What Kind of House Did You Grow Up In (Chapter 4)

My sister, Marianne, has told about the next house we moved into to on her blog.  It was in Silver Spring, Maryland and was in a style called Colonial Saltbox.  It is still there by the way.  Every time we are in the area - I have Clyde drive by it.  I showed it to my daughters when we went to visit the Washington, DC Temple when we lived in North Carolina, when they were very little.  Clyde and I went by there one other time since then.  It is not too far from the temple or the beltway.

There were some interesting things that happened in the this house.  As Marianne said, we got a Beagle named Dolly.  Dad warned Mom when she got Dolly that Beagles barked, but Mom was convinced she could train Dolly not to bark.  Beagles are bred to bark so needless to say that was an uphill battle.  Mom even had Dolly's vocal chords clipped.  Dolly just sounded like she had a broken carburetor and couldn't quite get started but it didn't diminish her noise factor.  I loved that dog and cried and cried when we gave her to our veterinarian, Dr Painter and his family.

We also had a cat named Kitty that Mom had completely de-clawed, front and back paws.  She still climbed and would sit on the garage roof and look in the Master bedroom window.  On a wintry day, she fell of the roof and broke her back.  Mom never had her cats de-clawed front and back again - only on the front.  She was devastated.

When I was in the 7th grade but Marianne and Bob were still going to the elementary school that year, someone set the elementary school on fire and caused major damage to the school.  The students had to be bussed and divided up among other schools for the last few months of school.  Bob thought it was cool and Marianne was almost hysterical she was so upset by the whole thing. 

I had my first paying, stay at someones home babysitting job when we lived here.  I thought I was hot stuff.  I would also help the second counselor in the bishopric's wife with her family on  Sunday's during Sacrament Meeting because she had 4 very small children and a new baby and there was no way she could handle everyone with her husband on the stand.  That pretty much became my standard practice until I had children of my own.

I remember one summer that Bob decided he was going to have his room be on the sleeping porch.  So he moved his stuff out of his bedroom and out onto this screened in porch.  I quickly moved my stuff into his room - so I could have a room of my own.  We did this before Mom could veto the idea.  Dad thought it was great.  It only lasted for the summer because Bob couldn't stay there once the weather changed but I loved that space that was all mine and only mine!  That was the summer I read Mrs. Mike  and fell in love with it.  I also read Gone With the Wind and Calico Palace that summer but I was not ready for them yet.  I was just leaving 6th grade and didn't have a frame of reference for anything important in the last two books.  I was just proud I read such long books!  I think in part that the reason I love Mrs. Mike so much to this day is that it takes me back to that magical summer where I had my own space and life was good.  By the next year Mom would start being sick at least 3 or 4 months out of the year for the rest of her life.  It had only been a few days or weeks up to the time.

We lived in the Washington DC area 2 years and were there during the Centennial celebration of the Civil War.  I think we went to most all of the battlefields from Georgia to Pennsylvania.  Dad was really into this.  It was becoming another green field to me.  We saw the New York World's Fair while we lived there too.  It was quite amazing.  When Dad finished up his time at Walter Reed, we moved to Denver, Colorado.  That started a whole new saga in my life.