Thursday, July 19, 2007

My Childhood home....





Owlhaven is having a carnival. :-) Blog about your childhood home, and then head on over to owlhaven and sign the linky thing. :-) Have fun. :-)





Well, I actually have a couple of childhood homes, but I really liked one home. We lived in this home in La Porte, Tx from my 3rd grade year to 7th grade. We lived 3 or 4 blocks from the school, so I was able to ride my bicycle to school. This house was BIG. It was white with black trim. It had 3 front doors, and a BIG porch with a swing. :-) The door on the left lead into my bedroom, the middle (which we actually used as THE front door) opened into the living room, and the third led into Mom's office/family room. (Mom sold AVON, and therefore got an "office") I remember that it had blue, shag carpet. And the kitchen had that UGLY 60s/70s yellow wall paper that had huge yellow and white flowers. You just have to see it to appreciate how hideous the wallpaper was.



Mom and Daddy's bedroom was on the other side of the house from the "kids rooms". I started off with my own room, which connected to my sisters room. It was really big, and cool. :-) Unfortunately, I was afraid of the dark, and a "scaredy cat". The attic was in the bathroom! The bathroom was "centered" to my room, my brother's room and the kitchen. There were 3 doors that entered to the bathroom ya'll. 3. They all had latch hooks, and if you had to go BAD they didn't all get locked. Know what I'm saying?



SO, since I was so scared I ended up sharing a room with my sister "Queen B". We are very close in age, and it made it easier to share things, like the stereo. :-) We would go to sleep listening to "Mystery theater" on the radio. :-) Which was okay, because she was sleeping with me. :-) I'm brave when I'm not alone. :-)



We had a big kitchen, and 1 bathroom, that had 3 doors leading into it. I remember that after we moved there we started having the family get togethers at our house. :-) We lived on a nice street. We skated on the porch, and Queen B broke her arm skating OFF the porch.

We had these steps that led up the porch, and they had these HUGE orange flowers on either side. We called them "elephant ears". There were white columns all around the front porch. At Christmas Daddy would wrap them with green garland. I thought it was beautiful. :-) I really loved that house. We went back to see it a few years ago, and I just about cried. The people living there now painted it, and let everything grow up. It looked like a jungle. :-(



We also had GREAT neighbors. Our next door neighbors were a very nice elderly couple, the Adam's. Mr. Adams made chairs from coke cans. He was so nice. We would go sit on his screened in porch, drink coffee, shell peas and talk politics. I was about 9 or 10 years old. :-)



Down the street was an older lady, Mrs. Lafores, who was a former school teacher. She painted, and made pictures from seeds and jewelry. She was my introduction into arts and crafts. I loved visiting her.



The older couple at the end of the street, the Cole's, new my mother for years. Mrs. Cole made my Mama's wedding dress. :-) It was just that kind of place ya'll. :-)



I will never forget Sundays at that house. Sunday was "family day." After breakfast the entire family would clean the house, and it had to be finished by NOON, because that is when the Oilers played. :-)



I can still picture all of the boxes of Girl Scout cookies stacked by the front door, the year we sold over 400 boxes. I can picture the Christmas tree in the Office/Den. I remember that is where I made my first cake by myself, and attempted my first decorating venture. It was a small heart layed on top of a large ya'll. I was gifted, I'm telling you. :-) That is also the house we lived in the first year I stayed home by myself on Halloween. I stayed to hand out candy. It was only about an hour, but hey, it was big time to me. :-) I remember we had a huge back porch, screened in. Most of my best memories happened while living in that house. :-)



Well, I guess that is a long enough walk down memory lane. Thank you for joining me. :-)



Love,

Wendy Darling

7 comments:

Summer Owens said...

I had an older lady down the street from me that I loved to visit as well. She was so gracious to let the little 5 year old in all the time to play with her dolls.

Lyndy said...

Precious memories for sure. Thanks for sharing.

Have a blessed weekend.

Lyndy

Princess LadyBug said...

I think the house looked better during the last trip over there. At least I hope it did. :)

Owlhaven said...

Our kitchen had that wallpaper too!

Mary

Jenni said...

Great memories. I would LOVE to see a picture of the elephant ears decked out for the holidays!

Barbara H. said...

The bathroom in our house now has two doors, and since one goes into my room, I don't always lock it when I'm in a hurry. :-) I can't imagine having to fiddle with 3 locks!!

I've always wanted a house with posts in front that I could decorate with garlands at Christmas.

Barbara H. @ Stray Thoughts

Fiddledeedee said...

Sweet memories! I have a special place in my heart for La Porte. My dad's dad and step-mother lived there for many many years. I think their street was Cedarmont. It was beautiful.