On the Street Where You Live-Part 2

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Our little house in Albuquerque had three bedrooms and one bath. 

It had some neat features, too.  Such as the “corner” shelves in the hallway, right opposite my brother’s bedroom.  Mother had some knick-knacks there, as well as the telephone.  She kept a large basket there, where we placed the daily newspapers when we were finished with them. 

1959 – Judy on the phone – oh to be that thin again! Notice the dial telephone, and the newspaper basket on the floor

Back in those days (1950’s) we only had one telephone, and early on, it was a party-line!  I remember when we were given a phone number with letters and numbers, i.e. CHapel X-XXXX (no area code then).  You had to hunt for the CH on the number pad and dial that before the numbers. The powers-that-be finally realized that it was easier just to give the numbers, so the letters went away.

Another neat feature of that house was in the living room.  On the North wall was the fireplace.  The fireplace was bracketed on each side by a low glass-fronted bookcase, and a narrow window centered above each bookcase.

1952 – Judy in front of the fireplace with bookcases and windows. Must have been Christmas time with all those cards

1960 – A good picture of the fireplace, bookcase and window. We surprised Daddy in this picture. The mirror over the mantle now hangs above the mantle in our daughter’s house

The tops of the bookcases and the fireplace mantle provided space for some interesting things…such as my fish bowl – when I had guppies.  The mantle was the place for mom’s collection of cups and saucers.  What was funny about that was that our cat, Boots, would jump up there and walk among the cups and saucers – and not once did he knock over anything!  And he was a BIG cat!  With lots of fur!  Amazing.

1959 – Boots with Trixie, Aunt Jessie’s pug

I’ve mentioned in other posts that we had a door from the kitchen to the back yard that also led to the detached garage.  It had a screen door, and a doorbell.  When the doorbell was pushed, it gave a very different sound than the front doorbell.  So we always knew just which door we should answer.  

1948 – Daddy with Bill and me-The back door

There was storage space at the end of the bedroom hallway that held quite a bit of stuff.  There was a large door that opened to shelves.  Mother kept sheets and towels there, as I remember.  And under that door were drawers.  That was basically the storage for the entire house. But we didn’t have as much “stuff” then as we do now, so it was quite sufficient for us.

1952 – Judy and new doll in front of the storage cabinet and drawers

When approaching the house from the street, the doorbell was on the outside of the screen door.  And then you entered a screened-in porch before you approached the front door to the house.  In summer Bill or I would put up cots on the porch and sleep out there.  The windows in the living room looked to the East, so we were treated to the “purple mountains” every evening when the sun was setting.  I really miss that view.

This picture also shows the large East windows, where we could see the mountains.

The doorways from the living room led one way to the hallways that went to the bedrooms and bathroom.  Leading the other way entered into the dining room and the kitchen.  They were doorways, but open and curved at the top. See the curved-top doorway behind Bill.

1952 – The Lites Family

The dining room was a slender room.  The table and chairs were pushed up against one wall (the one with windows), and the buffet was pushed up against the opposite wall.  At the kitchen end of the room was matching tall sideboard.  Whenever we ate at that table, we had to pull it out from the wall, and squeeze by it to get anything from the kitchen.  I guess the word today would be “cozy.”

1956 – must be Thanksgiving dinner.

L-R: DiVoran, Bill, Judy, DiVoran’s brother David, Daddy ready to carve at the end, Granny, Dora DiVoran’s mother, Mom.

The kitchen was interesting – one wall was cabinets (which my mother painted pink at one time) and a window.  The sink and under cabinets were there, as well.  The stove was on one side, with the refrigerator on the other.  There was a table and four chairs in there where we usually ate our meals.  Daddy traveled a lot, so frequently it was just Mom, Bill and myself.  It was tight, but it worked.

1959 – Granny holding Trixie. Boots looking for a treat. Notice the pink cabinets, stove to the left.

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Tags: Remembering home