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small country town of 700 people in Pennsylvania. we live way out in the rural farm area. my parents were gifted a two story red asphalt saltbox house(900sq ft) built in the late 1800's on 2 acres of land (very run down). 2 bedroom upstairs- no heat in them- we froze as kids. extra room down stairs my parents used.
The only heat was from a huge kitchen coal stove and a bucket a day coal stove in the basement. One vent gave heat from the bottom of one of the steps into the small living room.
1 bathroom-no heat- always had a plug in electric heater.
We lived very poor. I was aware of that.
Had 2 older sister though I always had neighbors has playmates. We were isolated from the real world.. om did not drive so as a kid I got to roam around in the woods and climb the mountain behind the house, ride my bike and come home in time for supper. No need to worry about abductions- we were safe.
Every spring, dad tilled two large plots of land for gardens and him and my Mom planted tomatoes and corn. Though there could have been other items. I just remember that. The corn was so good- I use to sit on our from porch and just play a portable record player and listen to 45"s in the summer. Some times- go down and pick an ear of fresh corn and eat it raw..
we had wild hulk-berry bushes, strawberries and gooseberry bushes. Apple and Pear Trees.
I was always barefoot.
Moved away in 1973 to a small town- I hated moving- missed my country life so bad...
I actually have visited my house and the man that lives in it went to school with my now deceased older sister. We send Christmas Cards to each other. When I visited the house it looked almost exactly how I left it..
Follow up to #23. The current condition of my childhood home (after 70 years) is almost too painful to describe. It went through a few owners but the last (current?) ownership is caught up in a limbo of a contested estate and absolute and seemingly deliberate demolition by neglect. It is abandoned and derelict. Plywood on some windows. There is a visible hole in the roof. The aluminum storm sore hangs on one hinge. The front yard is mowed, probably by a neighbor, but the back is a disaster. An ice storm a few years age broke and damaged the trees with torn and broken limbs all over the back yard. I imagine that a few of my mom’s rose bushes are still hanging on. The property should be condemned and demolished. The neighbors’ homes are all in very good condition and it must be driving down property values. I actually wonder why it hasn’t “accidentally” met a fatal accident. This is an unincorporated area so there is no town government to take control. All of the places I fondly remember are gone. Even my school is gone. I moved over 150 miles away in 1976 and now live 1000 miles away.
I remember the screened in porch off the dining room where we ate supper all summer. Also remember the bathroom arrangement. There was one main bathroom used by all five of us. No shower head over the bathtub, baths only. But in the basement, there was a half bath under the stairs, which always seemed a little dark and dingy and wasn’t much used. There also was an open shower area in the unheated garage, next to the washer and dryer.
As we kids got older, we preferred the shower. But there were hazards. In the winter the garage was bitter cold, and we learned to toss our towel in the dryer before dashing into the shower, so at least we’d have the warmth of the towel afterwards. The other hazard was the openness. Sometimes you’d just start your shower when you’d hear the garage door start to rumble open, and make a mad dash for the dryer to get your towel. And in the winter after finishing your shower you’d grab your towel and make for the heated basement on the other side of the door, hollering all the way, shut your eyes, I’m coming in to dry.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Best memories at grandparents home.
Rural farm, 2 acre front lawn with horses grazing.
Many hundred acre back yard with pond and creek and huge personal garden, where I trapped lots of varmints.
Thank goodness for grandparents, or I wouldn't be here today.
Summer meals with fresh garden produce that we grew, collected, cleaned, and prepared. Yum
Downstairs unit of a 2-family city home, built in the 1920s, around 1100 sf per unit, 3br and 1ba each. Parents and 4 of us kids lived downstairs, grandmother and uncle in upstairs unit. I am recalling 1960s mainly, but family lived there since late 1940s and 1970s+. Very small front and back yard, but my mother made the most of it. Front yard always had flowers in the front bed, bulbs in the spring, marigolds, plus mums, peonies, and other flowering perennials. A large elm in the front that was lost to Dutch Elm disease, and replaced with a much smaller Maple. In the alley between houses it was filled with mint plants, along with poppy and tall orange lily. On the edge of the driveway side were tall lily along with what I believe were touch-me-nots, and a few onion plants. There were also wild blackberries growing between neighboring garages that the birds would eat and stain our clothes if left out on the clothesline on wrong days. Along one side of the fence next to garage in the back were roses and carnations. On the small green patch in the back yard was a cherry tree, a very small "Christmas tree" pine, a large lilac bush, and some vines along the fence. Rarely did the cherries ripen before the birds would eat them, and I got sick eating green cherries a couple times. My father also grew tomatoes and cucumbers on the sunny side. Our next-door neighbor also had green bean vines strung up along the garage side near us, and grape vines strung between neighboring garages, that sometimes hung over our driveway.
Most of my Italian neighbors had huge vegetable gardens, and the homes across the street from us backed up to RR tracks and easements, where we played as kids and those neighbors used the easement to expand their backyards and gardens.
16 unit motel. I spent many a day stripping sheets and towels from about the age of 9. My daily reward was a bottle of "Tab" from the Coke machine. There used to be a cool hill at the back I could bump down in my little red wagon along with a goldfish pond that I could see frozen fish in the wintertime, but that part has been sold off. My room had its own bath and a screened porch.
The motel was open seasonally, spring through leaf-looking, and parents had to make the money last through the winter. Ever had creamed peas on toast? At that point is when the money was running out and hopefully the new season was starting. Eventually they bought the property across the road and opened a laundromat. We ate much better.
Rooms rented for about $7 a night (early 1960s) and people would still complain how it was too much. Room #12 had multicolored tile in the bathroom, all the leftover from the other rooms, and people either loved it or hated it.
Ah, the good old days. I think the folks sold it for about $135,000 and it's listed for sale now for $825,000.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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We had a 1,600 sf house on 1/2 acre in the Bay Area, California. Then eventually we added on 2-story 20x30' so total was 2,800 sf. We had 40 fruit trees, were on city water and sewer, a dead-end street just a few blocks from both the elementary and middle schools. My parents paid $32,000 in 1960, sold it for $52,000 in 1986, and today it's at about $2.3 million.
Ranch home purchase in 1956 was a new build. Unusually large lot, dimensions of a football field, were due to 90 degree curve in nearby road and a railroad track. Parents planted a huge garden on the furthest edge. Corn, carrots, potatoes to onions were staples. Having to weed between vegetables was enough sweat labor to make me not want to eat them.
Homestead was sold after 35 years ownership. New owner continued tilling this soil for a decade and this NW Ohio land now serves as a gravel basketball, two hoop, basketball court. Backside property line is braced by a wood fence which was erected by the third owner.
Real estate address search provides recent, multiple, pictures.
We lived in "an open house." I want to mean that our front door was unlocked until we went to bed, the patio directly had no door and anyone could enter if they wished. Over time we became more and more closed, to the point that now that I think about it, it seems impossible that we could have lived like this. Today the insecurity in this country is something so terrible, that you can no longer feel safe even locked in your house.
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