We lived in a small town growing up.  After Daddy died Mom rented the lower half of a big old brick Victorian house 19 dollars a month is what she paid.  I think old Mrs. Walker felt sorry for her and gave her a deal.  It had 2 bedrooms, on for us kids and one for Mom.  In between our bedrooms was a little hallway that had a stairwell of about 6 steps and then it was blocked off.  Those were the inside stairs to the upper part of the house where Fred and his Mom and Dad lived.  Fred was a teenager and his sister Grace was about 20 years old and worked as a secretary down at the insurance office. 

 

That old house was so cool in summer and warm in winter.  The thick brick walls is what made it cool in summer especially if Mom pulled down the blinds and kept the rooms dark.  WE had all together 5 porches on that house.  A front porch which became the rainy day spot for the neighbor hood as it was very large and would contain 15 or more kids trading comic books and reading them.  Or playing hospital or school. Usually the boys would pretend to be bad kids in the school and we girls had to nag at them and the "teacher would make them stand in the corner or send them home.

 

Then there was the small porch off of moms bedroom, after dark she would go out there and sit, and once when I didn't get to sleep fast enough I heard her sitting in the old rocker and she was crying.  I never told her I had heard her but that bothered me as a kid most of my life growing up and I tried to be a better girl because of it. 

 

There was the kitchen stoop where you would stand on a step and shake out the dust mop or the rugs. Or sometimes dump out the bucket of mop water.

 

The medium sized porch where the outside stairs made their way up to the 2nd story part of the house.  Some times Grace would fix us an ice cream cone when she got off work that was always a treat and I would sit there and try on her bracelet and once she painted my fingernails red.  Wow did I feel special?

 

Our side porch was where we played a lot too.  We played in that part of the yard a lot and there was the big sidewalk that went down to the street.  We used to chalk draw on it. Hopscotch, marbles, and sometimes just draw pictures with white chalk.  Once grandma bought us a box of color chalk we spent hours drawing stuff with colors.!  It was on this porch where our dog Tramp took his naps watching over us kids and if anyone stopped by and came up in the yard toward us kids he would let them know in a hurry that they were not welcomed there without our mom being in the yard.

It was from that porch he would launch his daily walk with the mail man.  Every day for about half hour he would walk with Mr. Paul then turn around and come back home.

 

WE moved from that home to a new town after Mom found our new Dad.  Childhood never was the same because that year we not only moved but I was 11 and things seem to change when you are that age you gain new interests.  

I have a lot of other memories about that neighborhood it was in the 50's a time of peace and innocence and of a small community that was just big enough to care about your business but not to know all of your business.  It was such a good time in history especially in old Shelby Ohio.