If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9
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Friday, June 25, 2010

Flashback Friday

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Below is Linda's prompt for Flashback Friday.  Click here to play along.
A house is made of bricks and stone,
but a home is made of love alone
Where did you live when you were growing up? In a house or an apartment? A mobile home or a duplex? Did your parents rent or own? Was it big or small? In a city, small town, or rural area? In the USA or another country? Did you have your own room or share with siblings? Did you have a say in how your room was painted/decorated? Did your folks update/redecorate periodically or was your house "stuck" in a certain decade? Did you have a yard? A swingset or other play areas? What was your neighborhood like? Were there lots of kids to play with? Did your family stay in one place or did you move? If so, how many times did you move by the time you graduated from high school? Did you like moving or long to stay in one place? Are your parents still in the home you grew up in (or at least the one you lived in when you graduated from high school) or did they move and you haven't lived with them in their latest house? Does it feel like home? What were your favorite and least favorite things about your physical home? How similar or different is it to where you live now?

MY FLASHBACK:

We moved several different times when I was growing up and I loved getting to do that.  Sometimes it was hard when I had to move schools, but we always stayed close enough that I got to attend the same church.  It was always fun to get to move into a new bedroom.  Now I never had my own room until I moved out with my sister when I was about 25-26 years old.  In fact, I was in high school (probably a junior or senior) before I had my own bed.  In all the house we had (except the one where I was born) we had 3 bedrooms and 7 people.  Mom & Dad had a room, the 2 boys had a room and the 3 girls shared a room.

House 1 was a small farmhouse.  We moved from there when I was only 3.  This was the house mom and dad bought a few months after they were married.  The 3 oldest of us lived in this house.  It originally had 1 bedroom and a path (no bathroom).  Dad added a room and a bath after mom went to the outhouse and there was a great big black snake in the rafter.  She said she'd never use that again. haha!  So dad built her a bathroom.  Thankfully that happened before I was born.

House 2 was a brick ranch that my dad built.  We lived here from about the time I was 3 until I finished 2nd grade.  It had 3 bedrooms and the 2 youngest of us was born here.  I loved this place.  The back patio had a split rail fence around it and always had red climbing roses growing on it.  We had a big garden across the back of the lot and their was a big soybean field right behind us.  We used to go back there and play army and throw clods of dirt at each for for grenades.  My brother and sister used to catch grasshoppers in the summer and feed the golden garden spiders that lived in the bushes.  Those things would get humongous!  I just looked, I never liked bugs or spiders except for lightening bugs & lady bugs!

House 3 was a 2 story white house in the town where I work now.  So I was a city dweller for awhile.  We lived here from 3rd grade through 5th grade.  Loved this place too.  It had a really big upstairs bathroom.  I mean really really big and it had a clawfoot bathtub.  Wish I had one of those today.

House 4  was another brick ranch with a full basement that my dad built.  We were here from 6th grade through half my freshman year.  Again it was 3 bedroom, but the girls room was really big.  We had 2 full size beds and still plenty of room.  My older sister had a bed to herself and my younger sister and I shared the other one.  The basement had a full kitchen in it (where we would butcher pigs sometimes (they were alread dead before they were brought here).  We also had shuffleboard in the floor and a ping pong table.  This was a kids dream basement.  We also had an above ground pool in the back yard and we'd spend our whole summer out there.

House 5 was a 100 year old farmhouse that my dad had always dreamed of owning.  We used to call this Dream Acres instead of Green Acres like the TV show.  When I was about a junior or so dad built onto this house and for the first time my older sister had a room of her own and my younger sister and I shared a room and eventually got twin beds and had our own bed!!!  We had a big barn (and raised some farm animals such as sheep, cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys & even had a horse or 2)  Mom and Dad lived here about 19 years.  I think that's the longest they ever lived in any house.

Since I moved out Mom and Dad sold the farm and have built 3 other houses and then remodeled one to live in and they now live in a condo.  My mom's sight isn't real good anymore and she has a nerve disease and needed a smaller place to take care of.  So I've learned that I really don't need to get a bigger place, because eventually I'll probably have to downsize too, so why not just be happy with what I have.

Besides I love my home because my daddy built it and at 82 I doubt he'll ever build another one.  Although, you just never know with my dad (see the post below). haha

Thanks for this Flashback Friday Linda.  It was fun revisiting all the homes I grew up in.




3 comments:

  1. Sweet memories!

    My siblings remember the outhouse at my grandparents' house, but my granddad had died when I was 2 and my grandmother moved to town while I was still really little.

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  2. That must of been neat to live in houses that your dad built. Enjoyed your flashback! Moving and not changing schools wouldn't of been bad at all. When we moved it was always a new school. I am glad once we got to Northlake we stayed there. Can't imagine changing in High School. Thanks for sharing.
    until next time... nel

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  3. I love hearing your stories about your homes. I would have loved the 100 year old Dream Acres home. They have such charm.

    COnnie

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Cathy