I actually remember visiting the Dennison Road house must be before we moved in but maybe after Mom and Dad bought it. Nanny and Weenie were there—I think it was their first visit to the house. I remember there was covered-up furniture sitting around. That was a little spooky to me. I do not really know when we moved there but I have pictures of Chris and I from the house on Oliver Street but not Kathy so I’ll guess it might have been around ’58-’59.
The Dennison Road property was really cool for several reasons: the barn, the guest house, the woods, the field,the gorge, the apple trees (picking apples off the ground for a nickel each to make way for lawn mowing).
The barn must have been a lot cooler than I took advantage of. We used it for storage of bicyles and other outdoor stuff. The outside was covered in this sand paper shingles that would burn if you scraped your skin against them. I remember there were windows in it so it was built with care. I wonder what it was used for originally—I don’t have the feeling the property was a farm but maybe it was.
The guest house was lots and lots of fun. There was a bed in there and the sewing machine. There was a connecting door to the garage and another attached room on the backside that we used for storage. There’d be holes in the plaster board in that storage area big enough to use as a doorway—and Dad hated that. I clearly remember playing in that guest house quite often but don’t have a recollection of what that back storage area was used for exactly.
One time, I found a Barbie doll in the drawer of the sewing machine and thought it must have appeared by magic. I think she had new clothes on and I kind of remember thinking she’d been lost but now whe was found. I have no idea what was going on with that. It did occur to me that maybe Mom was making new clothes for the Barbie –but can you even imagine that?? That’s not likely!!
We had the swing set and sand box in the area between the woods and the barn near the guest house. One apple tree was behind the barn on the edge of the field and I think there was another in the same line between the house and the barn.. Dad grew his flowers in a garden under the bedroom window (the girls room with Paula, Kathy and I) facing out to the field.
There were flowering bushes along the front part of the house facing the road. I still would like to have bushes like those at my own house. White flowers. There were a couple of trees along the side of the road in front of the house and a corn field directly across the road.
That window in the living room facing the road was a good size I think. Full length drapes covered them. One time I recall there was a very bad (loud) thunderstorm with lots of lightning. Mom had us huddled up in the middle of the floor in the living room for safety I believe. I think I remember Dad was at work at the country club. It seems like it was nighttime because it was dark but maybe it was a power outage.
There was a door in the living room out to the porch. That was a nice porch. I think we had the freezer out there. A sidewalk led up to it from the driveway. There was a sign at the end of the sidewalk—must have had our name on it.
The master bedroom was off the living room and there was a nice big closet the whole length of the room. There was an archway between the living room and the dining room. That’s where the photographer set up that group picture of us in those red and white checked tops and shorts. The bathroom was SMALL teeny tiny and off the dining room.
We would always it in the same places for meals, Mom at the end and to my left. Sitting at the table was where I first noticed something strange in how Mom’s belly was growing—must have been Judy. Couldn’t put anything past this 9 year old!!
The other entry on the same wall as the bathroom was into the den—which became Mary Jane’s room. I think I remember a bookcase in there and maybe the desk was in there too. The stairs up to the attic were in that room.
Chris’ room was at the base of those stairs to the immediate left and the girls room right in front of those stairs. A closet connected those rooms. Judy’s crib was in Chris’ room as well as a door to the outside that we didn’t ever use.
The kitchen was also off the dining room. It must have been kind of narrow—stove, washing machine and dryer on one side—sink and refrigerator on the other. I remember Mom pre-heating the oven (electric) and cooking a mouse. Oh the STINK of burning fur! The phone was also in the kitchen..
The main entrance was off the patio into a mud room which led into the kitchen. The cellar stairs were right there on the left. The patio was concrete. Milk in glass gallon containers would be delivered there and they would break but good when dropped on that concrete. There was wrought iron (probably not really wrought iron but metal) fence on that patio. I grew my 4H gourds at the base of that fence facing the barn.
I don’t remember that much about the cellar but I didn’t like going down there too much. We stored the dog food in that stairwell. I don’t remember much about the attic either but since it was a ranch style house, it couldn’t have been very much of anything.
There were all kinds of cool play areas outside. There were a couple of pretty big evergreens not too far from the house near the driveway outside the dining room window. On the other side of the driveway near the road, there was a small hill to roll down. There was a path in that woods but I don’t think we ventured too far into those away from the house. One time I fell down a little hill in those woods off that path and got a big old scrape on my back. I most definitely tried to hide that from Mom.
The woods in the back in where we would go off and explore. I remember a big tree fallen down and extending out over the gorge. We’d find stuff back there—Chris found some money I think and Kathy found some gum or candy or something. We went to the base of the gorge and followed the creek to Shirley’s house one time. (Shirley the babysitter was a student of Dad’s—I actually found her on the internet through the Silver Creek website –but Dad taught in Forestville ?!?!?)
There was a woman up the road (Mrs. Hamburg?) who could cut hair so we’d walk up to her house sometimes. When we took that trek in the winter, we’d take great delight in jumping into the snow piled at the roadside to stay out of the way of traffic. Some lady with a zillion cats lived across the road. Hazletons just down a little ways. For some reason Hazeltons went to Forestville and we went to Silver Creek even though we were actually a tad closer to the opposite schools.
