#15

The Lind "house" was very nice. All brick, nice lawns, good neighborhood and in the "better" side of town.
Lind, Washington. I really didn't like this town at all! It was small, isolating and very close knit, which meant new people were shunned. I took refuge in books, any kind of book I could find. It was the only activity available other than working at my parents tavern, cleaning anything and everything.
This is where I became aware of my eating problems. I was left at home all day by myself, I don't know where my brother was and probably didn't care. He wasn't a very nice child. I kept going to the bread box because I couldn't think of anything else to do. Finally one day I decided to sew something so I wouldn't be so bored.
I searched the house but I couldn't find any fabric to use. Finally I thought of a Orange, pink and red plaid set of sheets that I had always like the look of and I went to work. I sewed a pencil skirt with belt, a 3 button matching vest and used a white pillow case to make a simple sleeveless short waisted top for under the vest. I thought it looked very nice. I was very excited about wearing it to school on Monday. Of course the house was a disasterous, thread and trimmings everywhere, sewing machine, scissors and pins across the living room floor.
Needless to say mom and dad were less than impressed that night when they came home from a long day at work to a house that looked like a cyclone had hit. It took me the rest of the week end to clean it but i didn't mind, at least I wasn't bored.
This is what really started my enjoyment of sewing. I can't remember learning to sew, it was just always a part of our lives. I know I sewed clothes for my dolls on a little toy sewing machine that had a crank handles but I have no idea how old I was....maybe 4 or 5.
After the "sheet" experiment Mom and Dad made sure I had plenty of supplies around the house. I was sewing all the time. I made most of my clothes from then on.
At the end of the school year it was time once again for Dad to sell the tavern, named "Slim's". Again Gene had a buyer but I remember this time he was being very mysterious about the buyer. After the sale was final Gene had invited us to dinner to meet the new owners. That is when we found out that the buyer was my Aunt Bessie, Dad's sister.
I was glad to be rid of the town and it's selfish people.

Again, when Dad sold the shop in Othello, we (the kids) were only given a few hours notice. Mom, I am sure had a few weeks notice because as I look back I can remember she had most of our things packed when the moving truck pulled up out front. We, however, never had time to say goodbye to our friends, or to ease into the idea of a whole new setting.
We were again in temporary living quarters. My Dad's parents had passed away and he was responsible for selling their property. We moved into their home in Spokane, Washington. It was an older Craftsman home, middle class but very nice. My brother had a bedroom on the main floor, I was relegated to the finished attic space. It was almost nice. It had a very nice window with bench that I spent most of my days watching the people on the street from. It was very hot though because it was summer time.
One day I was sewing something in the living room when the door bell rang. As I jumped up to answer it I stepped on the scissors I had been using. The blade sank into the side of my foot and sliced it open about 4" long. Of course mom and dad weren't home so I answered the door, foot bleeding like crazy. It was the real estate agent about the house. I explained that mom and dad weren't home and that I had hurt myself. He took a look at my foot and immediately went to the kitchen and found a towel. Her wrapped my foot in the towel and carried me to his car. Now days that would be cause for alarm but back then it was cause for relief. He took me to the emergency room, sat with me while the Dr. sewed my foot back together and then real estate agent took me home. He stayed with me there at the house until mom and dad finally came home. I can remember that his first name was Gene but I can't recall his last name. He was very nice.
"Gene" had stopped by the house to tell mom and dad that the house (#14) had sold. We were moving again.

Times have changed

As was usual in our home, life was unusual. The house we had was too small but it had been the easiest one to rent quickly. I slept on the porch, Floyd slept in the eating area of the kitchen. While I enjoyed the openness the windows of the porch gave me, my brother longed for privacy. He decided the best way to get this was to drape a tent canvas from the ceiling to the floor to make a wall between his sleeping area and the active kitchen. (I say active kitchen because it was the entry to the house, we actually never cooked or ate in this home.)
He then painted the walls flat black, including the canvas "wall". He papered the windows with paper grocery sack and painted them black also. He had turned it into a dark hole in the living space of the house.
We lived in this house for 4 months. I didn't object to this house but I wasn't sorry to leave it behind either.
On to # 13.
This house was a tract house, smart yellow and landscaped lawn, on the south side of town. It had hard wood floors, a nice kitchen (again, it was never used other than to store cold drinks and occasionally a loaf of bread.) a modern stylish fireplace of stone and we each had our own sleek bedroom.
It was a very long distance to walk to the city pool though. What I remember most about this house was the loneliness. It seemed no one was ever there. We had no tv, I had no friends in this neighborhood. Although we had moved to the other side of town, mom and dad decided to keep up in the same school district we had been in. All my school friends live on the other side of town. The pool was the meeting place for all the kids in town as this was a desert town.
I have only two outstanding memories of this town:
1. I was at the pool when the lifeguard pulled me out and told me I would have to sit out until my nose bleed stopped. I didn't even realise I had a nose bleed! An hour later the lifeguard called the ambulance because my nose bleed was not stopping. I was sent to the hospital and I remember thinking "Sure hope Dad and Mom can find me". I was given some coagulants and antihistamines and released. I was 12 years old and I walked out of the hospital and walked 3 miles home. I don't think Mom and Dad ever found out about this. I was afraid if I told them they wouldn't let me go swimming again.
2. On Saturdays we went to the "potato sheds". These were buildings with a roof but no floor or walls, just posts supporting the roof. Trucks from the potato fields emptied their load here and the potatoes were moved to the processing area by a conveyor in the center of the building. The ground was covered with potatoes that spilled from the trucks and the conveyor. These potatoes were free to anyone that wanted to glean them. We ate a lot of potatoes that year.

#12

After Sleepy Hollow we moved to Othello Washington. My Dad had bought a shoe repair shop there and Mom worked at the local supermarket.
I had been attending the Catholic school so when we entered the public school in Othello it was a bit of culture shock. I didn't mind being the new kid in school, it was always great to meet new friends. I was chosen to be a cheerleader and my Mom made all the uniforms for us. It was a pretty good time.
We had moved so quickly, as usual, we took what ever house Dad could find on short notice. The house was on the north side of town and very old and dirty. My sleeping area was in the enclosed front porch. I like this because I could see the stars at night and the sunrise in the morning.
My parents worked too many hours. One day when Dad came home he was too tired to even bother turning on the lights, he just wanted to go to bed. Mom on the other hand was home all day and decided to re-arrange the furniture......yep, you guessed right. Dad went to sit on the bed and the bed wasn't there anymore. The shocked shreik woke me and when the lights came on there was my Dad sitting in the middle of the floor with a shocked look on his face.
After that Mom didn't move the furniture without Dad's help.
House #12.

Army Green

I married young, I was only 18 and my new husband was 23. He worked hard but had no skills or training. We were very lucky because I had saved some money by working while I was in high school.

A local village character owned a home in our little town (population 101). He had become more and more paranoid as time went on. Finally he knew " They were getting closer and closer" because he could hear them outside at night. Finally one day the air force was having practice maneuvers overhead and he thought "they" were after him. He came to my mother wanting to sell his house so he could have money to "hide". Mom told me about it and that she didn't have any interest but once I heard the price, $700.00, I was interested. His biggest condition was that we had to complete the deal by sundown that day so he could "get away".

The house was about 600 square feet with two bedrooms, kitchen, living room and a jack and jill bathroom. I bought the house sight unseen. If nothing else it was good property. My first tour of the house was a mixture of regret, sadness and overwhelming compassion for the man's state of mind. The entire inside of the house was painted Army Green! In broad daylight it had felt like walking into a cave.

I painted over the army green ceilings a nice white, it took many many coats of paint. I painted the army green walls nice quiet happy colors walls, again it took many many coats of paint. I bought many GALLON containers of paint remover and went to work on the window panes, sinks, tub and toilet. I scraped the army green paint off the door knobs and faucets. I bought cheap linoleum to cover the army green on the floors.

The bathroom had a sink, toilet, claw foot tub and a water tank, all were army green. Let me tell you, you don't feel very clean climbing out of an army green tub.

Did you notice that I mentioned a water tank not a water heater? That is because the water supply ran through the cook stove, which was WOOD fueled, and then filled the water tank which supplied the hot water to the sinks and tub. This meant that about an hour before using any hot water I had to stoke and light the cook stove to heat the water. The cook stove was also the only heat for the house in the winter and heaven help you in the summer. Hot water was unheard of from May to September.

There were 3 plug ins in the entire house. One in the kitchen, one in the living room and one in the from bedroom, all of them on a single 15 amp fuse. There was a second 15 amp circuit for the lights in the house, yard and out building.

Once is it was cleaned and rejuvenated it was a nice little house, both my children were born while I was living there so it has many fond memories. But those stories are for another time.

Talk to me baby!

When your meaning becomes my meaning there has been communication.

Living in today.

You can't have rosy thoughts about the future when your mind is full of blues about the past.