New Baby Sister!

Oh. My. Goodness!  A new baby in the house -- to a four year old girl,

I'm sure it felt like she was going to be my own new baby doll!

Check out that smile!

(and the hat and gloves ... must be time for church!)

Through our growing up years, we stopped at this same spot

for a family picture along Camden Avenue

whenever we went to visit my Uncle Bob and Aunt Shirley.

I wonder if that grimace on my face is from

the sun?  or my hair bows are in too tight?

Strollers weren't what they are now, that's for sure!

This one definitely didn't fold, but maybe the handle part did.

So much fun pushing my sister around!

I was pretty young when we lived in the duplex on Maude

I remember wearing footie pajamas

Dad bringing cherry popsicles when we were sick

Lori learning to walk, pulled the cover off the arm of the chair,

broke the glass and cut her foot so bad she couldn't get in the tub!

My mom stepped on a thumbtack

Eating a lot of Bean with Bacon soup

and grilled cheese sandwhiches

It's odd how memories sneak in to be remembered 

when you least expect them!

I remember the street being tarred, piles of asphalt in front

of the house, picking up one heavy piece and dropping it on my foot.

I still have that scar.

Good neighbors

Odd neighbors

and neighbors I don't recall at all.

Maude Avenue

I chose to post this photo because it shows quite a bit of the house we lived in when Lori was born.  We lived here from 1963 to 1966.



Here's how it looks in 2016.




I have a lot of memories of this first home.  I attended Kindergarten and First grade at Fair Oaks Elementary.  I walked to school.  I'm guessing my mother walked with me.  It was a thing back then!

On the other side of the fence are some trees -- still there, and very large now!  I called it my forest.  I would often take a book to read under those trees.  I've always been a loner, could always find what I needed when out in nature.  I loved that forest!

Back then, Maude was a dead end.  At the end of the street was the parking lot to the park, and the back of the high school where the baseball field was.  I took swim lessons at the high school!

I was roller skating one day, and I zoomed up to the front porch and couldn't stop in time.  I crashed into the step, fell and chipped my front tooth.  That was a bad day for me ......


it created a broken tooth smile for every single picture until I was in high school.  I was very self conscious about it.  And even though it's been fixed, the habit of not smiling as often has stuck with me, I think!








Across the street was the Armory.  There was an older gentleman who was always there, and when he'd see me, he'd give me an orange soda from the machine ... in bottles!    This is the only photo I could find that looks like the armory I remember.  There was a time it was a shelter for the homeless.  Inside was like a huge gymnasium sized room, and a cafeteria type kitchen.  I often wonder how my life might have been different if we'd stayed in this home a while longer?  but moving when we did was probably a good thing.  Maude is no longer a dead end street.  Wolfe Road now curves into Fair Oaks, and there's a lot of traffic that goes through there.

Just a bit of insight into my growing up years!