Around the House

A later photo of the house.  Look how small the magnolia tree is!

Always flowers in the front courtesy of Mom!

The three of us in the backyard.  Maroon must have been

the IN fashion color this year!  Note:  we still have the flamingos!

David on the "monkey swing" in the backyard

and ... gotta love those pants with the fancy pattern!

Cool hat, Uncle Gary! 

Home and Family

Ohh the hedges have grown, we took out the heather bushes in front

and you can just see the tops of the mulberry tree out back

over the top of the house now.

long skirts in the 70s .... loved them! 

(glad they brought them back!)

David, Uncle Gary and Lori -- all smiles! 

Oh gosh, Mom's pole lamp in the background!

and no hallway shelves yet.  And paneling on the kitchen wall!

and that 70s gold carpeting!

And the little yellow speedster....

Ambassador in the driveway, Dad still drives the Rambler.

I once had to write a paper in school about mornings

and I wrote how every morning I hear the "roar of the Rambler"

as Dad leaves for work! (An affinity for colorful writing even back then! haha)

Welcome to Fall

When it came to chores around the house,

Dad was OK with just about any kind of help!!

It's Spirit Week at Cabrillo Jr High

and it must be "Western Day"!!

The family in front of the house.  Looks like Dad has done

some work here.... punched out the dining room wall a bit.

Did we have a built in window seat here now??

Ohhh, I like the 70s dress and vest I'm wearing... in purple of course!

Look how little the hedges are ..... they get big enough to hide behind

in a few years!!

And we've got company... Ed and Mabel Liden.

Ed one of Grandma Myrtle's brothers.

Hard Work

Owning a home means doing things to make it your own.

Dad was always working hard to make improvements.

But he didn't do it alone!  Us kids were expected to work, to pitch in.

 And I believe one of the greatest gifts from my parents 

was instilling in me a strong work ethic at an early age.

So thanks, Mom and Dad!

We did all kinds of work around the house:

gardening, painting, cleaning

In fact, Dad used to joke about having TWO dishwashers; 

said he named them Linda and Lori! 

Dad planting our orange tree.  It's gotten so big and 

we enjoy fresh oranges every year!

All these improvements at our family home

made it a great place to grow up!

More in the Neighborhood

Lori walking on stilts that Dad built.

He was amazing when it came to the little things

that made life fun for us kids! 

David, in front of the new lawn.  We had to go out and sprinkle

water on the lawn twice a day and were amazed at how quick

the grass sprouted up!

Double Dutch jump rope was all the rage when we were kids

Go, Lori, Go! 

It was harder for the younger girls to twirl the ropes

tall enough for me to double dutch!

We spent many hours jumping rope.

Around the Neighborhood

Just look at the neighborhood!  

From the driveway, looking toward Monroe.

Across the street, the Jones' got their new Mulberry Tree, so small!

Here's David standing on the dirt from the yard to be hauled away.

There wasn't a time when Dad wasn't working on some

project or another at our house.

Hi Dad!   The hedges were so small!

The magnolia tree is just like a stick!  

And the "fancy wood trimming" around the window.

1966 and Many Changes!

August 1966 - a year of many changes for our family

Mom's pregnant (with David) and we bought a new house

(Turns out, the house they still live in in 2017!)

It was so exciting to have a house - each of us kids would have

our own room!  And they let us pick our colors for decorating!!

I chose purple

(Isn't it weird that when I bought my own house at age 50

I chose purple again??)

Lori chose pink

I don't think David had much say in the matter.....

He was such a happy baby though!

Welcome, baby brother!!

Our living room didn't have a whole lot in the way of furniture

The long wooden console was a spiffy stereo system

with radio and phonograph player.

The vase on top was a very pretty bluish green, 

it eventually got broke because we 

"didn't listen" and rough-housed indoors.

Our TV was an old black and white, with tubes

It got Channels 2 (local), 4 (NBC), 5 (CBS), 7 (ABC), 

11 and sometimes 36 (both local stations)

We didn't have a color TV until 1972.

We had only one car, a 1963 Rambler,

and when Mom needed the car for the day,

we all got up and drove Dad to work.

As I think back, it seems as if it was all so simple then.

It wasn't ... because I wasn't the grown up.

But Mom and Dad had a way of making it feel that way.

For that, I'm very grateful!