Friday, August 11, 2006

Where I was born, Part II - - - Out in the Nebraska country

Picture 3111 -- click picture to enlarge

This isn't too pleasant? Well, it never was as nice as my upstairs bedroom. Then trouble came with a four letter word. What you are seeing was to become my bedroom. What happened to cause a banishment like this!

A blessed event for most was the problem, my sister Lois--the four letter word--was born. She got my bedroom and I slept on this front porch, on that very couch you can see. I remember the day when it came from Sears. The couch would be upright in the day and open for my sleep at night.

Some days, especially on rainy nights with lots of lightening, being there was fun. I could see it all around, then wait for the thunder. The telephone lightening arrestor was on the wall towards the front. It would click right after the lightening crash, well before the booming thunder.

What about those cold winter nights? Dad and his carpenter cousin installed glass storm windows to go over the screens. That kept the wind out but didn't do much about the cold. There wasn't any heat out there. On very cold nights, often below zero, my blankets would be all frosty in the mornings, especially around my breathing places.

For a while when I was a teenager I would sleep walk. Mom was real worried, once she found me out in the barn, still asleep. Finally they figured out that if we hooked the inside hook, it might wake me up trying to unhook it. That worked and my sleepwalking stopped.

Then, as now, I sometimes had trouble sleeping. I can always read myself to sleep, faster than I want. My favorite read was Zane Grey. I had many of those, some publisher was doing a book reprint in a monthly periodical. Before the destruction you are seeing, Mrs. Jim and I looked for those but all were gone. They would be collector items now.

On the far left is that open door you could see from the back. The front of the porch has been knocked completely down. First the raccoons (Rocky?) tore in from the top, then a tree fell on that corner, and finally the buggers knocked it all down so they could steal the kitchen cupboards.

Finally, in the back with open door is one of the back porches. It contained the cream separator and the deep freezer and some closets. The open door is the back door that we used most of the time, even a lot of our company did too.

[Part I is below as yesterday's--Aug 10, 2006-- blog. There will be a final Part III tomorrow.]

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Comments:
[via e-mail, before this was posted]
Ok, now you are going to say I kicked you out of your bedroom. You know, in all honesty, I didn‘t have anything to do with it...and would you have wanted your little baby sister out on the porch for just anyone to come by and kidnap, anyway?
The west door wasn‘t open when we were there this spring, so it probably smells better in there now.
Were there still coats and stuff laying out all over on the living room floor?
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Mrs. Jim said there were, there was stuff all over the floor. Animals had been there too.
I couldn't go in there, I just couldn't.
She went in through the front porch and out the back living room door we saw in the picture I posted yesterday.
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It is nice to have ROOTS! ~ jb///
 
Lois has always been a problem hasn't she Jim. I recall (or have been told) how she forced me to eat one of those chocolate covered marshmallow bunnies way back when. I'm sure I didn't want to put the whole thing in my mouth at once. She made me.
 
Jim how did the house come to be left abandoned? Was it left with all your families stuff there? I hope I am not being to nosey. Just curious.
 
Ok. Mom and Dad retired from farming and moved to town around 1981.
The water system and cesspool is very sensitive and required a lot of management by Dad. He didn't want more problems or costs than he could get by renting.
Also our whole family had to clean up a house my Grandpa Corkill (family from the Isle of Mann) had rented out. I was just little but could remember it was a mess.
That really left a bad taste for renting houses.

There were two or three people who wanted to buy the farmstead but they would have torn down the buildings, or some of them.
And with my cousin farming the property, it might have been problems because now an owning resident would be in the middle of the farm.

My cousin does rent the farm, he can use the buildings as he needs. Mostly he doesn't because they are almost a mile from his home and the buggers very likely would mess with his things too.
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Jim, I just linked to you on my blog. Hope you don't mind.
 
Thanks, travel plaza, I'm very pleased. I'd better behave now!
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Hi Jim, I love those stories that give an insight to the past.
 
Great memories Jim. I remember sleeping as a kid and it got so cold. We had the covers so thick on us that you could hardly turn over!!
 

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