By BUZZ KING, guest columnist
Well, it appears that I did not go far enough with the last column about my childhood home. Let me continue my thought. Everyone’s memory is different, but I do what I can to recall all.
Before I complete my thought, let me give you some history as I know it.
Grandmother King bought the house and four lots in 1934 or so. Six boys, one girl and Grandmother lived in this four-bedroom house. The house was home of the first telephone switchboard in town, but before the King family owned it, the switchboard was moved to the brick wash house at Van Buren and Franklin (now glassblowers’).
The patch where the wires entered the front room can still be seen. The first 20-plus years, the studs were covered with newspaper and some pink wallpaper. In the 1890s, after electric wiring was installed, the lath and plaster was added.
And now, for the rest of the story.
As we all got a little older, the second floor was opened up, and my sister moved to the largest bedroom on the second floor and I was alone in the little bedroom on the first floor with my new Roy Rogers bedspread. Still later, I moved up to the smaller bedroom. The only heat was through a hole in the floor just above the oil stove in the living room. There were very cold nights when we huddled under a blanket over that vent. Our bed covers were many and heavy.
The front porch had a wood floor and four 6-by-6 posts, wood rails with balusters. A small cellar had a lead pipe which drained the water directly to Shitt Creek, some 400 feet to the southeast. In the late ‘50s, new hardwood floors, oil forced-air furnace, etc., were added.
The radio was our entertainment until 1955, when we got a Zenith black-and-white TV. The 18-inch screen made the snowy picture come alive. By that time, there were two stations, and shortly, Channel 4 came alive. Several years later, the first stereo broadcast was tested. It was billed as the future of TV. You turned the radio to a selected station and your TV to Channel 4, and then set your radio at least 10 feet away. Now we had STEREO live.
There were cold winters and hot summers, and I loved every moment. I do miss the 17-cent ground beef, the 8-cent loaf of bread, and most of all, the 95-cent T-bone.
Thank you for reading my column and telling me you read my column.
‘Til next time. — Buzz
