Hello March of 2019

Day 134, "Every picture has a story"

this house has MANY stories

It is the winter of 1953.  Helen is 3, I am 6, Dave is 8 and Joan is 11.  Janet and Ronald are off to Lidgerwood HS.  Dad, with his many hobbies/gifts, has decided to develop pictures at home.  Of course they will be black and white but how will he do that?  Well it was kind of easy.  On the nights that he worked on pictures Mom, they would cover the kitchen windows with blankets so that no light would come in.  Then they would confine us to one of 2 places.  It was the living room or upstairs in bed.  Well they would start working early in the evening so bed was not really an option.  The living room it was.  They would set everything up in the kitchen and then it was "time".  Did we need to go to the bathroom?  Did we need any food?  Did we need ANYTHING that was not in the living room?  If we did it was get it now because the door to the kitchen was going to be closed and not opened for an hour or so.  Usually we would stay in the living room and spent time playing Touring, other card games or just make up something to do.  After an hour or so it was "open door" and that was our chance.  Get up stairs or count on staying another hour or so in the living room.  This would go on once or twice a week for much of the winter.  In the professional part of Dad's work he would send out pictures but for many things he developed them himself.  He ventured into color with wedding pictures in 1968.  

I have to say that this picture is NOT of the OLD house that we grew up in the 40s and 50s.  How do I know?  Well the TV antenna is on top of the house in place of the wind charger and the door in this picture is where our cream separator sat in the entry way.  In the 40s and 50s the door was on the east side of the house.  Also the propane tank did not exist until Mom and Dad got rid of the cook stove and put in a modern stove.  Actually that was a big part of Dad's master plan as he built a room for his photo things in the kitchen where the cook stove had been.  This picture was taken way past the time I left home as I see there is a stack for the bathroom AND the bathroom came into being after I left home!

I am gearing up for our tennis match this morning.  I have put myself on court #2 with Karl.  Actually we have not played together in a league match this winter.  I am hopeful of taking 2 courts at least.  We will see.  "For sure" I want to have fun, right Dave?😁  I will play with a new racquet so it will be interesting to see how it goes.  I did play a morning match yesterday with a demo of that racquet so this should go fine, right?

I am now "after" my eggs, bacon and hash browns so will sip the last of my FP and then head to the courts to see what is going on.  I will not play this morning because playing in the morning and then playing in an afternoon match is not good.