Agnes Street was in a new neighborhood on the edge of town. We had fields around us for a number of years while construction was going on. It was in the same ward where we had been so no change there. In fact, a few other friends from the ward moved onto some neighboring streets which was a nice bonus in a town without a lot of Mormons.
I will add a picture later when Gary reteaches me how to scan in old pictures. It was a rambler with hard wood floors......three bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room, formal dining room, and a "PINK" eat-in kitchen. It also had a full unfinished basement which later were added a bathroom, a bedroom, and Dad's enclosed train room which was my bedroom for the last few years we lived there.
Mom was never fond of the pink kitchen but she still managed to cook great meals for us. We usually ate dinner in the formal living room since that was the bigger table. The wood floors were the type that had to be polished and I remember enjoying the task more than other household tasks when I was a teenager. I didn't mind sitting on the floor and waxing it by hand. I loved how it looked when it was done and I enjoy the "thinking time." I would not like it now and appreciate my much easier to care for wood floors, but they never look quite the same as that newly polished floor.
We lived there from 1962 to 1971 (for me from age 7 to 16) so I have lots of memories there. Of course, there were the three evergreen trees on the side of the front yard which we loved jumping over in the evenings when we were playing in the front yard. Our tree in the backyard had a weird split in it, so it looked like two trees even though it was only one. I called it Martha and George Washington....was that just me or did we actually name the tree?????
We had a great sand box (actually the whole area was sand so Mom and Dad didn't have to pay to have a sand box) behind our garage. I loved playing in the sand. It was there when digging with some younger siblings when I was 12 that I clearly remember thinking that I would go to China one day. Someone said they were digging to China (a common phrase in sand box conversations of the day.) I remember thinking that you can't dig to China, but I will see it for myself.
So for the next few weeks, post or comment about our Agnes house...............
8 comments:
I love that Slurpees picture!
I loved digging in the sand box, too, and remember "digging to China."
Judy's the only one who made it.
Maybe Judy is the only "child" to make China, but your mother and I made Hong Kong, and of course you know about a certain granddaughter!
Speaking of Agnes, one of my favorite memories is the ping pong table in the basement!
My greatest memories seem to revolve around the basement. The ping pong table, which was also used for things other than ping pong, such as hydroplane races. We used to fold paper into hydroplanes and raced around tracks we made with the computer paper Dad would bring home from work.
We sometimes would climb out the basement windows which were near ground level in window wells. The basement also had a fireplace, directly below the one you see in the Slurpee picture.
I also remember digging in the dirt area behind the (detached) garage, watching out for red ants and the tack weeds.
Judy, I think you were the only one to name the tree. Are you talking about the big Sycamore tree?
I remember jumping over the three small bushes in the front yard, and then being surprised when we went back to Richland (Summer, 1972 or 73?) and the bushes were actually small trees much to big to jump.
Among the things I liked was being close enough to walk to the ponds down the hill across Thayer (I think they're all gone now) and the shelter belt. Or, slightly further, over to the Yakima River.
Nothing like living in West Texas again to make one miss being close to a river.
I had forgotten what type of tree it was but it was the Sycamore tree in the back yard.
Wellsian Ponds (I think that is how it was spelled.), the Shelter belt, the River (where I almost drowned once) and the desert all around us for a number of years were a big part of my memories. I remember catching lizards (which we kept in shoeboxes under our beds) and tadpoles (which we kept in buckets until they became frogs and then took them back to the ponds--amazing process to watch). For a long time there was just desert behind our house and there were some big cement pieces we used for "forts" and other types of pretend play.
The shelter belt was the perfect place to climb trees. It was there that I found our first cat (I think) --a black kitten we named Happy. I think she was the mother of the famous kittens "Snip" "Snap" and "Snur" named from a children's book. (A side note: I would actually like to get a copy of that children's book. Anyone remember a title?)
I remember those cement blocks and the rest. On an occasion or two we had pinecone fights in the Shelter Belt.
The books Judy is asking about are a series with triplet boys - Snipp, Snapp and Snurr. The same author also wrote similar books with triplet girls, Flicka, Ricka, and Dicka.
My, my, the things one learns. I knew about climbing out the well windows (not then, but somewhat later) however didn't know about Judy almost drowning? Speaking of those three trees they were really big in 1981!
I should of added one of those cats became famous in my 1964 rendition of 'Twas the Night before Christmas!
Post a Comment