Earliest Memories...

One of my earliest memories was looking out the living room window waiting for my Dad to come home from work.  Dad had a black 1936 Oldsmobile which he drove all through the war years until 1949 when he purchased a new grey Oldsmobile.

Three of the houses on the south side of Arnold Avenue in the 600 block were identical and had driveways that led to garages at the rear of the property.  Our yard was fenced in and my Dad had planted flowerbeds along the fence and against the house and walkways. There was also a garden house in the opposite corner of the yard that he had built.  We have some photos of our family taken there in the late 1930's when I was an infant. It was later removed and my Dad planted an apple tree nearby that had several varieties of apples grafted to it.  Many years later, the tree was sawed down and my dad carved a beautiful lamp of a Mother and Child for me from the applewood.  I still use this lamp in my own home.

Most of the neighborhoods had alleys in back of the properties.  We had a coal furnace for most of my childhood and periodically Hungerford would come to deliver coal and deposited it in the coal shed through a small wooden window opening on the alley side...


~ Photo by Erin Chauvin Photography