My Future House

Back on January 4th I started the blog series about My Old House with the above picture. In the photo, taken from the front window of the house I live in now, you can see the house I lived in from the age of four to eight (1975 to 1979.)

During the blog series I have reminisced as well as posted a number of pictures of items that I still have from the house I lived in 30 years ago.

One thing I wish I still had from my old house is my orange Schwinn Pixie bike. I loved that bike and wish I still had it so I could pass it down to my son. I have looked for an identical bike on eBay, but haven't had any luck.

I do at least have this picture of me riding the Schwinn Pixie. But what is even cooler about this picture is that in the background is the house that I live in today. At the time the picture was taken, I had no idea it would be the house that my wife and I would raise our family in, but right there it is in the picture with me. It's my house, my future house, my house and my old house all mixed up in one picture.

My future house. .

is my current house.

My Old Cars

Rocki (age 6) enjoys some Orange Juice from a
Rescuers glass while sitting at my kitchen table. I'm not sure if
I meant for the picture to be of Rocki or of my cars.

Same car 30 years later

I started collecting Matchbox cars when I lived in My Old House. We moved the collection to our attic when we moved back to Nappanee in 2000. When Landen turned two we got the car collection out for him to play with. He loves playing with "Daddy's old cars" and has begun to add his own cars to the collection. Shortly after I got the collection out, I blogged about it here. The post included this (really cute) video.

The Ditch

The ditch was a lot more fun to play in when I lived in My Old House than it is now. In the late 1970s I would play for hours on end with the neighborhood kids on its banks. Actually, I played there on into the mid 80s with my middle school buddies. There were trails that stretched from the Hartman Street bridge, almost all the way out to the Torture Trails at the Miriam Street bridge. Some memories:

• falling in
  
• getting leaches
• slipping on mossy rocks
• spitting in it from the bike bridge
• climbing inside the drainage pipe under the bike bridge (some kids claimed to walk all the way to the Middle School (three blocks) inside that pipe. I never ventured very far. The pipe is grated off today.
  
• finding Paradise by the Little League diamond. It was sort of a pretty spot.
• golf ball hunting
• crossing Dead Man's Pass
  
• trying to raft down it
• checking the water level after a heavy rain
• being really disappointed when they cut all the trees down
• almost (accidentally) touching a really big spider under some bark

As seen from the roof of My Old House, Berlin
Court Ditch was wooded back then.

A couple of years ago one of the neighbor ladies from Hartman Knoll (who still lives there) was telling me about the time I scared her so much because she looked out and saw me on the roof. She said she came running over to tell my mom. I bet my mom acted like she was all concerned too, but actually already knew I was up there. It just might have been the day I took this picture that the neighbor lady was talking about.

My Old Scar

I have a scar on my forehead.

It's been there since I lived in My Old House.

It was about 1977. My mom and sister were out for the evening, so one of my sister's friends (Mary Ann) came over to baby-sit me. Being the type of boy who was very cooperative with baby-sitters, I decided to keep busy. . . by riding on my German shepherd's back! Mack didn't think this was as good of idea as I did. And he let me know it. . . by taking a bite out of my forehead.

When my mom got home, she took me to Aunt Janet's (who is a nurse.) Janet thought I needed stitches rather than just a "butterfly." I was hoping for the butterfly, but my mom took me to Dr. Graber's office late that night and he stitched me up.

I guess that scar is something I will always have from My Old House, not to mention the lesson I learned that day, do not try to take a horsey-back ride on a German shephard.

Mack was a good dog. He just didn't like kids
riding on his back. Can't say that I blame him.

The Archie Glass

Unfortunately, this is not a picture of the Archie glass we had when I lived in My Old House. That glass was my favorite glass to drink out of from the mid 1970s until a few years ago when the glass fell out of a cabinet, landed on the floor and broke.

I was a little disappointed. My favorite glass, not to mention an artifact from my childhood was shattered.

While nothing could replace my original glass, I decided to look on eBay to see if I could find another one. Fortunately, there are lots of Archie glasses for sale on eBay. I paid about $15 for my new Archie glass (pictured today, above.) The new one is okay. It is my morning orange juice glass of preference. It's just as nice to drink out of as the original, but it's not the original. The paint was so worn off my old glass that you couldn't even see what the picture was of anymore. And worst of all, I didn't have this one when I lived in the gray house.

I do like my new Archie glass, but will always miss my old one. Sniff, sniff.

My Amish Babysitter

We had a wonderful Amish babysitter when I lived in My Old House. Cathy Borkholder took care of my sister and I one day a week. My favorite memory of Cathy; when I would get a little too ornery, she would take me out on the front porch, hold me over one of the shrubs and announce, "I'm gonna throw you in the bushes!" I would laugh and laugh as she would lower me closer and closer to the awaiting shrub.

I of course don't have a picture of Cathy lowering me into the bushes, but here is a picture taken on that little porch. You can actually see the shrub better in the picture of the carnival though.

(Updated 1/15/09)
Me, Angie (Stillson) Pletcher, Tena (Sheets) Haney,
and my sister, Stephanie (Miller) Gall

Words and Phrases from My Old House

I still have a few more posts forthcoming about My Old House, but here are some words and phrases that come to mind when I think about the house where I lived in the second half of the 1970s.

• Star Wars
• Battlestar Galactica
• Macaroni and cheese
  
• The Brady Bunch
• Tom and Jerry
• Macrame
• Cable TV
• Playing in the ditch
• Orange Schwinn Pixie
• Coming home when the street light came on
• Vicks
  
• Pretending to be asleep so I wouldn't have to go to church - never worked.
  
• Cousins
  
• Peanut butter, jelly and honey
• Stauffer Park
• Grandma Vi and Grandma Culp
  
• Emergency! (TV show)
• TV dinners
  
• Watching fireworks at the end of the street
• Flocked Christmas trees
  
• Bus stop
• Dr. Blue, my mom's eye doctor in Bremen
  
• Ford LTD
• John Kuhns
• Louie, Morty, Spike & Mack
  
• NorthWood football games played at Nappanee Middle School
  
• Blizzard of '78
• Peeking at Christmas presents
• CHiPs
  
• Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom
• Grease
  
• Crying at my 8th birthday party - Dan made fun of me at school the next Monday for that. I didn't cry at anymore birthday parties.
• Rivel soup
• Roots
  
• Ft. Wayne
• Speak & Spell
• Aunt Kathy's spoons with the wood handles
• Mary's beauty shop in Bremen
• Listening through the ducts

Embarrassing Second Grade Costume Days

If you have read the follow-ups to the post I did about the Jerry Lewis Telethon fundraising carnival we did at My Old House, you may already know that my cousin Rocki is a little embarrassed about being the only one dressed like a clown at a local TV station. She had remembered that her and I had both dressed up like clowns. However, I offered photographic evidence that I was indeed dressed normally that day (for the 70s anyway.)

However, when I was in second grade our teachers planned a special event called. . . "Clown Day." Guess what I wore.

Da da da da. . . Rocki's clown costume!

I think I got made fun of that day.

On to the next costume day.

I think I got made fun of this day too.

While embarrassing, I actually kind of like this photo. In it, I was all ready for "character day" in second grade, in which the students were to dress up like a favorite book character. Well, I looked A LOT like my favorite character, the animal from Put Me In The Zoo by Robert Lopshire.

My mom kept the shirt part of this costume. After I became a second grade teacher I took the costume to my classroom along with the photograph and the actual book I am holding in the picture. I usually get it out once a year and read the book to my class, show them the picture and the costume. This artifact from my second grade year is a fun thing to share with my own second grade students.

Four years ago, the second grade teachers I work with decided it would be fun if WE had a "character day" for our students. Guess what I dressed up like.


Da da da da. . . The animal character from Put Me In The Zoo.

It's the exact same book.
It's not the exact same shirt though. The original didn't fit anymore.
Oh, and I know I got made fun of that day.

Rocki, you can now cease being embarrassed. Oh and I have a close up of me dressed up like that thing four years ago. I will post it tomorrow. Just kidding, I'm NOT posting that one.

My Gross Pillow

The Force was with me in My Old House.

I got bunk beds for my 7th birthday. Along with the beds I got new sheets, bed spread and pillows.

I still had one of the pillows during high school and college. My friend, Debbie Pippenger (now Prenkert) was completely grossed out by the site of that pillow. It's a soft, yellow foam pillow, and even back in the 80s the foam was starting to deteriorate. Little chunks of it would occasionally fall out of the pillow slip. Debbie would nearly gag at the site of the pillow. But I liked it.

Sometime during college I covered the foam with an additional pillow slip and personally sewed the slip shut. I figured this would keep any additional foam chunks from falling out and also increase the chances that my future wife would allow it into our home after our wedding.

Well, I was right on both counts, the foam stopped falling out and I still have this pillow today. I sleep with it every night.

Regarding my pillow, sometimes I have pondered this question: Is there a maximum dust mite population that a pillow can attain? Is it like terminal velocity, when a falling object reaches it's maximum speed? If so, I'm pretty sure that my pillow has reached terminal dust mite capacity by now; and if it can't get any worse, I might as well keep it.

Look at that quality stitching, still holding strong some 15 years later.

The Blizzard of '78

I lived in My Old House when the blizzard of 1978 struck Indiana.

Me, my sister, Stephanie, and our dog, Mack, playing in the blizzard's snow.

Glued Shut for Over 30 Years

We had this stand in Our Old House. Back then, in the early 1970s, this stand was already an antique. It has some history behind it that I don't know. I do know my history with this stand though.

• We used it to store crayons, markers and pens from the early 1970s until the early 2000s.
  
  
• In about 1976 I poured glue into the top right drawer. That drawer has not opened since. It has been glued shut for over 30 years.
  
  
• You can reach through the top of the other little drawer and feel inside the glued drawer. There are some (old) crayons (and a bunch of glue) in the top right drawer.
  
  
• I've tried to get the top right drawer open from time to time. It won't open.
  
  
• I used to try to glue the top decorative piece back on. It would never stay. I don't know where the top piece is anymore.
  
  
• During middle school and high school my mom used to put my breakfast (usually French toast and cocoa) on a tray and bring it to my room. She would set my breakfast on the stand and that is where I would eat every morning (sitting on the floor in front of the stand.)
  
  
• I didn't take this stand with me to college or to the first home Kristi and I had as a married couple. When we moved back to Nappanee in 2000 though, I brought this stand from my mom's house to our house.
  
  
• I still eat breakfast at this stand sometimes today (and enjoy snacks at it frequently.)

I think 35 years from now, this is something I will still have from My Old House.

Rocki's Memory. . .

is good. She commented to my post about The Carnival at My Old House, "I thought we dressed like clowns when we went to WSJV?" Well, I didn't, but she did. Here she is clowning around in the WSJV parking lot.

I'm the blond kid, second from the front.
(I had hair back then.)

Sony Trinitron

My sister, Stephanie, is in the blue.
My cousin, Anna Gall, is on the right.

Here's a picture of our little Sony Trinitron TV sitting on our kitchen table at my sister's 10th birthday party in December 1976. This ended up being my TV during middle and high school. I still have that TV. I store it in the attic, but I still get it out and use it occasionally. While analog TV broadcasts will end soon, I think I will keep the old Sony. I picked up a digital converter box and hooked it up to the old set. It worked just fine, so my (at least) 33 year old TV is about to outlive the broadcasts it was built to receive.

I took this picture of the old Sony Trinitron today.
Is that the same antenna that was on it in 1976?

Carnival

In 1978 The Jerry Lewis Telethon raised $29,074,405 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. A little bit of that total was raised at My Old House.

We hosted a neighborhood carnival fundraiser, then took the money directly to WSJV in Elkhart where we made our donation and I think even got on TV. My sister and Angie Pletcher did most of the planning for the carnival. My two biggest memories of the carnival:

1. Rocki and I walked down Hartman Knoll putting festival fliers in the neighbor's mailboxes. When we got towards the end of the street, someone opened their front door and yelled at us to "get away from their mailbox or they would call the police." Scared us!
   
   
2. We had a "haunted house" in the garage. I remember climbing up into the storage loft above our garage (the area we called The Owl's Nest) and throwing stuffed animals at our visitors to try to scare them.

Here's a picture of the carnival. I think that is me holding the balloons. The picture also provides a glimpse of what my old house looked like. It was a Heckaman Home, secured as our abode by my Uncle Gene (Heckaman.) When we lived in it, it had wood siding that was stained gray. We have always referred to this house as "The Gray House." I was bummed when they resided it a few years ago.

The Hammer

This hammer hangs in my garage.

I think there are only around five things that I had in My Old House that I still have today. This hammer is one of them. I loved using this thing as a little boy. I always thought it had a nice grip and I especially liked the red ring around the neck that slides ever so slightly. Even though technically it was my mom's hammer, I have always hung on to it. It followed me to college, my first job and being a new home owner. More recently I've enjoyed watching my son try out the hammer.

My Old House - A Nap?

When the leaves are down I can look out my front window and see the house that I moved into when I was four years old. We lived there from 1975 to 1979. The house is just across Berlin Court Ditch from where we live now. In the picture above, it is the cream colored house with the mini-van parked in the driveway. I like being able to look out my window and see this house. It gives me this sense of being home.

This week will be dedicated to that old house; memories and even some things I still have from that house.

I have a lot of great memories from my time living there, but I will start the week off with a different type of memory. Shortly after we moved in, my mom hired a carpenter to install a peninsula table in the kitchen. Being the curious little boy that I was, I watched the man work for a while, then went off to play elsewhere.

Later, I went to use the sliding glass door right beside where the table was being installed and I found the carpenter laying down in front of the door. I stopped and asked, "Taking a nap?" After not receiving a response, I figured the man was deep in sleep. So I hopped over him and went on out the door. Later, when I heard one of the EMTs tell my mom that there was nothing that they could do, I realized the seriousness of the situation I had so leisurely jumped over.

The carpenter died that day. I have often wondered if the man would have survived had I summoned help when I came across the heart-attack stricken man. Unfortunately I will never know, because to my four-year-old mind, taking a nap seemed like a normal thing for a guy a to do in the middle of his work.