1975: 40 Thoughts in 40 Days

Oh me oh my....remembering the days when mom and I used to dress alike.
Thankfully I only recollect two dresses that we had that were identical mother/daughter dresses.  Unfortunately, one made it into "the family photo" so it was displayed and shared with many.

Anyway, I've come to 1975.  From this photo I can see that we had moved into the house I remember growing up in that was located on "County-Road-1-50-one-and-a-half-miles-north-of-Columbia"  Dad's spoken direction just always seemed to run together, and I can still hear it plainly in my head all these years later.  (Weird how some memories stick with you, isn't it?)

I loved this house.  From the gravel driveway that mom ALWAYS seemed to get our car stuck in while pulling in through the snowdrift and pile left by the snowplow, to the massive lilac bush which I blame to this day for my intense love of the fragrant purple blossom.

You know how it is...when you're a kid, everything seems bigger.  I wonder how my memories of this house would compare to reality if I ever went back and got the opportunity to see the inside of the house again.  Even just to walk the perimeter of the yard.  Would it still seem as big?
  • I remember the driveway being long enough that we would ride our bikes up and down it, until we were old enough to ride out on the roads without mom and dad along.  
  • The bush alongside the driveway that mom would hang plastic easter eggs on every spring.
  • The evergreen tree at the back corner of the driveway and the clothesline pole that mom and dad would have to maneuver the car in between when backing out of the garage.
  • That same corner of the yard was where our swing set was - the old metal kind that when you pumped hard enough, the poles would start to come out of the ground.  It was actually quite similar to this one :
No this isn't me, or my mother, or even our swing set - just a pic of one similar to the one we had.
The double swing on the right?  I remember my brother falling off the back of ours
 and to this day I swear he laid underneath it getting hit over and over
with the back and forth motion while the swing slowly came to a stop.  Maybe it was exaggerated in my mind?
  • The clothes line was right there too.  My biggest memory of that?  Running face-first into the metal pole when I was trying to go for a run with our dog, "Boomer".  ouch.
  • There was a HUGE yard for us to run around in...a yard that was once part of the neighbor's fields, but I remember the one day when they came in and tore out the field basically, and for the longest time there was straw covering the area as dad was trying to grow grass, and just like that (I'm sure it was a much more involved process), we had a ginormous yard to play in.
  • The house had a 2 car attached garage that when it rained we would ride our bikes inside.  Just a note, no matter how great of an idea it may seem at the time...riding your bike through the really cool-looking green liquid (antifreeze) that was left in a puddle on the floor just to see the green tire tracks that it makes across the garage floor is NOT a good idea.
  • Our house had a full basement which my parents worked hard at keeping clean, well-lit, and fully functional without going to the added expense of putting up walls and wall-to-wall carpeting.  At one point there was a shuffleboard stripe that had been painted on the floor...since I don't remember ever seeing shuffleboard equipment around the house, I imagine this was from the previous owner?  We played for HOURS in this basement!
  • Kitchen, living room, 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms - typical ranch home.  
  • For years, my brother never had a door on his bedroom, it was just a rounded "arch" doorway.
  • My bedroom and my parent's bedroom were on opposite sides of the hallway, directly across from one another - my closet and theirs were actually one long closet with two doors.
  • FAVORITE MEMORY of this house:  When mom would cut fresh lilacs from the back yard and place them on top of the tv, and occasionally the front door and windows of the house would be opened (we had central air - this didn't happen often) allowing the scent of the lilacs to drift through the entire house.
We lived in this house for about 10 years.  When I figured that out in my head, admittedly, I was shocked - it seemed like we were there forever...definitely longer than 10 years.  But it was the home I grew up in, and the home I spent the most time in, making the most memories in.

(Just as an added bonus, when I was turning 3 years old in August 1975, Bruce Springsteen released his album Born To Run.  Sit back and smile as you enjoy this!)

C.

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