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.