THERE WAS A HOUSE...

I was raised in a Cape Cod house. It was named after

an area in Massachusetts. It is a house that is pretty

well square... Looking at it from the street, you will see

a door in the middle.. usually a small cement porch.

With one window on each side.  And pretty well the same

minus door, of course, on the sides. If there is a chimney,

as ours had, there is one in the middle with the window

on each side.  Ours had 3 windows on the other side.

One for the bedroom towards the front. A little one for

the bathroom .. and two small ones side by side for the

kitchen. Which you could look out as you did dishes,

as the double sink was there.   Around the corner from

there, was the door and an area that had stairs that

was enclosed that lead to the basement.

We had a driveway on each side of the house. The one

on the right went pass the house to a one car garage.

Beyond the garage was an attached 4 stall barn.

On the other side was a driveway that went clear thru the

property, with two gates. The gates keep the horses in

and the cars out. But it was the way to get to the field

beyond.  Also was used for my father to work on cars

in that driveway.. from time to time.

The front yard was pretty bland by standards. There

was a very large Hydrangea or each side of the porch.

My mother always had flower gardens. but for the life

of me.. I don't remember what was under the two

windows. I do remember there were window boxes.

Which surely had flowers in them. But on the ground?

I don't have a clue. There was a tall hedge between

the house and left driveway. 

On the other side of the driveway on the left.. was a

double use area. During the 1940's it was a garden.

Victory type garden. And in the late fall and winter

it was a horse corral.  At the far left of the area was

a chicken house... and later a feed shed that had

a green house added to it.  Which was kind of funny.

See inside our house was becoming a jungle according

to my father. Mom had house plants every where. Even

had Dad make 2 shelves in the back of the piano for

her African Violets.  So when he had a friend getting

rid of a greenhouse.. Dad stepped up and claimed it.

He worked hard for 2 weeks putting that greenhouse

together. Attaching it to the pony shed with a dutch door.

He took the side off the shed and added the greenhouse.

All went well, for a while... Mom put about 80% of her

plants out there, and also used the greenhouse to

start her plants for the garden. Dad, was one happy

camper.  UNTIL.. cold weather came in October. And

while Dad was at work, Mom brought in all the plants,

back into the house...Which by the way, had grown about

10 more plants. But Dad wasn't going to be beaten

yet... he installed a kerosene heater. Which almost

killed the plants until he got it to heat with our fumes.

He put in a chimney.  But every time the temps dipped,

Mom started her parade of plants.  Dad gave up, but

he knew come spring.. they would go back out.

more tomorrow...