Dad, Tell Me About The Time…(2)

Thursday, Nov 2, 2023

In A Few Words, Describe Your Childhood Home.

I don’t remember many details about our house on the farm. The house was set back a couple of hundred yards from the highway and about a hundred yards behind the house was a big old barn. The typical kind you see in all the movies. We used to play in that barn all the time. We especially loved to play in the hay loft.

Our house was a split level home.You’d walk in the front door and the living room would be to the right and the kitchen to the left. From the kitchen you would go up a half flight of stairs to three or four bedrooms, or you could go down a half flight of stairs to the basement where we had a play area and where Gregs bedroom was. Mine and Lesters bedroom was at the top of the stairs on the left, mom and dads was straight ahead and the girls bedrooms were to the right along with the bathroom.

Our home in Cardston changed over the years as Dad added more and more onto the house. It was a big two story house and Dad added a garage to the right of the home, a solarium to the back and an extra guest room upstairs with a balcony overlooking the solarium.

When we first moved in, Lester and I had a bedroom in the front, and the girls were upstairs. Our bedroom eventually got added into the living room and we went upstairs. Some of the girls went downstairs and I think Greg and Fara were gone by this time.

How Many Phones Did Your Home Have?

I remember our phone on the farm very well. It was one of those old wooden boxes where you cranked a handle to make a call.

When you cranked the handle it rang every phone on the party line and each person had a different code. I think our code was a long ring, a short ring and then two long rings. I remember mom and dad would honk the car horn with that code when they wanted us to come home. The way I remember it, our phone looked exactly like this.

In town we had a single phone with a very long coiled wire that could reach just about any place in the house. It was wall mounted and looked like this.

Did Your Home Have Indoor Plumbing?

As long as I can remember we have had indoor plumbing but we got our water from an artisian well and we had a septic tank for the sewage. From what I understand, we did have an outhouse not long before I came along.

How Many Bathrooms Were There?

We only had one bathroom on the farm and only one bathroom in town. With three older sisters it was sometimes difficult to get time in the bathroom but I had never even imagined that a house would have more that one bathroom.

What Is Your Earliest Memory?

My earliest memory is rather bizarre. We were at my great grandmothers house but I don’t remember her, I remember that Lester got bit in the ear by a dog. There was blood all over and I was rather tramatized.

--------------------trivia--------------------

From when it was discovered to when it was declassified as a planet, 

Pluto did not make a full orbit around the sun.

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