The Event ~ This Old House

I have keen memories of growing up in this old house.  We had a fun neighborhood with lots of kids.  We had a big yard, a big open field across the road where often the neighborhood kids would gather for a softball game.

Picture taken January 2013

Living room on the right, dining area on the left, all one room.  Behind living room was Mom & Dad's bedroom (window on the right rear).  Behind dining area was the kitchen.  We had a piano, a couch, a chair, a heating stove and a kitchen table in this living/dining area.   The walls were always done up in big print wallpaper of the era.  The front steps were wooden steps for a long time, until my parents installed cement steps and the black railings seen in the picture above. At the time, that was a really big fancy update to the house.  The house was painted pink when I lived there from 1950 till about 1965.  One can still see some pink on the sides of the front step and the foundation.  Mom and Dad would park the cars in the little drive way area along the trees shown on the right side of the picture above.  This house was located on the far west side of town, a block away from the irrigation canal and farm fields. And about a mile from school, a long walk to school.

This side view shows the back door that went up into a porch or down stairs to the right.  The small square window is over the kitchen sink.  The window to the right was behind the dining table.The whole

front and side yard was planted with grass.  We played on the grass alot!  It was a big yard.  On the west side of the house I remember having big vegetable gardens every year.  Then in the winter, we would create an ice skating pond in the back yard, by building up dirt sides around the area and filling it by hose with water and letting it freeze.  That's when winters in Montana were freezing cold all winter long!  I think we only did this for a couple of winters.

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Us kids had bedrooms in the basement and there was a toilet and a makeshift shower in the basement.  No sink in that "bathroom."  But there was a kitchen sink and counter in what we used as a big playroom.  I vaguely recall an outhouse near the lower left corner of this picture that we used before we installed a toilet and shower head in the corner of the basement.   My brother Allen and I each had our own bedrooms in the basement.  I don't remember where we put Vern and Kelly when they came along!

Following are just a whole bunch of pictures reflecting growing up in this old house.

Christmas 1959



1953



1959



1954 - Allen &  I with the big garden in the background



1954  We didn't have a bathtub, only a shower head on a wall over a cement floor.  Sometimes we took baths in the round galvanized tub in the middle of the kitchen floor.  I was 3 1/2 in this picture and still bathing in the kitchen sink!. 

September 1953

Mom, Allen, me & Vern on front steps

1957

1954 with Luther Wurster, the son of our minister, and my calico kitten

1953

1954

1961



I played lots of records on this record player, including Elvis and the Beatles. 



And there were poodle skirts in this era.  Although this doesn't look like a poodle!



This has nothing to do with this  old house, but couldn't resist the memory of our pet skunk. 
This picture taken in front of Dad's shop.



Our neighborhood was such a wide open space.  It still is today as nothing has been built around this area.

There was something special about growing up in the 1950's.  The 50's era is still popular today, as there are many museums and diners and collections themed around the 1950's and all the nostalgia of this era.  This has been an eventful journey down memory lane.  And these memories will be preserved in the hardbound book.  An eventful memory revisited!


Pictures were mostly taken only at Christmas and birthdays.



Look at those saddle shoes ~ another 50's icon.



The Event ~ A Blast from the Past

While in Montana recently, we  passed through Terry, my hometown, located in Eastern Montana,  between Glendive and Miles City.   We took time to drive around the quaint little hometown.  I would describe Terry as a living remnant from the past, a small cowboy community that continues to thrive.  It is a picturesque town bordered by the beauty of the badlands, rolling hills, and the Yellowstone River. There are new building facades scattered among the old one that still exist from my childhood days in the 1950's-1960's.



We drove around the little “run-down” but thriving town, and through old neighborhoods.

I snapped some pictures of places that were part of my childhood memories starting with the little old house I grew up in.  



The above is the front of the house. 

There will be more about this old house in the next entry. . . .

I think it was  late 1964 or early 1965 when we moved in to the big new house my parents built, this one on the far east side of town, the last building on the east edge of Terry.  



It was built just east of the Massey Ferguson implement shop my Dad owned.  I spent a lot of time there as a child also.

Me sitting on the parts counter of Dad's shop.

The shop still stands but today it houses a beauty shop and coffee shop.    The picture below is the building that used to be my dad's shop.







Across the street from the shop and our house, a fast food drive-in was built.  I think this was shortly after McDonalds became an American icon. I can’t remember what the name of the diner was called, but they made a new sandwich called “frenchies”, among the burgers and shakes.  It is still in operation today under the name of  “The Scoop Shoppe.”

Just to the east and across the field from our new house was the drive-in theatre, open  every summer.  Many nites the kids would sit outside on bleachers in front of the snack bar.  I remember going to the drive-in theatre with my parents and my older brother.  We would go in our pajamas as little kids and fall asleep in the back seat of the car.  Until we got old enough to enjoy the movie.  It was the place to meet up with a lot of friends in summer time during school years.  One night a week was always $1 a car.  That’s when we would get as many in one car as we could, and then go sit out on the bleachers!           




Sad to say, it is very run down and out of commission today.  Drive in theatres were another American icon in their day.  I'm not sure why the whole thing isn't tore down and cleaned up.  It is actually kind of

an eyesore in the landscape right now, the screen, the sign, the buildings.  The whole area should be cleaned up.  I"m glad I got pictures though before the area gets bull-dozed.

        

The old Rialto Theatre, above,  still stands today.  We went to a lot of 25 cent Sunday matinees in this old theatre, and bought a lot of penny and nickel candy and 10 cent popcorn.  Mostly the movies we saw included Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, and westerns. 

The three schools I attended remain the same today as they stood during my 1-12 grades.


 Elementary School where I attended grades 1-3





 The middle school for grades 4-8  What a grand building it still is today.



The high school building. 





The football field across the street had bleachers that held a handful of students, but most spectators parked the cars around the football field to watch.  It looks like they still do the same thing today!

The football field was located across the street from Dad’s shop,  which is shown again in  this picture above across from the football score board.   When we moved to the new house when I was in high school, it was only a short walk to school across the back lot of the shop and across the street.  Unlike the mile walk when we lived on the west side of town.   

The same old swimming pool exists today as it was in the 50’s and 60’s.  I am sure it probably has had a facelift over the years.  I have had several recurring fun dreams through the years of swimming in the pool.  We would ride our bikes to the pool daily in the summer time.

In the winter time, we would ice skate in a dirt rink filled with water on the south side of the pool.  I remember many hours on the ice skating “rink”. 

The Roy Rogers bar and café still stands, but doesn’t look nearly as nice on the outside as I remember it looking years ago.  It remains as popular a place today as it was for the last 60+ years.

One favorite hangout is no longer there.  That is the Youngs Bar and Café.  By far the favorite hang out for all school kids junior high through high school.  We would go there after school, after games, after dances and order cherry cokes!  There was one big juke box in the café part, and little table top juke boxes in all the booths and at the soda counter.    We had the music of the 50’s and 60’s  playing all the time.  I also remember my Dad taking my brother Allen and I to Young’s Café for hot chocolate after delivering newspapers early on cold winter mornings.  Allen had a paper route and sometimes I had to help him and sometimes on cold winter mornings, my Dad would drive us around.  Then we would go for hot chocolate before heading home and getting ready for school.



Praire County Hospital that I was born in.  It is no longer a hospital, it is now a nursing home. 



Trinity Lutheran Church.  This was the church I attended till I left for college.  Tim and I were married in this church.




This is a picture of a historic out house, if an out house can be historic.  It kind of stood in the middle of town, but is now made a part of the local museum grounds, and is actually pictured in a book of historic out houses.

Since we went to Glendive on this trip, I snapped a picture of the old bridge we always crossed when going to Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Glendive.  I'm not even sure if this bridge is still used today since the new one was built.  These type of old bridges don't exist too much anymore.

The bridge crosses the Yellowstone River that runs along the west edge of Glendive. 

When I was a child, we spent alot of time with family out on the Ed Corneliusen farm ~my Uncle Ed and Aunt Nora.  Many holidays and family get-togethers took place there.  On the farm was located a one-room school house that many of my cousins attended.  Now the school is closed, but my cousin, Arvid & Sherry Corneliusen,  now owns the school since it sits on his property.  Another cousin, Marilyn Dufner, has completely repainted the outside of the building.  Inside it looks the same as it did when it was in use ~ books, chalkboards, desks, stove ~ it's all still there.  Even the playground equipment, including the giant strides.  And the original bell still hangs in the bell tower.

I remember attending alot of Christmas parties there where Santa Claus would come and give gifts to all the kids

What a blast from the past!  What eventful memories!  The 1950’s ~ a fun time to be a kid!