This Old House
Does anyone remember the show This Old House? I used to love watching that show and actually still love home improvement shows. We didn’t grow up with cable or dish, so there were limited options of what we could watch. This Old House was a family favorite. I bring up the show because this is a story of the house I grew up in. It was old….Well both of them actually. The first house we moved to in Claysville, Ohio was a family home. I guess someone in my daddy’s family owned it and was “kind” enough to allow us to rent it. I use quotations for “kind” because I highly doubt the intentions were to be kind as we eventually were kicked out of the house. Yes, the family we moved clear across the country to be near kicked us out. So much for “family.” It was a small house with two adults and four kids crammed in it. That number eventually went up to five kids while we lived there. If memory serves me, there was a small living room, two small bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom. Mommy and daddy had a room and the rest of us piled into the other room. There were not enough mattresses for us all so I remember sleeping on a pile of blankets on the floor most nights. We used a kerosene heater in the winter to keep warm. I still remember the smell and watching the haze of the fumes. Although the house was small, it didn’t feel small except for nights mommy and daddy fought. I have some memories from that house but that is not the story for today.