Comments on: I Bought Doors … and a Contest

By: Sheri at The Loopy Ewe » New Second Quarter Challenge for You!

Sheri at The Loopy Ewe » New Second Quarter Challenge for You! — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:39:11 +0000

[...] when they first moved into their home years and years ago. (Here’s a post that I did about their house. It is in a very desirable town and was eventually torn down and the lot turned into a McMansion. [...]

By: Sherry Johnson

Sherry Johnson — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 20:34:27 +0000

I too have many wonderful memories and now live on the ranch my grandparents owned since 1920 in Northern California. I can relate to you so well. But my most recent wonderful memory is of finding the house we lived in when I was 6 years old (I’m 62 now) out in the country in Montana. My husband didn’t think I would be able to find it, I fooled him. The young family that was living on the property let us go in the old farmhouse. This brought back so many wonderful memories ..where I got locked in the cabinet in the bathroom while playing hid and go seek, the kitchen counter where my mom had us lay to wash our long hair, the barn and the upstairs bedroom that I shared with my sister because I was afraid to sleep in my room after my older boy cousin told me there were ghosts. While we were going through the house, the new owner asked what my maiden name was and as I spelled it to him since it was a difficult German name of Romelsbacher he finished spelling it …I though that it was strange he knew how to spell it and then he came out of another room holding a wooden sign that my Dad had carved our last name into. It had been in the house for 55 years. Of course I broke into tears. Needless to say I now have it.

By: lynne s of Oz

lynne s of Oz — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 04:54:04 +0000

What a great house,with great memories, and what a pity it is going to go. Lots of older houses here have heritage orders on them.
My granma’s place was nothing special. It was built of concrete slabs as cheap housing for the underprivileged. It had cheap furniture and way too many cats (I like cats but Granma’s were not neutered, oh dear…). Granma’s bed was about three feet off the ground. That was fine for Pop cos he was tall but Granma tipped 5′ so I guess she jumped into bed literally. The house was built on a small block with heavy clay = cracks big enough to put your hand into in summer and heavy heavy mud in winter. But going to Granma’s always meant presents and sponge cake with pink icing from the cake shop. It meant sloppy bristly kisses from Pop and climbing up the old apricot tree. It meant family having fun together. There was nothing in my Granma’s place that was special except for the people.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 00:15:50 +0000

We spent a year slowly emptying the homestead after Grandpa passed away. We found all knits of fun things – hazing pictures from crossing the equator during WWII, 50 years of birthday, anniversary, and post cards, pictures of the last people my grandparents dated before they got married to each other (His – intact. Hers – old boyfriend’s face cut out *hee hee*). The whole family went thru the house and “dibbed” the things we wanted to keep – and now every time I come home I see my grandpa’s bookcase and my grandma’s dressing table, and I love having a little part of them with me. *sniff*. Thanks for letting me share.

By: Patti

Patti — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 23:52:10 +0000

In the little town we lived in most everyone was poor, so we had to make up games, and boy did we! One of our favorite things was to go to the “camping grounds” which was just vacant lot behind our house with a small stand of trees and some underbrush. What more do all the neighborhood kids need to keep them occupied? There were trees to climb, underbrush to hide in, and get this… we drug an old mattress to our camping grounds, renamed it a trampoline, put it under the tallest tree, and proceeded to jump out of the tree onto the mattress. Its a miracle we survived childhood.

By: Julie

Julie — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 19:51:39 +0000

Sheri,

What beautiful memories! I know you will cherish those doors.

My family is all gone…I am an only child, no more grandparents or mother. I did not grow up with my father so he is a great friend, but not necessarily a parent. I was just going through the desk in my guest room. This desk was my grandmother’s. I remember my grandfather sitting there daily “doing his receipts” on an old adding machine. The adding machine was the type you punch the numbers in, then pull down the handle. I still have the adding machine sitting on the desk. Above it is the receipt showing how he bought the machine “on time” in 1957 for $125, a small fortune in those days! The desk also has my grandmother’s nameplate from her years as a telephone operator, my grandfather’s name stamp and my mother’s “left handed genius” sign. I love to go and sit at the desk and think of these special people who are no longer around. I try to give my boys a since of their history and tell them about their heritage.

By: missyjoon

missyjoon — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 19:19:22 +0000

My grandmother lived in an old victorian home, with an accompanying orchard on the property. One of our jobs as kids, was to pick up all the apples which fell on to the ground. The sour apple trees hosted not only hammocks but also a place for us to climb and hide, sit and read.

By: Phyllis

Phyllis — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 18:16:35 +0000

The summer that I graduated from high school was spent with my grandfather in a small village in western Sicily. The house was built in the late 1800s. My bed while there was the bed my great grandparents slept in. It was a massive carved wood 4-poster with canopy, but the best part was the mattress. It was a giant pillow filled with freshly carded wool that was suspended on ropes. When I made the bed in the morning, the mattress was fluffed just like a down pillow. I sat with my cousins one afternoon while they carded the freshlyl washed wool from another mattress. My understanding was that every summer they would all get together and do one mattress at a time until all had been freshly washed and carded. I have to admit, that was the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in. It was cool on a hot afternoon and warm on a chilly night, and oh so comfy at all times. That was 45 years ago, but it is etched forever in my memories.

By: Denise

Denise — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:57:10 +0000

My maternal grandparents recently moved to a senior apartment community near my parents in metro Atlanta, but up until last year they had lived in the house my grandfather built for them in Pensacola, FL. They moved there when my mother was in the 8th grade. Just a tiny little 2 bedroom house, but I have so many great memories of visiting there! Grandma loved to go to garage sales, and they had a walk-in closet they called “Fibber McGee’s closet”, where my sister and I would search for treasures whenever we visited. In grandma’s bedroom, grandpa had mounted a large shelf on the wall with a mirror, to serve as a vanity – my sister and I spent many hours in front of that mirror trying on all of grandma’s fabulous costume jewelry. She also had a cedar chest where she kept all of our artwork, school pictures, letters, etc., we used to love to sit down with her and go through all that stuff. They had a huge lot with those towering Florida pine trees on it…grandpa had his shed, and his “boathouse” (a carport for his boat, along with lots of other “stuff”).

Wow….thanks for your post – it’s nice to relive these great memories! You will be so glad that you have those doors in your house.

By: Debbie Guidi

Debbie Guidi — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:01:30 +0000

What a touching story! My grandparents never had a real “house” home. They always lived in 2 flat apartments in Chicago (several while we were growing up). Since there was no one “home”, my grandmother left us many of the treasured possesions they had. I have her 1st Communion rosary & case from her Communion in 1911, the special knick knacks that were always on the bookcase shelves that she got when they married in 1930 & the only surviving piece of her good china (the gravy boat).

But the most important things I have are the memories of the summers “vacations” my sister & I had each summer when my Mom would let us go stay with my grandparents. Things like the little arched niche in the hallway wall that held the telephone that I was not supposed to play with, but I did (partylines were great fun as a child) & the time I decided it would be great fun to stick my head through the ballistrades on the staircase between the 1st & 2nd floor flats in the brownstone they lived in. They had to finally call the Chiicago Fire Department to get me out. I think that brownstone may be gone, but it will always be there for me.