Moving

I am at my Dad's place right now. I have a lot of memories here. As well I should, we moved in this place in 1961. Before that we lived about 4 blocks away on a street that was only two blocks long, but had over 250 kids living on it. Always someone to play with and something to do. But this house was different. Located on one of the busiest streets in the bourgh, hardly any kids, and nothing to do. One good thing about the house, we were less than a block from the elementary school we went to.

We moved here because my Dad's mother was very sick and dying from cancer. She really couldn't do to much for herself or her youngest son (who still lived with her, never married and in his thirty's). The doctors had done all they could at that time, and besides, my grandmother decided that it was time to die. She believed that a person only lived so long and then they were on borrowed time and she was afraid she was using the time that belonged to one of us four grandkids.

When the house was purchased, a lot of work had to done on it. It was a 5 bedroom with one bath. We needed another bedroom and another bath. The breakfast room was to be converted into the extra bedroom and bath for my grandmother. The kitchen and the existing bath both need a major renovation. Neither one had any updating since probably the 30's. And of course we needed to paint, sand the hard wood floors and get them refinished.

It was a lot of work, but I think we all pulled our own weight. We spent weeks not only working on the house along with the contractors, but also packing things up. We did have two homes to move into one, so everything had to be gone through, checked and double checked. Then the two old homes had to be made ready for the new owners. It seemed like years before we were ready to actually move in. I know it took about three months for the “new” house to be ready, but for us kids it was the longest wait we had ever experienced.

I can remember the Saturday we finally made the move. My Uncle was over for breakfast and in the back of his car was filled to the very top with boxes. We were so excited. I'm not sure what we thought would happen with this move. Did we expect to see some magic or something? To be honest with you, I don't remember being that excited before that day. Christmas didn't even come close. You can imagine how disappointed we were when we were told that we would not be there for the big move!

We were being sent to the movies! Instead of moving, we went to the movies! I'm sure someone out there has heard that saying,”Move while they are at the movies.” Well that is what happened to us. Our parents moved while we were at the movies! We all laugh about it now. But it was quite an experience.