My House

These are photos taken by my Mom in 1955 of the house we lived in while I was growing up. It  is the house we raised our children in with a few modifications.....well quite a few. First it no longer has that great porch. My parents took it off in the early 60's as it was in need of repair and home improvement stores weren't just around the corner then. BTW the boy standing in the front is my first brother just two years younger than me (born on the 10th of October to my 7th). He passed away on February 28 2007 at the age of 58. The house is really about 200 years old give or take a few and has all the character an old place should have.  This means uneven floors, walls of varying widths, doors that don't close and some that don't open.  When we were young it was the only house one the street with a bathroom. Everyone else still had outhouses. Our well was the best in the neighborhood and people would often come, mostly in the day, to pump from our well. We would be eating breakfast and hear the pump working. I don't remember when the water borrowing stopped but I know that pump came off when the brother in front got his two front teeth broken with the pump handle. Eleven acres came with the house and there were potatoes growing in the front yard. The driveway was lined with iris (yellow and purple) along both sides. It was a sight. To the left of the bottom photo was where myp parents planted the lilacs that still grow there today..The front yard has a very large peony bed that was my addition. In the early 70's my parents built a new home on the property closer to the greenhouse business the had started. We bought the house and things began to change. But more on that another time along with more photos.

It's been a tough year...Dad passed away, my B-I-L's tumor started to grow, my grandson broke his toe just before our trip west. When we returned his Dad broke his leg.  Well, can someone tell me why a 43 year old man would decide he needed to play semi-pro football? Through all of this I sew! It's what I know and can do. It keeps my mind and hands busy. I learned to sew in 4-H. Is there 4-H anymore? I was about 7 and I think with 2 brothers  my Mother thought I should have a friend or two. My first project was an apron made from a feed sack. Somewhere in a box is the album of all my accomplishments in 4-H. When I was a senior in high school that album got me into college. I learned to sew but that was not the end.  There was cooking, canning, caring for animals, gardening and cleaning. Oh how we learned to clean! In that album is a newspaper clipping of we girls using a vaccum cleaner is an historic house. That house is now part of a National Park here in Schuylerville New York. Little did I know then that I would find an ancestor that fought in the Revolution here in Schuylerville and that would lead me to join another 'club' the DAR. Of all the things I like I think history ranks high up there. But that's another day.