Orient Express

Late 1976 or early 1977:  We had just moved from 1503 Rebecca Street, Sioux City, Woodbury Co, Iowa to Iowa Street, Hubbard, Dakota Co, Nebraska when we found out that Zenith was going to close and move their operations to Mexico or Taiwan.  We didn't, of course, want to pack up our young family and move so far away so Himself and I decided that perhaps we could be our own employers . . . and not be at the beck and call of someone else  nor recipient of their whim or whimsey. 

We started reading the Des Moines Register's Sunday classifieds "Business for Sale" ads .  We talked about grocery stores and restaurants or bars but somehow we knew (even in our naivety) that a bar and restaurant would be relentless, require too many hours and probably be a seven-day a week committment.  We decided to find a small town grocery store to buy. 

Somewhere in the winter of 77-78, we found the ad for the Orient grocery store, Christy's Market.  We also found a store for sale in DeSota and one in Humeston, Iowa.  We looked at Orient and we looked at DeSota.  A winter storm one weekend and flu or family sickness, another weekend caused us to postpone traveling to Humeston.

DeSota was close to Des Moines and basically was what was called a "bedroom town".  The folks that lived in DeSota worked in Des Moines.  And shopped in Des Moines.  We both liked the idea of Orient as it was about 20 miles to Prescott and about 20 miles to Afton, halfway between our families!  And not so close to Des Moines. 

Negotiations began.  We applied with the Small Business folks, the Farmers and Merchants bank and the Farm and Home Administration, a Federal program that would guarantee our loan with Farmers and Merchants. 

July 1978, we have been looking for a house to rent but they are few and far between.  We finally find an old farm house on the Stoll farm west of Orient.  It was $125 or $175 mo.  It was not fancy!  It was pretty basic and it had hogs in the hog lot and flies in the walls.  And that is not to mention the house was overrun with mice!  But it was a roof and shelter and we grabbed it!

Aug 1978, Kristy started 1st grade with Mrs. Harter and Erica started kindergarden with Mrs. Ritchhart.  Craig went to daycare with Patty Wilson.  I don't think the girls ever rode the bus from here so we must have taken them to school on the way to open the store. 

November 1978, or thereabouts, we were delighted to learn that there would be a new baby in June.  We were thrilled!  and motivated to move again.  We wanted to be in town, closer to the store and school and in a house where we could have use of the bedrooms.  In the old farm house, we all slept downstairs in the winter.  Lanny and I slept on the hide-a-bed couch in the living room and the children in the bedroom.

We rented a house from Helen Speed on hwy 25 south, across from the school.  There were 2 bedrooms down, a livingroom/dining room and kitchen down.  There was a nice enclosed front porch and two bedrooms up.  The kitchen was at the back of the house.  There was an outside door on the south west corner, counters and sink -- and the stove on the north wall.  There were three neighbor kids about the age of our children.  All's good.   

This house is where we brought Johanna home from the hospital.  It is were we became a family of 6.

It is here, when Johanna is about 3 or 4 days old that Craig pulls the crockpot off the counter and burns his feet and legs.  I picked him up and put him in the sink, running water on his legs while I wait for Lanny to get home from the store and for LaDonna to come stay with the girls -- all three girls including my newborn baby!  waahhh  !

On the trip to the hospital, I kept a wet towel on Craig's legs but it is still the longest 10 miles I have ever ridden in my life (including my trips to the hospitals when I was in labor!)   
It is from this house that Craig climbs trees, cuts off the neighbor girl's pigtail and falls in the rosebushes.  It is here that Kristy and Erica use a coffee can upstairs and throw the contents out the window and where they play birdie in a nest (using bean bags a top of dressers).  Kristy goes to second grade, Erica to first grade and they all play with the little girls next door.  Kristy, Erica and Craig welcomed Johanna with open arms just as Kristy and Erica welcomed Craig when he was born. 

In the spring of 1980, we move to the Lobaugh house.  I love this house!  4 bedrooms up.  Front entry, open stairway.  Two full sets of Pocket doors on the living room.  Formal dining room.  Wooden floors and natural woodwork.   A swinging door to the kitchen.  I can't remember the kitchen!  I'm thinking on this!

There is a big yard and there's an enclosed back porch where a bulkhead door lifts from the porch floor to allow us acces to the basement.  If we wanted to go.  And we don't.  But it is there in case of bad weather.
Johanna learns to crawl up the stairs here,  then walk.   This house is just a couple of blocks from the store and Lanny or I can walk to work while the other has the car to carry children here and there.  It is comfortable.  Maybe a little cool in winter and we pull shut the pocket doors to close off the front entry way.  My washer and dryer are still in the back room of the store and that works as we still have diapers and lots of laundry.

The children come to the grocery store to wait for the school bus. 
Craig goes to preschool from this house and to Patti Wilson's yet for daycare.  Johanna goes to the store, then to Patti's and when she's old enough, begs to go to play with Lyndsey Diers. 

About 1982, we buy the Klingenfus house in the 400 block of East Division/    Johanna, doesn't want to move and being a pretty articulate little talker, lets me know she does NOT LIKE this house!  But we settle in. 

Photo taken by the big Maple Tree

at the Klinkefus House. 

Oh! you are all so cute! 

This house backs up to the school play ground and we use the school grounds as an extension of our backyard.  We play tennis and use the ballfield.  The children all spend enormous amounts of time on the playground.  We have a sidewalk out front of the house where Craig and Johanna learn to ride two wheelers and then later, build a zipline from the front maple tree to the redbud.  They play in that big ol' Maple above the sidewalk and later I think it is a miracle no one ever fell out and broke an arm or cracked their head.  We build a tree house in the tree in the backyard.  We have a garden and apple trees to pick up after. 

We move the washer and dryer home. Himself and I take turns having a day off from the store.  I'm a cub scout leader for one year here.   We have countless neighborhood kids in and out.  They come here after ballgames to wait for parents; they come before ballgames to wait for bus times. 
It is from this house that we take our Washington, DC, our Arkansas, the Dillion, Colorado and the Duluth, Mn vacations.  I wish we had stayed there another 8 years.
Well, consider this entry a beginning,  an outline.  Hopefully I can use this to explore and record our houses and lives in future entries.

Add your comments and memories . . . that will encourage my memories.  Love, Mama

PS:  what a tell-tale sign that I comment on these houses in regards to the laundry . . . washer and dryer are still at the Store.  House where we brought the washer and dryer to.  lol 

Under January Skies

Himself and I have been to Missouri twice, since the new year turned.  Southern Iowa is having an unusually warm and dry winter.  That, of course, has the drought worry-wart in me on alert, worrying about the lack of rain and snow.  On the other hand, every warm day shortens our winter by that much.  So, I don't complain outloud . . .  but I am sure wistful for a thunderstorm or two.

I think this photo, above, is going to the county fair.  What's your opinion?  Is the composition good?  The colors? the sharpness?  It pleases my eye.  Will it please a judge's? 

This photo, above pleases my eye too.  This is just east of Creston on Townline Road.  I don't know if this is a new style of stacking big hay bales or if it is just one farmer's sense of humor.  I like it!  It may go to Fair too.





Because it has been so dry, Himself and I are still able to travel the backroads, to take the shortcuts and the dirt roads.  This, my title says when I saved the pic, was taken in northern Missouri.  But northern Missouri or southern Iowa, it is all cut from the same bolt of cloth.  This could be either state.  I was probably only guessing anyway about still being in Missouri.  Something fun is our GPS shows a dotted line on the screen when we cross state lines so had I been watching the GPS, I would have known for sure.  Fortunately for me, I'd rather watch out the windows than watch the GPS.  But back to the fun thing, I like to show the grandchildren the dotted line on the GPS . . . but we can't ever see that when we drive over it.  Darn!  Wish we could!   

All these photos were taken "under January skies" but this one shows how blue the sky can be in January in Iowa when there's a chill in the air and the skies are clear.  It also shows all the dips and curves, the hills and dales and the winding northern Missouri or southern Iowa back country roads.  

Look what I can do!

August 2005

I meant to do this last August.

August 2010.

I forgot.

That's the icky part of aging.

The forgetting.

Since I forgot to do this

August 2010.

I'm going to do it

August 2012.

I'd better get to practicing!

Can you spell mischievous?

Look at this pretty little sweetheart!

You can see the mischief and spirit in her eyes.

I think she's going to keep her Mama and Dad a hopping
and break hearts! 

Gabrielle
3/2005

Star Quality

Recital 2005

I just love this pic of Morghan Grace.

It captures her joie de vivre.

Her exuberance.

Her love of center stage.

And ya just can't help smiling back!

(please ignore the rest . . .

blogger will not let me get rid of the URL message

nor clean this up.  But the pic is soooo cute,

I'm posting -- one way or another! 

!

I just love this pic of Morghan Grace.

It captures her joie de vivre.

Her exuberance.

Her love of center stage.

And ya just can't help smiling back! 

Adoration

Maddie May loves Joey.  I don't know if this is the first baby she's met but she wants to give him some loving!  She wants to hug him and kiss him. 

And Maddie wants to mother Joey! 

What Sweethearts! 

Found some "drafts" that were started and never finished. Thought you might enjoy some past moments in time.

Christmas 2004

"Jack and Joe are "fishing" off the 3rd floor stairway.  It is a wonder one of them didn't fall.  I moved the playroom upstairs awhile back, to give the kids more room to play so I suppose it is to be expected that they come up with some creative play ideas."

Aren't these boys cute in their PJs?

Found some "drafts" that were started and never finished. Thought you might enjoy some past moments in time.

Our home for a year

Hubbard, Ne

                                                                         

Being young and impulsive, we decided to sell our house and move to a small town.  We both had been reared in small, rural towns and it felt right.

We found a house that we could afford in Hubbard, Ne 16 miles south and west of Sioux City and moved in the spring of 1977.  Kristy was 5 yr, Erica newly 4 yr and Craig about 15 months. We had the summer to meet other children and to get acquainted with our neighbors. 

Nettie and Tom Parker lived north of us, with two teenagers, Gayleen and older brother Tim. 

Houses were being build west of us, up the hill, tho we didn't have neighbors there yet.  Our mailing address, while we lived there, was a Post Office Box so I couldn't even have told you the name of the street we lived on but looking now at maps, it was Iowa Street, the last block north, the second to last house at the north end of the block. 

But Zenith announces plans to close the Radio Manufacturing Plant in Sioux City.  Himself can transfer to Taiwan or Mexico.  Oh, Sorry, can't accept that offer to see the world --  so let's see, what shall we do in our next life?  lol  Himself stays employed at Zenith, helping to finish up and close down.  While he's doing that, we are looking for a grocery store to buy.  We will be our bosses.  We will be self-employed!  We look at DeSota, Ia.  We try to look at Humeston but illness one weekend and snow storm another and then we see the add for the Orient Grocery Store.  Guess, I will have to the rest of that story for another day.  And we put the house up for sale and make plans to move to Orient, Ia which is about the same distance from Afton, Ia as it is from Prescott, Ia and seems providential. 

Teresa Groves lived south of us in an older small white house.  She was a widow and a grandmotherly type.  We didn't see a whole lot of her but she was friendly and neighborly. 

That first summer, we sat a wading pool on the garage apron.  You can see it there.  I think muddy children must have washed their feet in that pool.  It does not look very sanitary.  This photo reminds me that I have a couple of cute pics with little girls in this pool, somewhere.  I'll have to round them up and get them in here.  I do not remember this puppy.  Do you?  I thought we had a cat? 

The window (above) is the living room window.  Himself hung up a rod the length of the window and we had house plants flourish there in the west window.  Being the 70s and all, I made macrame plant hangers and also bought some and the window was full of pots and vines and leaves.

Looking south -- That is Teresa Groves house.  She had houseplants in her back porch and she is the one that gave me the Snake Plant (or mother-in-laws tongue lol) that I still have -- any maybe you have a piece.  Going on down that street, you arrive at the small business-district. We walked down to the Post Office about every day.  That was a 3 ring circus, let me tell you.  It was a good day when we didn't encounter any dogs running loose. 

Main Street, Hubbard, Ne.
Post Office is the white building at left.

An aerial view. 

The business district consisted of the Post Office, a small independent grocery store and a bar.  I'm sure there must have been an elevator, maybe a feed and grain store.  We were lucky to have the grocery store.  And the bar too as every Friday night we'd order crisp chicken, french fries and beans and whoever picked up the order usually grabbed a bottle of Ancient Age or Southern Comfort to toast the weekend. 

The Parkers lived to the left, Mrs. Groves to the right. 

Himself and I put in the Ben Franklin woodburning stove.

You can see the smoke stack above the living room window.

To the right of the front door was the little bedroom, Craig's.  Then at the end, that window was the "girls' room".  The master bedroom was on the backside of the house across from the girls' room.  The bathroom was opposite Craig's room. 

I loved the deep maroon carpet in the master bedroom. 

I'm not sure I could even call it maroon, more dark rich purple.  I found a white bedspread and lace curtains and that east bedroom was just so cozy and inviting.  Maybe I should try to recreate that feel in the cabin. 

I loved those colors, fabrics and textures. 

 Our first spring at Hubbard was wet.  The lot across the street from us set up higher than our house and had no grass.  The bank was red clay.  When it rained, the water ran down that bank and into our driveway.  We had a paved apron in front of the garage but from the cement out, it was a mess!  The girls were a mess!  Those two houses were in the process of being finished.  One of them might have sold by the time we up and left for Orient but I don't remember anyone living "up the hill" from us. 

This little orphan boy was a mess!

Wonder who his mother is, to let him play in the mud? 

(looking north - the pickup camper was the Parker's)

Oh what a good boy you are!

Climbing up into the kitchen sink to wash yourself up! 

Craig's trick was to open the dishwasher, in the counter to the left of the sink, climb on the dishwasher door, pull himself up on the counter and scurry across to to plop his fanny neatly into the sink.

And, of course, the faucet was no mystery. 

Yep, let's run a little water. 

See.  The sleeves of his shirt are wet.   

Out the window over the sink, one looked into the back yard. To the left in this picture, was the door to the garage. If you turned 90 degrees to your left, you found the stairs to the basement. The basement had one room carved out in the south end but otherwise, was pretty much wide open. Cement block walls and cement floor. There was a bathroom down there ( I think!) and a laundry room with washer and dryer. We had an old couch and some furniture but you children didn't spend much time down there unless I was doing laundry or there was a tornado warning or something. 

Kristy, how did you get to school?  I can't believe I let you walk three or four blocks, summer and winter.  Did you walk with neighbor children?  Or . . .  my gosh, I'm beating my chest and tearing my hair!  I did that?  I let you walk to school?  OMgosh!  I made you! 

Just like I made you girls be in a Little Princess Contest at the Dakota County Fair.  We washed you up, curled your hair and dragged you off to the contest.  Well, to make a long story short, we didn't win and we didn't care and we didn't go back!  lol

Here three little bottoms sit and fit on the fender of the Ben Franklin wood burning stove.  It's okay tho!  It's summer and no fire or hot coals in there and somewhere down the line I'll write about buying a grocery store and moving "home" to Orient, Iowa.   

My grandparents, Rob & Mattie Wilson Austin had children:

Robert Washington Austin (married Manera Robinette)
Leonard James Austin (married Mollie)
Forrest Marion Austin (married Janice Coe)
Ivan Wilson Austin (Married Pauline (I should know this))
Frieda Mary Ella Frances (married Joe C. Dodd) Frieda just 1 month older than Granny.
Eunice Mattie Mae Philena (married Dana Harper)
Jerry Dean (married Carolyn Rocky)
Betty Jean (died in infancy about 1925)

Found some "drafts" that were started and never finished. Thought you might enjoy some past moments in time.  These are facts, above.  Don't remember where I was headed with this but there, for now, is my Dad's family.

bon fire

Found some "drafts" that were started and never finished. Thought you might enjoy some past moments in time.

 

I think I did use this photo before but it is just fun to look again.  If you really look, it appears that Morghan is poking Jack's rump and that Jack is trying to light his hair on fire.  But I'm pretty sure that is not really the case because Himself is sitting so relaxed and comfy in this chair.  If the scenerio I laid out had been correct and true, Papa would have had a fire extinguisher! 

Stroll-O-Chair

The Cadilac of Baby Buggies!

"With its nicely curved steel body, this Stroll-O-Chair is reminiscent of its English cousins. The frame design is almost identical to that used in the 1940s, and, in fact, changed very little over the years until the company went out of business in the 1990s." "Rex Manufacturers, operating from 1949 to 1979 in New York, created  the "Stroll-o-Chair".  The carriages converted from a buggy to multiple baby equipment -- a stroller, high chair and bassinet." There a The carriage Kristy, in her very own Stroll-o-Chair on her 1st birthday.  This is upstairs at 1503 Rebecca Street.  We are in the dining room, looking towards the kitchen, on the west side of the house.  The little bedroom is to our right, the North.  The bigger bedroom, behind us to the east.  The living room is to our left (open to this dining room) or to the south.  The bathroom is tucked around the corner from this room, between the kitchen and the little bedroom.  There are old fashioned bathroom fixtures and a claw foot tub.  There are tiny white tiles on the floor.  I loved the old fashioned medicine cabinet in the wall and the big old tub.  I could stretch out and the water heater was big enough to fill it to the brim!

              New baby Erica with sister Kristy. 

            In front of the Yellow Shrub Rose : )

          Using the still spiffy new Stroll-o-Chair. 

                Ah, the good "Days of my Life" 

               We still lived upstairs at this time. 

Picnic at the Smith Villa Library park.

Both girls wearing their home-made, hooded wool coats. 

Poor third child, boy baby. 

He gets left in the Stroll-O-Chair

 with a blanket over his head. 

I learned quick with this little ball of fire,

 don't wake a sleeping baby! 

This was a good day.  Winter was weakening. A hint of spring in the air.   Mama had the desire and the energy to buddle three precious babies, load them on the Stroll-o-Chair and wheel them the two or three blocks to the park for a picnic.  We are happy and laughing, enjoying life. 

shhhh . . . do you hear that?

no baby noises. For me, I miss the baby noises. As for Johanna and Audri, I know it is a good thing. Meanwhile, I carried all the toys upstairs and this little corner of the living room was so empty, I had to put a chair there.

Found some "drafts" that were started and never finished. Thought you might enjoy some past moments in time.

This was written after Johanna and Audri moved to their own home.  I wish I had gone ahead and put the photo in here -- the corner of the living room.  I had baby withdrawal after Erica and Morghan moved on and Johanna and Audri.  It is the best thing for the Mama's and children.  I totally support that!  But a person gets used to . . . well, they get used to baby noises. 

You and Granny have been given precious time together--time you get to spend alone with her. What a gift that is. And you're creating memories of their Great Granny for Morghan, Jack. and Maddie and Gabby and Joey. And what a gift that is for Granny as well. Although her recent memories are gone, she can still say so much about the the past. . . .

Found some "drafts" that were started and never finished. Thought you might enjoy some past moments in time. 

Someone wrote this to me and I saved it in a draft in Nana's View.  I'm glad I saved it so that I could find it again and think about our visits to Great Granny's. 

Fly Over

Rebecca Street ran up and down, north to south.   Where the W1 is West 15th Street.  We lived at 1503 Rebecca Street -- on the corner of Rebecca and 15th. 

Sioux City, Iowa.  That's right.  Today we are zipping in and having a brief review and revisit of our old neighborhood.  I got home sick last evening and went back for a little visit.  It is amazing what you can see on the Google or Mapquest maps, in the Satellite mode.  Purely amazing. 

The photo of our great old house was taken in 2007 when Himself and I drove through Sioux City on our way back from a vacation "out west".  I gave notice last evening that it is about time for another weekend trip to Siouxland.  I loved that house!  I want it back!  See that tree in the front yard?  There was a beautiful yellow-blossomed rose bush about there.  Well, you know that -- from all the photos. 

 From the satellite map photo, I think the little 1920s garage is still standing, just up the driveway.  That long flight of stairs, I must of climbed that 10,000 times, usually with a child and a sack of groceries or a clothes basket;  later, with two children, one on each hip.   Then, when Craig arrived, I either made two trips, made Kristy walk or just didn't make the effort to go out!  No, not true.  We went out most days.  I would load three children up on our handy-dandy convertible baby stroller and off we'd go for fresh air and exercise (recommended by Dr. Benjamin Spock, the widely known baby doctor) and a quick visit to the library.

Smith Villa Branch Library

Photo from the internet.

Looking for a photo in the internet of this great Library just a block or two from our house, I couldn't find a photo and in searching maps, there were so many trees around and over it I couldn't find it.  I was afraid they had torn it down.  But never fear, here it remains.  I'm not sure if it is still a branch library, but I hope so.  Remember the pleasure we took, and the anticipation of finding a book, when we walked up the street to the Library?

2007

My Photo

This huge old building, I discovered last night in the internet, was built as a house for a doctor.  Imagine!  But it was a school, just up the street two blocks from our house.  It is where Kristy would have started school if we hadn't moved to Hubbard.  I just could not bring myself to start Kristy to school in a class of 100 children (not all in one room!).  So we moved to Hubbard and sent her to a kindergarten class of 7, I think it was.  Ah, much better . . .

This school is scheduled to be razed, if not already gone.  In my journey last evening, I learned that a new modern school was built this past year to replace Smith School and another neighborhood school, Everett.  They tore down houses to make room for the modern one-story mass of a building and now will tear down this old stone structure.  Makes a grown woman want to weep -- and tie herself to the building so the catepillar and dragline can't do the destruction! 

The Combination Bridge over the Missouri River is gone now too, replaced with a new safe bridge.  We drove across this bridge to get to South Sioux City.  It was always an adventure for a child as the floor of the bridge was made of steel grids and you could look through, down to the river.  Part of this bridge swung sideways.  It would open like a gate to allow barges and before that, I imagine, steamboats to travel up and down the Missouri. 

This is Sioux City's municipal Auditorium.  Right downtown.  Just off of I29 and the main north / south street, Pierce Street, through downtown Sioux City.  This is where we tried indoor ice skating and where they had home and garden shows and other community activities.    There was a carnival and displays set up near here in 1976, the Nation's Bi-Centennial and we went, as a family, through the Freedom Train.

Oh, wow, that was a feel-good trip.  The journey brought back lots of great memories and good times.  Just like childbirth, one forgets the work, the fights, the pain, the frustration of marriage and child rearing and only the good memories remain. 

baby baths

Found some "drafts" that were started and never finished. Thought you might enjoy some past moments in time.


Well, that's Audri in the middle and Gabby & Joey.  Wish I had the bigger picture!  I probably had to crop the photo to keep Joey decent!  lol

"Johanna went to visit Shannon this evening and Shannon's new little boy born June 28. Audri stayed with Nana and Papa. After an hour outside sucking on muddy spoons, watering plants, washing rocks . . . well, you get the idea, the cousins had a bath. Your Grandmother Hofmeister always liked to bath you children. I didn't get it . . . then. Now I do. It is just plain fun"

Nana's sweet baby Maddie

Found some "drafts" that were started and never finished.  Thought you might enjoy some past moments in time. 

I can't call this little girl "baby" anymore. Can you believe she is going to be 5 years old? Not me!

Cars in my life, Part 1

You wouldn't guess it and I'm pretty sure you don't know it but I am a lover of old cars.  We can all guess where I got there.  This apple didn't fall far from the tree.  Well, maybe not a Lover of all cars but a great admirer! 

It's strange . . . I don't have a good memory yet I have several vivid memories from when I was two or younger.  One early memory had to do with this pretty Chevy.  This is a 1952 model.  Granny and Gramps had 9 children by 1952 and we were going to town and to Gramma's house and on Sunday drives in this two-seater.  Our Chevy, actually, was a four door.  Or as Unc says it "fordor" . . . in contrast to "todor".  Or Two Door.  I thought Unc was being facitious until I found those words in the internet. 

 

Above, this is Chevy Styleline and the first car I remember.  Our maroon Chevy had a black top, Unc says.  I don't know . . .  I just remember the big roomy seats. 

Children, back then, weren't strapped, belted or pinned in.  We rambled and flopped and fought for space (all 7 of us in the back seat) while two lucky little ones sat up front with Mom and Dad.   In fact, Gramps took the door handles off so little mischevious hands in the back seat couldn't open the door from the inside.  One of Granny's dire predictions was of one of us falling out of the car!  On a serious note, this did happen.  Children did fall out of cars and were hurt and killed so Gramps and Granny took off the door handles and protected their little ones. 

 One child would sit in the middle of the front seat and the luckiest of all got to sit on Mommy's lap!  : )  Yep, you guessed it, that lucky one was baby Mary when I could remember.  I suppose before that it was me, with Linda between.  But really.  Can you imagine 7 children in the back seat of a car?  At night, coming home late from visiting an Aunt or Uncle, one middle size person might climb up and lay in the back window ledge and two of the smaller ones curl up on the floor, one on each side of the hump.  Let's see . .. I'm doing my math.  7 - 3 = 4.  That would be just about right!  Four bigger children sitting and leaning against each other in that big bench seat.  Holding each other up, as sleep over took.  Only young heads a bobbing and a nodding.  Oh the good old days!

This green beauty is a 1955 Chevrolet Two Ten fordor.  Gramps fell in love one Saturday night in Kerr-Cochran's Chevrolet show room while Granny shopped for fabric upstairs at JC Penneys.  Unc was sure Gramps was going to drive it home that night but Dad resisted and it was another week or two before he took the car he was driving and traded for this beauty.  Ours was two-toned green, according to Gary Lewis and Unc.  Interesting enough, I don't have a memory of this car . . . but isn't it pretty? 

Children were growing.  Getting taller and wider. Gramps didn't keep the '55 more than a year, he went out upgraded to a 1956 gray and white nine passenger fordor station wagon.  wa whoo!  The Austins were right up town!  I couldn't find a gray & white photo in the internet but while I was looking, Aunt Kate wrote in an email: 

"I liked the gray and white station wagon, too. We traveled in it and I don't remember that we ever saw another one (like it). I seem to remember that Dad ordered it and picked the colors."

Then, I discovered in the internet that you used to be able to go to a car dealer and design your own car. 

from the internet:
In response to Sparkywax. I think most of the Two-Tone (top only) cars were painted at the dealer at the buyers request.

So now we are pretty sure Grampsy did design his own, this one -- the one Kate says they never saw another one like!  I adore the story -- whether true or not, we will never know! 

That's enough about cars in one entry.  I'll write about earlier cars someother time and about later models too.  There's a few more stories to be told! 

Oh, and lest I forget to tell it, it was in this car, in this 1952 Chevy Styline, that Aunt Mary was born.  Born in the car in the parking lot of the old Creston Hospital on North Oak Street. 

Record Breaking

These are home grown!   A couple of years ago, we had home grown tomatoes at Thanksgiving time.  This year, we may be able to have tomatoes for Christmas Dinner.  This gives me great pleasure!  Isn't that silly?  I think it is the Depression Era up-bringing breaking out in me.  Himself and I had wonderful BLTs last night for supper.  Hmmm Hmmm.  Good!

Some Assembly Required

Some?

Some assembly? 

Really. 

How about Total Assembly Required.