ever hear folks say they were dirt poor?

Years ago, people used to find white clay along the creek bank and they used it to ”whitewash” their fireplace.

What I just read in a paper makes me think I used to be treated like a dog years ago when I worked on the Evar Svenson farm at the top of Henderson hill.

The article said this farmer had a dog that would go to the pasture and round up the cows and bring them up to the barn to be milked.

Good gosh, that used to be my job, so I guess you can call me “Doggie Charlie.”

Did you know that to prevent meat from sticking to a pan, sprinkle the pan with salt. before putting in the meat?

I can remember how when school let out for summer vacation we could take a pair of our blue jeans with holes in the knees and cut them off to make shorts.

Am I dreaming, or what? But I can remember back in the 1930s when Doggie Andrews used to umpire local baseball games. He had a whisk broom in his pocket that he used to sweep clean home plate when it got dirty. (Please call to tell me I wasn’t dreaming.)

Earlier this year I had a “hassle” with my child-bride wife.

I was so upset about the short season for strawberries.

I picked some California ones and put them in our cart.

She came back, took them out and said she was not going to make me shortcake out of California berries.

“Cardinal Charlie” Gill writes a nostalgic weekly column about growing up in the Grand Old City. E-mail him at cardinalcharlie@hotmail.com.