This is the house my mother considered her dream home. She still recalls it with longing. Three bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (possibly 2.5, my memory of that period has faded), living room, dining room, family room, kitchen, and a screened patio that was (and still is, I think) called a Florida Room in that area. It's bigger than it looks because it is square in shape rather than rectangular. I seem to recall the front door was a double set, painted a garish orange, but that may be faulty memory. Had good-sized yards front and back; the back yard was fenced, and my sister and I played there; a swingset and sandbox were favorite places. The dog of that period was a Boxer named Socks, who used to entertain himself chasing the large dragonflies that flew about the back yard. This was the height of the US space program, circa Gemini/Apollo, and my favorite toys were my Major Matt Mason space explorers.
This sadly neglected house was my maternal grandfather's house. He was a Pennsylvania Yankee of German descent who had been a policeman in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mt. Lebanon. He retired with his wife to Gainesville and this is the house that they purchased. Originally there was no screened porch, the original plan had a concrete patio which was blocked from street view by a board fence; my grandfather had rosebushes planted on the inside area of the fence, and they were the climbing variety that soon climbed over the fence. The house had 3 small bedrooms, 1.5 baths, and the kitchen, dining area and den were a single room with a partial wall separating the den area from the kitchen. My grandfather didn't have air conditioning installed, opting instead for an attic fan. In an alcove sat a scary-looking brown oil furnace that warmed the entire house during the winter. The back yard was shaded (and thus a dirt yard, too much shade for grass) by the large oak trees that appear to still be there. The front yard had three white birch trees planted, those are sadly now gone.
An adventure I had while visiting my grandfather was to retrieve some puppies from the house next door; the mother, a Husky, had dug a den for herself in her back yard and the tunnel was too small for her owner to retrieve the pups; I was called on to do it, being young and slim. Sadly, one of the pups had died; I can't remember whether I retrieved it or left it in the hole at the owner's direction.
This was a house we lived in for about a year; I think the bank foreclosed on the mortgage after my father blew income on gambling and whoring (yah, he was a ne'er-do-well). It was a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom house, distinguished only by its roof, which caused everyone in the neighborhood to name it The Pizza Hut for obvious reasons. Gainesville's Hogtown Creek was not far from this house, and I used to hike and explore the creek; you can find fossils and especially fossil sharks' teeth in the creek. I've personally found fossil White Shark teeth that were over 3" in length and razor-edged; you could slice yourself quite easily on them.
So, three of the houses I grew up in. There were others; one I can't remember the house number, only the street number (NE 12th Street), others are gone now (the Manor Motel, we lived in one of the cottages, being the owners of the Motel at the time), and my paternal grandparents' house in nearby Melrose, Florida, which hasn't yet been visited by the Google Earth trucks.
Hope you enjoyed my trip to Memory Lane.
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