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| Steve and Chris play near the new fence circa 1952. |
In June 1951my parents, Steve, Sally and I moved to a new subdivision of
Kansas City, known unofficially, at least to the post office, as
Shawnee Village. Prior to the 1950s the land we were living on had been used for agriculture so I feel we were pioneers. Dad's trip to downtown Kansas City where he worked for the Kansas City
Times took more than 30 minutes. These are pictures from those early years. The letter is one Mom wrote to Dad's parents the week we moved.
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| Steve's 5th birthday - both sets of grandparents and Helen, Chris and Kerry. |
Dear Folks
We feel sort
of settled now that we have a draw curtain up in the living room. We felt a little on display before. I felt rather lucky for when I went to Sears
to buy them I found that it takes two weeks to get them, but some lady had
ordered some gray ones and then not taken them so they were on special. They look nice with our room and pretty good
outside too—which is what worried me. We
haven’t any hot water until today. They
turned on the gas yesterday and lighted the stove for me but they wouldn’t
light the heater because it was new and the man said “the gas company aint got
no heaters to replace them when they blow up,”
That made me feel real happy to have something liable to blow up in the
basement. I read the instruction but
couldn’t figure them out.
When the
water meter man came I cornered him and asked him if he would watch me while I
held the match and tell me what to do.
He and I got down on our knees—the floor was wet too and decided it
wouldn’t light because there was air in the pipes. He went away cheerfully telling me that
sometimes it takes an half and hour to clear the pipes. If the light man hadn’t come early I might
have cornered him to finish lighting the heater because I got as far as the
pilot light but couldn’t go further. Mr.
Welch came out and lighted it for me today.
Ray is
feeling real good today but he felt a little draggy Sunday and Monday. I’m sending you a couple of stories from the
Times he wrote. He seems to like it real
well and as he has 5 until 7:30 for supper he comes home for supper.
I’m writing
Gussie and dad the almost the same thing as I write you. I thought I would warn both of you for the
kids and I don’t do enough different things to make two letters different. Love Mary
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| Dad joins the fun. |
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| Celebrating Steve's birthday in the basement. |
This is great. However, I am perplexed to discover that not only was the fence once new but so was the earth mover that Steve is sitting on in the photo with Chris. I played with that thing in the sand pile but it was banged up by the time I got it.
ReplyDeleteWhy would they have celebrated Steve's October birthday in the basement? I thought that was only to stay cool.
This is so odd to see a world very much like one I remember but yet new and oddly different. Great stuff.
I wondered about the basement, but I think it was as over the years proved the only place large enough to hold everyone around a table. I was stunned to see the fence actually standing up.
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