Strange feeling...I was wandering around on Google Maps the other day and I decided to see what was going on with my Grandmother and Grandfather's old house in Alabama. My very earliest memories of my life are from that house. I remember when I was around 3 years old, riding a tricycle up and down the sidewalk that used to be there.
My mom told me that we lived right down the street from there when I was an baby, and one day when I was sound asleep, Mom forgot about me, and she headed down the street to her mama's house when she remembered she had a little baby at home still sleeping. She said I would sleep for hours...in fact I still do. 😊 hahaha
Grandpa would never allow a hot water heater in the house, he said it was too expensive, so my aunt would heat water to wash dishes on the stove...for a while it was a wood stove, then he finally let her have an electric one. They heated the house from an old Coal Heater in the "sitting room" which also doubled as Grandmas bedroom. That was where everybody would sit to visit, and also sit in the winter to stay warm. The aunt that took take care of them never married and she stayed in that house until they died at a ripe old age, then finally she came to the place that she couldn't stay there alone anymore, so she moved in with another aunt and lived with her family until she was just under 98 years old.
I remember there was an old outhouse there for the longest time when I was a kid. Finally the city made them build a toilet room in the house...and Grandpa built one out on the back porch with nothing but a toilet in there, and a on another wall by the back door, he also installed a simple sink. But my grandmother grew vines up over her outside outhouse because she had no intention of tearing that thing down...and she still used that outhouse for many years after that.
Strangest thing...on the back porch which was made of wood, there was a lone big nail pounded up in the ceiling. It was said that Grandpa put that nail there when he built the porch so that if the city water ever quit working, he would know that his well was right beneath that nail and they would never be without water. You know...when I was a kid, it made perfect sense to me. It's hard to change as you get older, and those old folks just didn't want to let the government come in and take over the lives they were used to living.
The house wasn't big at all, but I remember a big beautiful hydrangea bush right in the corner of the porch there on the left of the picture, and another one in the corner of the yard out by the street. There were two big wooden rocking chairs on the front porch and also a two seater rocker and they were painted gray. My grandpa used to sit out there a lot. He was a tall man and he always wore overalls, with a pocket watch in his bib pocket. Us grandkids would sit in his lap for hours and play with his pocket watch. And my Grandma would sit on that porch with her mouth full of snuff, and she would spit over the rail and...splat...a big brown spot right into that beautiful Hydrangea Bush. There used to be a nice banister around the porch and the grass was always green and beautiful.
Also, I remember the red brick house on one side with a ditch between my grandparents' driveway and the neighbor's yard...they had kids that used to live there and we used to play with them, and we would lay down in that ditch and hide from each other. And on the other side was another small house that my grandpa built by hand for my uncle and his wife when they first got married. I spent a lot of nights over at their house when I was kid. That house is gone now and the empty field looks like the house never existed.
Grandpa was a farmer when he was younger, and there were always corn fields around the house. My cousins lived in a house on the next street back behind my grandparents, and us kids would cut through grandpa's cornfields to get back there to visit them. And then there were my uncle's in-laws that lived on the other side, and I used to cut through their cornfields to go and visit at their house too.
And I remember my Grandpa's old car shed in the back. It was always a mystery to us kids as to what kind of treasures he used to keep in that shed. Sadly, the old tin shed is lying in a big heap on the ground now and it doesn't look like a mystery anymore.
And Grandpa used to have this wonderful plum tree in the back yard. I remember when we would visit, if the season was just right, I would leave with a basket full of fresh ripe plums to eat on the way home. They were delicious!
This was a lively old house back in the day, full of childhood memories with family and friends. But unfortunately, that old house was only meant to be temporary, and like everything else in this world, it has almost faded away. We sold it a number of years ago and all us family members split the money...it wasn't very much.
You know, I am not usually one for much nostalgia, but seeing this old house in this condition brought a feeling of sadness to my heart. 😞 As I get older and I see the many changes that have and are taking place in the world and the many relatives and friends that have come and gone over the years...I am sure that when this life is over, it's all going to make sense. But for now, I realize that EVERYTHING in this life is temporary...and to try to hang on to them is futile. Lots of people live in the past, and they end up losing the beauty of NOW...and those God has given to love and enjoy in the present. This life is like a vapor...everything is fading away.
But the good news is that we have a permanent home waiting for us, and if you have made Jesus Christ your Savior and Lord...it won't be long till we will all be HOME...together...forever. God bless you Friends.
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