FHexpo #familyhistory #genealogy
Here is our eleventh entry for the chance to win 2 free tickets for the Arizona Family History Expo!
Pat Tiefenbach from Saddlebrook, Arizona submitted the following entry in the category: “A story from your childhood or experiences growing up”. Pat’s childhood home was in Miami County, Ohio.
My childhood home was a large white farmhouse atop a hill of green grass and shade trees surrounded by white fencing.
My upstairs bedroom was under the slanted roof, with a ceiling angled toward the middle. An adult could only stand up in the center. I plugged an extension cord into the one electrical outlet in the middle of the ceiling, ran it down the wall, and all of my electrical needs were serviced by that one cord.
The walls were plastered brick, painted blue, and they were always water stained from dampness and lack of insulation. The floor was wide wooden rough boards, painted reddish-brown, with throw rugs for warmth.
My room had one tall, narrow window, with small panes that frosted over. The upstairs had no heating, and it was always cold in winter. When outside temperature was below freezing, Mom would open the downstairs door to the stairway and let heated air rise upstairs. In summer, the window could be opened for ventilation, but a cross breeze also brought a strong whiff of nearby hogs.
Our dining room was never used for eating but was furnished with a couch, an oil-burning stove, and my mother’s sewing machine placed in front of a large built-in cupboard where Mom stored sewing supplies.
Once, when my sister and I were grounded for misbehavior, we pretended we were prisoners. We wrote a detailed account of our “captive lives” by scratching words on the inside of the wooden cabinet doors. We said that we were locked up on the shelves at night, and we begged for help from anyone reading our story.
Years later when my sister re-visited the farm, she toured the house and opened the cabinet doors to find our fictional story still inscribed inside.
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[Editor: For your chance to win two free tickets to the Arizona Family History Expo, please go here. Entries will be accepted up to and including January 10, 2010.]