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5 bedroom, 3 story Dutch colonial on a 1/6 acre town lot. A couple of oak trees, apple tree (great for climbing!) birch trees, and a few other trees I don't know the names of. Rhododendrons and azaleas in front, and a hedge row at the sidewalk. My grandmother was the gardener in the family, planting tomato plants and flowers. As the only boy, I was in charge or raking leaves, trimming the hedge, mowing the lawn, and shoveling snow.
The garage was detached, down at the bottom of the backyard. The driveway sloped down from the street and was about 150' long. Good but not great for sledding!
My kids grew up on 7 acres in a semi-rural area, surrounded by still more woods. The yard I grew up with now seems tiny by comparison, but it was all I knew at the time.
Main part of my life was in a two family home. An upper and a lower unit. Neither of my parents were into growing things. We had a small front yard, a side yard, and a backyard as did our upstairs neighbor. The house was owned by the upstairs neighbor's brother. Other then mowing the grass and shoveling snow we did nothing else to the yard.
Small town California in a split-level ranch house on 1/3 acre.
Front yard was flat and included a huge oak tree that was there from when the lot was raw land. My mother planted several other decorative trees, maple, camphor, magnolia, beech, and pine, in the front. In the sideyard was a mimosa silk tree - the first in the neighborhood. They spread like wild fire because the damn things were invasive. My mother never admitted to being the source of the neighborhood problem.
There was grass that didn't do well in the scorching heat, along with azaleas, camellias, and hydrangeas, plus some large decorative lava rocks. It consumed a LOT of water.
The backyard was downward sloping, so the bulk of it was patio, concrete surfaces, and a real sandbox (with dirt - not kitty litter). Never any fruit trees or vegetables, other than a lemon tree that in 20 years never bore any fruit.
Has anyone else used Google street view/earth satellite to look at their childhood home? (if it still exists)
Gated community, so there's no street view for mine, but the satellite view is somewhat shocking. The huge tree growth that's occurred over 35 years, in what used to be scrubby desert, is amazing to see. The explosion of roads and housing covering every square foot of what used to be acres and acres of open land, not so amazing. It looks so...crowded. As kids, we used to roam and explore those fields on foot or bicycle, hunt for rocks and lizards, get into fights, set up wilderness forts, etc. Having open and free range space was fun and healthy, but it's gone now.
Here’s the deal….three bedroom one bath cape cod on Long Island. Four kids a Polish Grandmother and Mom and Dad somehow it worked. All four of us late 60’s early 70’s worth a couple of millions each Who would of thought.
Comfy 1550sf 3/2 ranch in Silicon Valley. Honestly even if I hit the lotto, I feel like that’s the size for me. Out front was a mulberry tree which shaded too much of the lawn for it to thrive. A really nice hedge lined the walkway from the garage/driveway (no idea what plant it was), and hid a really great aloe garden by the front door. Nothing beats fresh aloe on a sunburn.
Out back we had another pair of mulberry trees which made the backyard dirt. No way to really grow grass, but it’s part of why I pride myself on tough feet today. We did have a lemon tree which got too much shade to thrive, and a cherry tree which shared the lemon tree’s hardships. We had a pretty wild side yard which became my playground, with a bottlebrush tree at the front fence where it met the side yard.
We had a bougainvillea vine thing out back, and we trained some morning glories on the back deck which had a pergola.
One of the best parts was this totally original 60s planter which featured an oleander tree. I still have a scar on my head from where I had to get stitches when I fell and gashed my forehead on it. We had hummingbirds which nested there every year, and of course we had a hummingbird feeder. The hummingbird eggs blew my mind with how small they were.
We did have a potted garden as well where we grew basically everything for salsa. Cilantro, tomatillos, Serrano peppers; only things we couldn’t do were green onions, and the tomatoes just never took.
It was not a lush yard but it worked well and I managed to have this many memories of it…it was my playground where I dug “canals” and attempted to build a lake.
I'd be curious to read a thread about "how many bathrooms did your childhood home have?" and during which time period.
I see enough posts and comments, and from watching older TV shows, that having ONE bathroom in a home was fairly typical.
All in the Family from the early 1970s had four adults living in the home, with one small bathroom upstairs.
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