The place I called “home” for most of my entire childhood, including all of my school years from first grade to high school graduation and marriage.

I grew up in a modest this 993 square foot (about the size of our current garage), 2 bedroom Cape Cod set on an “oversized" ¼ acre lot. Built in 1941, the house was an “older” home when my parents bought it. Obviously, we weren’t rich. However, I had a very happy childhood here. I was living here when I met & soon married my husband (a New Yorker). After I got married & moved away from my hometown, I still came back to routinely visit for the next several years until my parents eventually decided to move to another place with more land to grow things. Of course, my visits to my parents didn't stop, but their new place was never "home" to me like the above house once had been for so very many years.

While I was growing up, my older brother & sister (20 and 23 years my senior) came “home” to occasionally visit. However, this was not where they grew up. I never knew or lived at their childhood homes. On my siblings' rare visits to this house, my brother got my room on the first floor & I had to share the upstairs “attic” room (that had twin beds and a half bath) with my sister. In Summer, that upstairs room was unbearably hot; even with an attic fan going full force. The attic fan was designed to help cool the entire downstairs. But it didn’t work very well on really hot days. The house had no A/C. It still doesn’t all these many years later!!!! Heat was steam heat (radiators in each of the 5 downstairs rooms) run by a boiler furnace in the partial basement that served as a utility room, laundry room, and game room. Nothing fancy, but lots of good memories connected to the last function.

Frankly, the house was much prettier back when I lived there. The siding was wood shakes painted white. The windows each had muntins (delicate grids) on the glass & red shutters against the white outside walls. The house was both quaint and quite picturesque like something from an old nostalgic movie. Today, the siding is vinyl and the shutters are gone. The windows have been streamlined. Modernized, the outside now looks kind of sterile to me. But I’m sure it’s functional for the current owners.

When I lived there, the picture window was also much larger than it is now. However, that original picture window didn’t open at all like the more modern version does. The original picture window also had dozens of muntins for decoration. Every holiday (until I was in my mid teens & “too grown up”), my mom and I would decorate the huge picture window to reflect the season. Being a “latch key kid”, I sometimes had to stay home alone if I was sick (with a cold or something). At those times, I rested on our sofa while watching TV. I also watched the world outside through that picture window. That started even before first grade… I suppose a young child being left alone would be frowned on today. However, my mom had to work & couldn’t afford childcare whenever something unforeseen happened. Nevertheless, in hindsight, I feel today that I always was very safe; even those times when I was left alone. And I have fond memories of the old picture window. Due to my father being a shift worker (who could switch his hours when absolutely necessary), I was usually never alone more than a couple of hours or so.

The 3' tall, stone wall (still there) around the patio and garden area originally had a pretty white lattice topper. That walled-in-area was where my friends and I spent many, many Summers together playing safely. We ran wild all over the neighborhood, but the walled-in-area at my house felt like a safe haven for both me & my sizable group of friends. So many happy hours were spent there. Although it could have been anywhere, “our house” was always the one where everyone wanted to be. I guess that says something. The lattice and stone, walled-in patio was the heart of our “play area.” To some of the mothers' dismay, I got all of the boys to play "house" there with me and my dolls. Back in those days, boys weren't supposed to play with dolls... The walled in patio also served as a "dog park" for my friends to safely bring their dogs to play with my Collie. Our Collie loved to jump up on the wall and look through the white lattice where the grape views were growing. His furry friends could never quite figure out how to get up there. The native stones in the wall were original to the farm that pre dated the suburban development of the early 1940’s. Late at night, my father and I would often lay out (in simple, webbed lounge chairs) within the secure stone walled patio area & gaze up at the stars in the night sky. I got my love of astronomy from those nights. Lots and lots of memories. I'm glad to see that the stone wall still stands.

This was the original house that started a new suburban neighborhood. Because the roots of this post Great Depression development was long before my time (& there are no formal written historical records about this particular area) I don’t know much about the specific history of the neighborhood - beyond what had been passed on by word of mouth. I’d love to know more.

Nevertheless, recovery from the Great Depression era was the start of the suburbs in America overall: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/ushistory2ay/chapter/the-rise-of-suburbs-2/ This little Cape Cod house was one of the original suburban homes in America. An entire neighborhood sprung up around it. And as I mentioned, my family bought it as an older home. Although most houses in the neighborhood were smaller homes like the one above, no two were exactly alike. That’s where the oldest suburban neighborhood differed from later developments with identical tract homes.

While I lived in the house above, two very large and old weeping willows stood in the front yard: one on each side of the sidewalk. Those trees played a big role in my childhood. Interestingly, one Summer, a sink hole unexpectedly opened in the front yard (where the two smaller trees now stand). Luckily, no one was hurt. That sink hole turned out to be the abandoned well for the original farmhouse. The two willow trees dated back to the original farm. They are now long gone. My mother also had lots of flowers planted; plus, there were flowering bushes in the front yard. The yard was not as stark as it is now.

The public sidewalk in front of the house was where I first learned to roller skate, ride a bike, and also played hopscotch and marbles with my friends. Lots of memories.

The house as it looks today is different – yet so much the same – as I remember. I wonder if there is still a crawl space between the garage ceiling and the house attic. The breezeway between the two used to be open, but now it is enclosed as part of the partial wrap around porch.

The house currently has 4 bedrooms and one bath. When we lived there, it had two small downstairs bedrooms and a full bath. In the upstairs attic area, there was one large room (used as a guestroom) with two full clothes closets and a half bath. There was also closed-in “attic” storage spaces under the roof’s slope. The upstairs attic area is now 2 small bedrooms, but the half bath has been eliminated. How strange.

Anyhow, this little Cape Cod (looking somewhat different - and prettier back in the old days - than this new photo) was my “everyday” growing up. It once was “home”.