Which animal would you compare yourself to and why?
In sixth grade art class, the assignment was to draw an animal that represented us.
I chose a Chameleon. Whew, that’s deep for a 12 year old right?
I felt like I changed and adapted to the people around me. I didn’t consider it in a bad way, like I wasn’t being myself. It was more that I could be comfortable around different types of people.
Later on, I read a chameleon changes colors as camouflage to hide from predators. That resonated with me too because I do like to blend in the background and be support rather than a star.
It was a sunny Saturday in September of 1972 and I was 12 years old.
My childhood (and current) home
One of my sisters and a friend or two were performing flips in the front year. We would start from the steps and head towards the flag pole.
I completed a few flips, but on the last attempt I ran, flipped, and landed on the top of my right foot. There was intense pain and I couldn’t walk. We all shouted for my mother. She came out and off the two of us went to the emergency room. We waited for a few hours for X-rays that confirmed I broke a little bone in the back of my ankle. I came home in a cast to my knee and crutches.
My diary entry!
It was a miserable 8 weeks. First with the crutches, and then with a “walking cast” which back then was a rubber block they attached to the bottom of the cast. In my case even with my highest heel on the other side, I was still lopsided, walking like Peg-Leg Pete! I would have been better off with crutches. What a relief it was when the cast finally came off but how weird my leg looked!
But I wasn’t the only one who suffered that weekend….
The incident happened on Saturday, September 9, 1972. My older sister’s 14th birthday and the family party was scheduled for the next day. My mother was in the process of baking her delicious 4 layer chocolate cake with whipped cream between layers and covered with chocolate frosting. She was likely making whatever meal we would be eating beforehand.
Aha! proof that I didn’t spoil the party, just “her day”!
I’ve written about my home before but now I’m exploring the house, the area surrounding it, and the family who built it.
My family and I moved into this home I now own on Memorial Day weekend in 1961.
My parents had previously been renting a home 2 blocks from my maternal grandmother for a few years.
They found this gem of a home – Dutch colonial, 4 bedrooms, eat in kitchen and dining room, living room with a fireplace, and a beautiful covered side porch. It was just under a half acre and had a 1 car (maybe 2) garage and old chicken coop. It had a walk up attic and a walk out basement.
Picture taken from area currently Lincoln Drive by future neighborCurrent location still has telephone pole. Structure from other picture and an additional one (unknown)
The previous owners, the Atkinsons, built the house sometime in the mid-20s. He was the personnel manager at H.L. Judd until his 1949 retirement but was also a “gentleman farmer” and sold baby chicks! Mr. Atkinson passed away in March of 1960 and a year later, Mrs. Atkinson was ready to sell.
The cost of the house was $25,000. My maternal grandmother gave them the $5,000 and they took out a mortgage for the rest. In a sweet coincidence, my paternal great grandmother gave my grandparents the down payment for their house in 1925.
The yard still contained what we called the chicken coop which my father took down and left the foundation. This brought years of fun playing on it because it was level from one part of the yard and “so high!” from another side and the back. We raced around on the edge for years.
I’m not sure where he was breeding his chicks for 15 years, prior to this 1927 ad but he appears to be quite well known. This will require some more research!
January 1927 advertisement9/5/1932 permit notice
There was also a cherry trees, apple trees, a grape arbor, rhubarb, and asparagus that continued to grow for years in “the way back”. Brambles of raspberries, and a mulberry tree rounded out the fruit.
9/1938 advertisement11/1938 advertisement
There are only 2 remaining apple trees just off our property with only one producing any apples. I determined it was a Wealthy apple from the advertisement and googling the apple. “Wealthy apple trees bear heavily and is very cold hearty, but also fruits in low chill locations. It’s a favorite for home orchards in Minnesota and the East.
I moved into this house in May of 1961, the month after I turned one year old. Before that, my family rented a home a few blocks from my mother’s family home.
I imagine my parents’ eyes lit up when they saw the four bedrooms and the 1/2 acre yard. The bonus was the covered porch on the side of the house and a double bonus was a next door neighbor with four children!
The porch was where we watched thunderstorms lighting up the woods across the street, where we hung out with friends, where we slept on hot summer nights only to be woken up by the sun, well past sunrise beating down on us!
One of my Sunday mornings watching the world go by6:30 am on a September morning
I left for seven years to California and looked we looked high and low for a house just like the one I grew up in. We found one that had it’s own charm but then we had the chance to buy this one from my dad and we took it. We moved back to Connecticut 28 years ago and are still so thankful it worked out.
August 2021 and the start of the family room addition. The back deck wrapped around the the porch
The side porch is still a special part of the house. It was given a facelift a few years ago, had a deck attached for the back of the house for 10 years or so, and is now a little bit larger to go with the family room added 2 years ago. During warmer weather, I sit out there with my morning coffee and newspaper. It’s the same location that my dad sat for 40 years, reading his newspaper in warm weather.
The sunrise from my side porch November 4 at 7:30
I love that this house keeps so many memories alive.
Growing up I loved when the clocks moved forward an hour! This was before they started messing with when it happened. Every year it was the last Sunday in April and with my birthday being the 22nd, it was a pretty good bet it would happen on the morning of our family party.
Our relatives, including 4 close in age cousins, would come over for food and cake and us kids would play in the yard all afternoon. My dad would bring out the motor scooter with side car (on loan from his brother) and take everyone on rides around the neighborhood. It felt like the day stretched on forever!
Falling back an hour usually coincided with Halloween back in the 70s so it would be nice and dark early when Halloween rolled around. We’d get out around 5pm and by back by 9pm to sort our candy and make trades. My sisters and I went to a catholic elementary school so we’d have the next day off because of All Saints Day. It was one of the few perks of going to our school!
I came to realize very quickly that babies do not recognize Daylight Saving time! Dogs too. They are going to keep on their regular sleep, eat, poop time regardless of what the clock says!
As the years have gone by, I realize I don’t do well with the time change at all! I’m going to bed at 9 when it’s really 10 and then getting up at 5:20 – which my husband reminds me “it was 6:20” – and I feel exhausted! Or because “it’s really only 8 but the clock says 9!”, I’ll stay up for an extra hour and again, exhausted!
Arizona and Hawaii have it right – they just don’t participate. Good for them! Who do I need to talk to here in Connecticut? I think we should be a little oasis of common sense!
In the mid 1960s through the early to mid 1970s, my sisters and I loved to watch, The Monkees, The Brady Bunch, Here Come the Brides, and The Partridge Family. All these shows had cute guys in them and we were Boy Crazy!
It’s weird to google and see the years that these shows aired. The Monkees was on from 1965 to 1968 when I was between 5 and 8 years old. We were crazy for Davy Jones. How odd to be mooning over this 20+ year old man when we were that age. Right?
We watched variety of other shows, never missing the Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights. We even watched Lawrence Welk and the Jackie Gleason show together as a family.
Obviously, we didn’t have the channels we have today (but I bet you still watch about 4 of them right?)! Channel 5 out of New York gave us I Love Lucy, and The Bowery Boys movies. And how could I forget the original Little Rascals!
I can look out my family room window and almost remember this sight with the blanket on the lawn for us, the chicken coop foundation in the background, and the mother of all maple trees.
There was a kiddie pool in front of us where we had car tire-sized inner tubes (remember those black ones with the stem that would scratch you if you weren’t careful?!)
Clothes hanging on the line to the left, extending from the house to a dead tree. I’m not sure how the tree withstood the loads of laundry for so many years!
The driveway was gravel and every summer we toughened our feet up walking down it “ouch” -ing and “ooo” -ing all the way.
There was an apple tree with a swing where I received my first bee sting as I was swinging and swatting at the bothersome bee. THAT hurt!
The old chicken coop foundation was ground level and the sides gradually got higher as the ground dropped away. We would run around until we got to the back and walked very carefully around.
Against the back wall was Rhubarb that grew wild (as did asparagus in another part of the yard!). When it was ripe, we’d get a baggie of sugar, tear off a stalk, and scoop up the sugar. I guess that’s where I got hooked on sugar!
All of it’s gone now – the foundation replaced by a 2 story garage, the mother of a maple tree removed because of disease, the clothesline, and the pool.
The gravel became asphalt but is once again gravel as my husband has turned the space out the back door into his garden sanctuary and we’re spending more time in the space I spent growing up.
Garage that replaced the chicken coop; maple tree that has now become the mother of maple trees
Thoughts From The Passenger Seat 