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