Those Places Thursday
Farm Home
The aerial photo is of the farm in Willow Township, Greene County, Iowa, in 1947, where I lived from about 2 until about 18 (or until I got married, at 20, depending how you count, I suppose). It is just a mile to the east of the Map I shared on a recent Mappy Monday. It was technically my third home, as explained there.
This view is generally north, and a bit east. The road you can see at the bottom of the photo, running east and west, had an intersection with the north and south road right at the lower left corner, above, behind the trees. That road, paralleled the Carroll-Greene County road a mile to the west, ran one mile to the north to the corner where Willow #3 school sat (north and east of the corner). Two miles directly west of that corner was the location of the Star School-Star Church corner described earlier.
The clump of trees, lower left, beyond the house was 'The Grove' - I built an infamous playhouse there where many stories were told (mostly by me to my cousins, mostly girls; wonder what, if anything they recall about that?) - my younger brothers took it over after I moved on... no telling what went on there, after that.
The buildings are, from the left: House, Wash House, Cob House, Chicken House, Barn (red, of course), Corn Crib, Hog House (north side of road) and the Cattle Shed - all white, on the south side of the road. There was a very large garden west of the grove, north of the house.
Those two years between High School graduation and getting married were taken up with:
1. Summer working in Des Moines with Keck Motors, owned and operated by Mom's uncle and his family.
2. Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa - dormitory, fall, winter and spring
3. Second summer, lived in Des Moines for awhile working (unsuccessful Vita Craft sales job), then returned home for a while (working at gas station in Coon Rapids, as I had done in high school), before,
4. Iowa State University - dormitory, fall, winter and spring.
5. Summer in apartment with friends near campus, until wedding first week of August.
These are my memories. It was a long time ago, and I now realize these memories don't come as easily as they did years ago. Anyone else have that problem? Comments welcomed.
First married 'home' next...
Families are Forever! ;-)
"Old" memories are tricky, Bill... I'm finding they only pop out in details with prompts like an old letter, or photo, or chatting with a cousin. I've been trying to get around to all my elderly first cousins on one side of the family lately - bringing a few unusual photos to share and talk about, asking a few odd questions, like "what's the funniest [or most unusual, or wierdest] thing or event you remember about my dad?" and oddities like that.
ReplyDeleteVery good approach, Celia. And, we must be aware that each cousin (or sibling) will have different recall than we do, of common events... most likely. That is hard for some of us to recognize. Very important to listen first, talk later, as well. Hear them out... try to see how your memory is affected by theirs. Thanks, for great comment! ;-)
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