Miss Minda's B-Box Writing Idea - November 20, 2005

Miss Minda's B-Box Writing IdeasWhere Did Your Grandparents Live....What Was There House Like and Smell Like?

WOW. Such a GREAT topic to write about! I am not sure I can put a picture on here but I can try to describe it all really well!

My grandparents have always lived in a small town in Ohio called Arcanum! My grandma still lives there today (as my grandpa has passed on). The house is a small but quaint 2 story home which looked oddly a lot bigger when I was smaller! Now today while it is a 2-story home it reminds me more of a 1 1/2 story home if that is even possible! BUT it is a yellowish/cream color on the outside....has a wonderful 3-sided bay window area in the larger living room. This juts out into the front yard area. They used to have SLATE SIDEWALKS! Great for roller skating really fast and great for falling flat on your butt! Man did that ever hurt!

There is a 2 car garage out back separate from the house. Also creamy color. Windows on it. Almost looks like a small house itself. Nice small backyard with a clothesline on the side.....some huge evergreen trees and some other trees..a couple of which are now missing as a tornado a few years back decided to promptly redo their landscaping and remove those trees! A porch that has RED painted cement on the floor. With white painted (oh what do you call it.....) TRELLIS! on the open areas of the front porch you look out onto the lawn or street from. There is another ENCLOSED porch around the other side which in reality is probably more officially the front of the house...but we call it the side .....it is enclosed...all these glass windows you can CRANK open into little slatted windows......also with RED painted cement flooring. A door there is glass panes and old brown wood...that has such a great rubber seal on the bottom that when you open it....it makes a wonderful tight WHOOSHING sound when the rubber glides over the cement flooring!Inside you find a magical treasure trove of STUFF! Chairs, antique items....all piled around. Your head can almost make you sick as it has to move back and forth, back and forth, just to take everything in. A true "feast for the eyes" it is. AND a very memorable CHALKBOARD on the inside wall of that back porch....where family members leave messages for each other. I believe one from grandpa might still be written on there. Or one from some family member. But the porch always had that chalkboard to write messages on if we stopped by to visit and someone was NOT home. We could tell them we came by. OR vice versa...they would write down on the board that they had gone somewhere and would be back. Those were the days when it seemed everyone had little notepad holders of some kind on their front doors or porches so you could leave a note if you happened to miss them!

The yard was ALWAYS bumpy. I remember grandpa rolling it all the time but no matter how often it always seemed it was bumpy when you walked across it. Big green everygreen-type bushes all along the outside walls of the house on all sides. AND ALUMINUM-type roofing! EVEN PAINTED SILVER!!!!! Always reminded me of a barn type roof. SO you face the front and there are 3 big steps leading up to the front red-painted porch and the ever present and familiar front door and doorbell. Again this porch is filled with antique items. Mailbox on your right side. Evergreen bushes on either side of the bottom 3 steps leading up to the porch. To your left would be a huge side yard (but really a front yard) and more of those evergreen bushes.........all a wonderful creamy yellow color....white trim...and a silver roof. AND don't forget the red painted cement flooring to the porches. Around to your left is again the yard, and you see the garage and through a WHITE PICKET fence and gate that SNAPS shut and makes a wonderfully familiar SMACKING sound...is their back yard where I remember grandma hanging many clothes outside to dry on the clothesline. What a wonderful SMELL that is in itself.BUT on the inside you will find so many wonderful treats once again for eyes, ears and nose! ANTIQUES EVERYWHERE.....clocks clock and more clocks! Some on the walls....some on tabletops.....and PLATES! COLLECTIBLE PLATES....covering nearly EVERY INCH of the walls in EVERY ROOM! Grandpa was an AVID collector and there was not one room you could go into without seeing plates hanging! Low ceilings in every room bu the living room and family room. AND I remember the walls to those rooms......with a leaf-veined design on what felt and looked like some type of cement walls and ceilings! Painted GOLDISH-CREAMY-YELLOW also. AND METAL large slat VENETIAN BLINDS on all the windows and doors. Loved the sound those made hitting the doors and windows! Older green and gold carpet on the floor but the kitchen had newer RED wall-to-wall carpet that lead into the dining room area. BIG WOODEN dining room table and chairs in there...almost CLUNKY. STEEP narrow small-footed stairs leading up to the top floor. So much stuff all around and sitting in every available inch of space...on tables.....on the floor....all over the walls. I guess that is where all my family gets their clutter tendencies! BUT we did not think of it as clutter. It was a treasure trove of stuff! AND pretty much all antiques! Something to see and explore in every room and even out into the garage where grandpa had accumulated TONS of stuff that filled every square inch of space in there too......they barely had room to creep their car into a parked space inside the garage on ONE side only!

BUT the smells of their house is one of the most wonderful things I remember to this day. I LOVE IT! In fact my grandma recently sent me an afghan and I had to keep it in the bag she sent it in for a few days...just so I could open that bag and take a whiff of wonderful grandma and grandpa house smells! I wish I could pinpoint exactly what makes up that smell. Kind of like Dial soap, mothballs and fried chicken and chicken and noodles and grandpa's old after shave all rolled into one.

I remember clocks...BIG TICKING clocks hanging on the walls that you would HEAR constantly tick-tocking away all the time. Even in complete human voice silence those clocks would continue talking amongst themselves into a very rhythmic, soothing beat of their own. I love and remember their furniture in the front room. The texture to it is strange. Kind of little bumpy-feeling material...but soothing and semi-soft at the same time. Big oversize circus -wheel -drum type footstool....2 color......TONS of chairs and antiques galore. Hand made doilies on the backs of the chairs and arms of the chairs. LOTS of rocking chairs which I LOVE! TINY hallway leading to the family room from the kitchen. Tiny bathroom that had a white painted door and lavendar-colored tiling on the inside with an old-fashioned medicine cabinet mirror above the sink with 2 old fashioned lights attached to each side. OH and grandma and grandpa's SLEIGH bed upstairs! Wonderful antique beds upstairs! The smells of grandma's ALWAYS freshly washed and usually IRONED sheets and bedspreads ever present in the room.

AND Christmastime was a wonderful treat. ALWAYS a fresh cut tree in the bay window area. ALWAYS white lights and antique glass ornaments on the tree. ALWAYS ANGEL HAIR and an ANGEL on top...never a star. AND those BIG OLD-FASHIONED Christmas lights trimming the outside of their house. Always a familiar sight to try to find in the dark on a visit up. Usually in a wonderfully peaceful BLUE!Just a wonderful treasure trove of sights, smells and sounds I will NEVER forget and sorely miss and LOVE to experience each time I get back to Ohio for a visit. I have many wonderful childhood memories from their home and will sorely miss it one day I am sure!

BUT what we probably remember the most is everytime we left their house.....grandma and grandpa would come outside on the front porch and stand there and wave and watch us drive all the way down the street. You could look back at any point and there they both would be...watching and still waving! They would watch us leave till we actually turned the corner and they could watch us no more! I have that image of them both still standing there today, watching and waving. I will forever.