1503 Rebecca, continued . . .

Kristy's 4th birthday at 1503 Rebecca.  We are in the dining room at that big lovely table.  I recovered the chair seats.  We had six dining room chairs, I think.  I had never seen a table like it.  At each end, you reached under and pulled out an 18" extension and snapped it into place.  So the 5' table extended out to 8 foot.  Or was it 6' extended out to 9'?  It was nice!  I miss it : ( 

Late 1972 or early 1973.  I had sewed me this robe before Kristy I was born.  I loved the ease of the robe.  It zipped up the front.  It washed up, wrinkle free.  It was pretty and comfortable -- and roomy!  It accomodated pregnancies, I used it for all four. I wore it until the hem and the seams frayed and was falling apart. 

I also sewed up the cafe curtains for the big window in the kitchen.  I adored that blue, colorful printed cotton fabric!  Only the bottom half of the window was curtained, which allowed us (well, Dad and I anyway) a view out but afforded us privacy.  Guess I didn't think about the little ones wanting to see out! 

Here is our formica kitchen table.  We had four chairs to match.  Behind us, basically, is the amount of kitchen cupboards we had in the kitchen -- except for the extra cupboards in the little pantry.  There is a good gas cooking stove too.  Wish I had one like that today.  Okay, maybe the oven was a little hot but a person learned to compensate and turned it down a little and maybe we had to light one burner with a match.  Still, it cooked our meals!

 Kristy and Erica planting flowers at the corner of Rebecca and 15th Street.  Looking south and east.  Probably spring of 1976.  We didn't know the folks that lived in those two houses across the street. 

ahhh.  My little girls and Tiffany . . . or was it Mollie?  washing dishes in the side yard.  All the little girls needed was a pan of water, an apron and something to wash and they were content!  This pic is looking west on 15th street.  Weyer's is across the street, to our left.

Then along came Craig! 

a big bouncing bundle of boy. 

Erica and Kristy took one look at him and were enamored again!  And pretty darn curious about bottles and nursing babies and diaper changes! 

oh yes, there we are again . . . wearing our aprons and washing dishes. 

Nothing like that to keep a girl balanced and in control : )  and that is Tiffany.  Look at Dad's rose behind Erica and our house came with window boxes.  There were 30 or 40 colors of iris on the north property line, there was a wonderful yellow bush rose, there were tulips and dad planted roses and trees.  I can't remember what this big old wooden crate was or where we kept it but it worked great for washing dishes. 

I got that "loaf" pan and the 8X8" cake pan at the _ _ _ _  Store.  If I bought so many dollars worth of groceries each month, I got a "premium", a free gift.  Of course I had to take my own boxes and bags and box and bag my own groceries, but I did and I saved!  And I got many things!  This may have to be a story all it's own.  I got these two baking pans, colored green on the outside. 

Downstairs, small bedroom.  One day Kristy wanted in Erica's crib so I let her.  And Erica climbed up like a champ and slept in Kristy's bunk.  It was about 8" to the floor from the bottom bunk so was ideal for little girls.  And little boys. 
Erica has her home-made Granny Square blanket with her.  She dragged that thing around until it unraveled and shriveled up and decomposed!  And I encouraged it, every step of the way! 

Christmas 1975.  Still a family of 4 (but expecting an additon come February.) 

oh my, yes.  I know this feeling.  Thank goodness we grow out of half of that bashfulness by the time we are adults.   Erica!  where are you? 

Two little pretty Easter girls on Gramma and Grampa's front stoop. 

Aren't they sweet?  When Johanna was about three, I made her one of these little capes.  She hardly wore it and I put it away and kept it.  This spring I gave it to Audri.  I hope Audri wears it for Easter this year.  If she does, someone please take her picture!?!

Boys in Blue

oh boy.  Are we teething, son?  or just sleepy?  lol  Papa and Craiger.  In the front yard of 1503 Rebecca.  Weyer's house is across the street.  I don't think I ever got inside that house!  Wasn't it huge? 

Here!  Kristy was sleeping in Erica's crib while Erica slept in Kristy's lower bunk (above).  Kristy, feeling some sibling rivalry maybe? needed to sleep in her old bed.   So I let her and Erica swap.  All in the downstairs small bedroom.

Kristy, Erica and Nicky Knickerbocker

Isn't this adorable?  This is at the base of the stairway door that took you (me, thee, us) upstairs to the second floor.  I hauled that laundry hamper around with us for years.  I finally spray painted it blue and think it was only here, in Creston, that I finally disposed of that thing! 

Oh, gosh.  Who are these people? 

Strangers in our house!  : )

Easter 1976.

It was a beautiful day and we hunted eggs in the front yard. 

Pretty babies

It wasn't often that my children wore coordinated clothing : ) This is at the south east corner of 1503 Rebecca. When we moved in there was an ornamental sumac tree that had character and was a beautiful orange most falls.  We have planted about three of these at various houses we have owned.  There is one down on a lake lot at Twin Lake but it is not ours, sad to say.  So, soon, I will plant one at our new cabin. 

Published. 1974

1974

In 1974 we moved downstairs.  Our good renters, the Huebsch's moved out so we moved down and rented out the upstairs to another good set of renters.  Too bad I can't remember their names and too bad they didn't stay long!  We bought a reconditioned Electrolux vacumm from him -- Todd or Jeff or Edd or something!  Usually your Dad can help me out in these memory lapses, but not this time.  Names and Dates remain annonymous . . .  misplaced!   

Our downstairs dining room. 

I think this is where I learned to love a formal dining room.  There is a bay window in this room, radiator covers right and left of the bay window, the massive swinging door to the kitchen which was usually propped open except for Thanksgiving Dinner.  Dad always had to work at Zenith the Friday after Thanksgiving so I learned early to roast turkey and make stuffing and pumpkin chiffon pie . . . and real whipped cream!  I loved my hardwood floors,  big, big windows and the picture rail high on the wall.  In the old days, the wire or picture hangings showed above the hanging picture or photo.  The hanger had a hook on it that sat on the picture rail.  Guess you didn't have to punch any holes in the wall that way.

The hallway to the bedrooms was off the right hand side of this picture, above.  In the hallway, there was a door that closed off the "real" stairway to the upstairs, the master bedroom doorway a bit further down the hall and to the left, the bathroom straight ahead (which sported a dead bolt lock - and a story for another day!) and the small bedroom with the bunkbeds to the right. 

This Vega was a 1972, so a little late for this entry but that's our backyard and we were still driving it.  The car is sitting in the driveway and the garage is out of sight to the right and Mr and Mrs Huss' house beyond the car.  We drove the Vega until 1976 when we bought a bright red / orange Plymouth Valorie.  oh well.  Not we.  Dad and Grampa bought a bright red/orange Plymouth Valorie.  In fact, after the fact, I had your dad go to the courthouse and put MY NAME on the title.  : ) 

Our play yard.  This is the south yard on 15th Street, running east to west.  Dad put up a fence to keep you little hooligans out of the street.  And/or the neighbor hooligans out of our yard!  (really, the Weyer children were pretty well behaved.)  This pic may have been used before in Nana's View.  It is early spring 1974 as the Redbud is blooming across the street. 

Oh yeah!  The dirt on the floor of this garage was so fine and soft and silky.  I've never seen dirt that soft and fine before.  Erica took a dirt bath in there.  It was a hot summer day and she just sat down in the coolness of the shade and dirt floor and thoroughly enjoyed herself.  Yes, that is dirt in her hair too!  She looks pretty pleased with herself!  It was a good Mama moment even tho it called for a bath, directly after. 

Erica's 1st Birthday! 

This is at the kitchen table.  The kitchen had big south windows and was bright and light.  The kitchen counters are to our left, the big metal kitchen  unit was behind Kristy on the short wall of the kitchen.  To the right of the kitchen sink was a door to the pantry.  The pantry was a cute little room with cupboards built in and shelves -- almost a butler's pantry, had the family that built this been wealthy enough for a butler. 

Someone had taken time to make cute radiator covers for some of the radiators.  I like this radiator cover above Erica's head -- seems like there should have been telephone books or something in the shelf! 

We had a big old boiler in the basement that Dad learned how to take care of and it heated the house very well. Except!  I remember one very, very cold winter where the butter froze in the west cupboards of the kitchen.  The house was old and didn't have much for insulation. 

Erica is teasing her sister! 

The girls are laughing and having a good time.  It is probably nap time -- time to get silly and keep each other awake!   This is a double bed in the "master" bedroom downstairs on the left side of the hallway and the room where Erica had her dog nightmare.  The bedspread was made and given to Lanny and I by Gramma Sychra when we got married.  I have it yet although the bedspread is very worn.  The pillow covering is in better condition.  They will attend the Hofmeister Reunion in July. 

And, oh yes.  The lovely living room!  It was a nice size room.  Dad and I stripped and sanded and then repainted the woodwork.  There were two "pillar" dividers between this room and the second living room on the left, or the north.  You can see the front door with lace curtains on it.  This carpet was big and old when we moved in.  Wish I had it now!  : )  we put down plush  brown wall-to-wall carpet, probably about 1975.  It showed every piece of lint.  The coffee table was made by your dad in Shop in high school.  I think there were pocket doors between this living room and the dining room (where the photographer is standing) but I don't think we used them at all.  Maybe once or twice at Christmas.

Some of the radiators were short.  Straight ahead in this pic, you can see a long, low radiator, under the window.  I loved the big ol' windows!  until it came time to buy drapes.  We bought the big floral drapes at Sears on sale, custom sized, and thought we paid an arm and a leg -- then I always wished I had gotten something more subdued! 

Sweet babies,

Camping, July 1974

In the Coleman Minuteman camper.

Erica, modeling her new bikini, summer of 1974. 

Way cute, Erica, sweetie pie! 

I called you Dolly, some. 

Until you turned into Queen Josephina!  lol    

The upstairs stairway and Weyer's house behind her.  There's a wading pool or inflatable boat here somewhere and I'm a gonna find it!  Erica is saying! 

This is the Sugar Daddy Day, I think. 

Silly, and kept getting sillier!  A sugar high.

Cute apple green outfits

on cute little girls <3 

Living room again.  Here are the drapes we custom ordered.  They were insulated and did help with energy bills and the room was certainly big enough to stand the big print.  I don't know this occasion.  Maybe we got new little lawn chairs?  Prior to the lawn chairs, each girl had a little blue chair with a wicker seat.  I see one living room pillar so we are actually in the north living room.  We usually used the south as that was where the TV was. 

I just remembered!  We got a new TV late 1975 and me, 6 or 7 months pregnant got elected to help carry it in.  Himself and I gotter done!  I had, after all, played volleyball that winter and was in good shape, chasing after a 3 and 4 year old. 

We had a volleyball team from work that played in a league . . . and, me, 6 or 7 mo pregnant, was told by the coach that I was the best player on the team!  lol  pretty sad team . . .

Kristy and Erica on the sidewalk under the stairs.  Just to Kristy's left, was the door we used to get in and out of the downstairs apartment.  It went in to an entry.  Basement stairs went straight down but if you turned right and went up 2 or 3 steps, you walked into the kitchen.  There was a door between this entry and the kitchen that we kept closed in the winter to help in heating the house.  In summer, we just let it hang open. 

Erica and Kristy on the front steps of 1503 Rebecca.  Lanny and I screened in the porch, to the left.  Lanny, did you build that screen door?  I love the red painted bricks with the gray siding.  It was painted like that, I think, when we moved in.  You girls didn't get to play around here, the front, too much.  Usually you were in the back or side yard.  I do remember one warm summer rain we were all sitting on these front steps and you two stripped off your clothes and ran up and back on the front sidewalk, naked as blue jays, soaking up the freedom of it all!  Hearts light and spirits soaring!  all of ours! 

We had a front door (east), a side door (south) and a back door (west).  I think this is the side door.  You are sitting on a wooden step looking pretty happy.  Me too.  These were happy days.

                                                        Love you, my babies.  All four! 
                                                        Love, your Mama and future Mama!

Newly Published!

1971 - 1973

Carroll Apartments.
Newlywed.

We were married in July 1970, lived at Jackson Street Efficiency apartment just a month or so, then moved to Carroll Apartments for not much longer than that. 

  

Yes, I did know how to turn on a gas stove (and even light it with a match!).  No, I really didn't know how to cook.  I could boil potatoes, brown hamburger, fry me an egg and make tuna salad.  : )  That was about it.  Can you believe that refrigerator? 
You stepped out that back door behind me onto a porch three stories above the parking lot.  Every apartment had a front door from the stair well, and a back door on to the porch.  I do not remember anyone spending time sitting or lounging on the back porch.  I do not remember, even, seeing neighbors.  I think we all shut ourselves into our apartments.

Imagine Chicago tenements and Carroll Apartments comes to mind -- only not so run down. It was a huge brick building, with 3 or 4 stories. Our apartment was up 2 flights, I think on the front entry, a one-bedroom, living-dining room, an old fashioned bathroom and a tiny kitchenette. We weren't there long when we moved here (below) to a 2-bedroom, upstairs furnished apartment at 1503 Rebecca Street.

This is Himself in the early days when he still smiled.  Isn't he handsome?  He is on the vinyl couch in the living room of Carroll Apartments.

Our bedroom faced Jackson Street and we had a couple of bats in there, in the bedroom.  That makes for exciting times!  A bat at bedtime! About that time, we started reading "apartments for rent" ads and found this. 

We moved to 1503 Rebecca, upstairs.   About December 1970, I think.   

This is pretty much our decorating skills.  That fish net and the wooden spoon and fork were ours and  I made those blue curtains.  What was I thinking!  They were room darkening, for sure. 

Here we still are when Kristy is born (see the utensil above my head? lol)
There is a big bedroom behind that forked wall.  There are living room windows to the right, south.  There is a little bedroom to the left and there is a kitchen with table and chair behind the photographer.  The entry/porch is behind (west) of the kitchen.  You step out of that entry/porch onto a landing, turn left and go down about 20 steps.  It is a lonnggg stairway. 


Hi, little Kristy!  We see you down there! 
See?  down there?  that is a lonnnggg way down!  There is Mama folding laundry.  The washer/dryer was in the basement so sitting in the yard folding laundry didn't seem so bad.  Just think if I had carried it from the basement up that long flight of outdoor steps? 
Oh well, I guess I did.  I just had a "sit down/fold down" in the middle! 

Lanny would have carried that folded laundry up the stairs for me and helped with Kristy and the folding director's chair. 

Summer of 1973

CaCa and WeWe : )

This is facing the kitchen on the west and beyond the kitchen was the entry/porch.  The entry was a good size room, almost as big as the kitchen plus it had good storage rooms on either side.  Well the storage room on the south was ample . . . and maybe the storage room on the north had utilities?  We'll have to ask Himself. Was there water heater in the north storage room?  Too bad there wasn't a washer and dryer in one of those rooms! 

Meanwhile, we had a rectangular dark or medium wood table and four chairs that usually set up against this cute decorative wall.  Guess we put it away in one of the storage rooms when we needed to set the play pen up! 

See that little jumper chair with the two cuties?  that was given to the Austin's when Mary was a baby or Dad (Gramps) bought it at a sale.  Aunt Kate sewed the second seat onto that jumper chair for K'Lea and I think I put the third set on.  Then it went to Aunt Mary.  I don't know where it went after that.  But that was about 30 years worth, anyway.

This "big chair" matched the couch that was upstairs at 1503 Rebecca.  They both were in good shape, if unattractice.  This chair is sitting opposite the last picture -- on the west wall of the livingroom.  The kitchen is beyond, or behind the wall in this pic.  Cute girlies! 

I made those green/blue bug curtains.  TG&Y fabric.  89 cents a yard.  You'd think I would quit that --  making curtains.

This is a classic photo. Kristy Noel is sooo pleased at what she sees in the mirror!  I did love this vanity.  The mirror broke and your dad tossed it out . . .

Pretty little Erica Jo.  This is pic was taken March 2, 1973. 
Erica, Newborn. 

We took Erica home to 1503 Rebecca Street, upstairs.

Erica, Kristy and Craig were all born at St. Lukes Hospital, Sioux City, Ia.

Erica Jo, upstairs at Rebecca Street, 4 or 5 months old.  What a cutie!  Erica moved from room to room with me.  Where Kristy wouldn't just sit and go to sleep, Erica learned to do that in her baby seat.  (infant chairs, we called them.)  Or rather, I should say, I learned to let Erica sit and go to sleep. 

Kristy and Erica and Mama, about March 5, 1973.  Kristy took one look and was enamored!  She wouldn't leave the poor baby alone!  Kristy tried to pick Erica up when Erica was a month or so.  They both ended up on the floor.  That's when Erica became attached to my hip.  Where I went, Erica went! Even then, Kristy got lots of chances to hold and hug and boss. 

Kristy, about 9 months or a years.  I do not know the circumstances ?

or even the where! 

Pretty sure I had two little girls in this pic.  I went and got my hair cut off.  My hair was thick and heavy and took hours to dry when I washed it.  (unlike today).  So I went and got a "shag" . . . but my hair had been so long for so long and parted down the middle that it didn't do much of any- thing for quite awhile! 
This is the kitchen, looking west, onto the entry/porch and beyond.  We can actually see through the outside glass door in this pic.  In the kitchen we can see a crooked clock on the wall.  A "keyboard" where we hung up important things (this, after Kristy threw my key ring away never to be found again).  The cooking range is on the left.  The kitchen sink is on the right.  There were cupboards above the counter on the right and cupboards below.  There was a table to my immediate right, a cute little table with stenciled flowers and decoration and four chairs.  Where is that pretty little table now?  Dad re-did it, re-finished it when we lived in Orient.  I know it is here, somewhere.

yep; here is the "before photo" of me. 

Before I cut my hair and delivered that baby! 

In the kitchen. 

Washing dishes. 

With a full head of hair

and a bun in the oven. 

                                      Love ya all!  Mama

Janice Coe Austin's Spring

February 8, 1920 - March 14, 2011

October 3, 2008

As we age and get older,

the winters get longer.

Spring comes slower.

We plod through winter

knowing life will be better.

Come Spring.

The load got too heavy

the walk way too long.

The burden's beyond her.

She longed for release,

to meet with her Mama,

Come Spring.

Mama made it thru winter
hoping life ever after was better.
Come Spring. 

 

Never before published!

I'm sure I have photos that you all have never seen.  Even if you have seen these, perhaps they bring back pleasant memories and may even spawn more memories.  In order to remember things, I have read, we have to find one memory and concentrate on it and let other memories come back.  So practice this!  And when you do, write them down and share them with your Mama, who is a "Keeper of Memories"! 

This was taken at 1503 Rebecca St, Sioux City, Iowa, in the back yard at the foot of the tall wooden stairs.  Kristy and Erica are swimming in a poor man's swimming pool, lol!  The inflatable raft!  Well it did work good as there were handles on the side . . . and Erica is itty bitty to be in there at all.  If memory serves me right, that was a hot summer.  We didn't have air conditioning upstairs, only a fan in the window so this was our way of cooling off.  Perhaps at some point your dad put a window air conditioner in the west living room window. 

See what happens when I keep typing and remember, more memories come back.  At first, I would have argued that we NEVER had air conditioning upstairs at 1503.  You know, tho, we didn't need it much.  We had windows on all four sides of the house and some great shade trees.  I loved that upstairs apartment !  <3

The Omaha Zoo, about 1974.  Erica and her Nana.  : )

Actually, that is a Billy Goat!  This day was hot.  The temp was 100 degrees but Erica looks cool as a cucumber in the little sun dress.  We had a stroller but neither girl would sit in it very long. 

What a pretty Gramma you all had!  She was the best mother-in-law anyone could have invented!  Aren't these two young rascals precious?  This photo is taken in the "Klinefus" house, on the school grounds about 1984. 

I did not like this kitchen.  Well, it was big and that was okay.  I did like the bottom freezer on that refrigerator.  Do any of you remember that the freezer was a drawer on the bottom?  Do you remember we took out the old worn out linoleum and we lived on that old wooden subfloor?  I did like the arch between the kitchen and the dining room.  I did like the window above the kitchen sink, I could look out to the west side yard and see the redbud trees and the big shade trees and maybe catch a glimpse of a child riding a zip line down thru the yard! 

I have heard tales of children riding mattresses down the enclosed stairway and hitting the wall at the bottom???? remember there was one or two steps up then a quick left turn to go up the rest of the way?  Who can tell me more about this? 

This must have been fall 1975 or a very early warm spring of 1976 as I am expectant with Craig.  I sewed that maternity top and I loved it with my bell bottom pants!  This swing set was in our south yard.  Your dad had put up a little fence around the swing set.  Kristy is there swinging, just a blur!  Erica is sitting on the glider waiting for a push.  I don't know who lived in that white house behind us but the Weirs lived just to the left.  That is the Weir's garage.  Dad and I planted that tree, that is growing up between the camera and the Weirs' garage.  This is early spring, I have decided, because there is a Redbud blooming across the street. 

Ah ha!  Bare cheeks!  Bare babies!  Kristy and Erica, each in their own dish pan.  Would you have thought I would have had a dish pan for Tiffany, too?  I guess the milk jug of water was to refill the dish pans after the girls had splashed out all the water!  In the back of the photo, there is a stack of shingles.  Dad and Grampa and Gramps shingled the roof of this tall, big ol gabled house.  What an ambitious project!  But all these men were shinglers.  Born and bred.  Naturals. 

This is Himself's and my Wedding Reception at Gramps and Granny's.  We are sitting in front of the fireplace wall.  look at that 1970s TV!  Look at those 1970s clothes!  Look at those chrome and vinyl dining room chairs we are sitting on!  I would have been more comfortible in my smock, bell bottoms and my leather sandals!  With my colored sunglasses and maybe even a bandana around my head! 

Oh my gosh, we were young! 

Kristy, Erica, Craig

Kathy, Martha and ??? Paul?  Ralph? 

We were living in the "Helen Speed" house and these neighbor children lived just south of us.  Look at my bathing beauties!  Craig is to the right.  You were in the neighbor's yard as we didn't have a swing set until we got to the "Lobaugh" house.  I think.  Maybe not until we moved to the "Klinkefus" house?   This is the house Johanna came home to.  We weren't here long as I think Johanna learned to walk at the Lobaugh House.  Craig, was it Kathy's or Martha's pigtail you cut off?  Their Mom wasn't even irritated, that I could tell.  She was very gracious about the "hair cut". 

There!  You children see how easy this is?  Write down one memory . . . and let the others flow in!  I'll keep trying . . . if you will start!  Love, this episode, of "down memory lane".  Hope you did too!  Love, Ma

PS:  there'll be more pics of you, Johanna, and Craig.  And of you all!