Growing up in Pasadena, California...I seem to be stuck on a 'memory mode' button, so here is one more...
270 South Parkwood...
This is where I spent my younger childhood years. It was a cute little 3 bedroom California mission style house... with ONE bathroom!
I think we bought it for $12,000 dollars and I looked on the internet recently and saw that it had sold a few years ago for $850,000!!! Unbelievable! It's still the same small house. I saw it on one of those web sites that pictures your address.
While I can't imagine one bathroom in these days, it seemed to work fine for us then. And it wasn't a big bathroom. It looked like the one in this picture, and the girls remind me of my sister and I.
I don't remember a lot of banging on the door and yelling for someone else to hurry up. Was I just kinder and more patient back then? I don't think so! Maybe we weren't as consumed with how we looked, or we were too busy playing outside to spend a lot of time in front of the mirror.
Have I become much more vain in the grown up years?? I NEED my space, and my mirror and my tubes, jars and brushes!!! I tell my husband that my face is like a fresh palette every morning, waiting to be painted. That 'paint' is important, or maybe it's the LACK of that paint that's the real issue!
We had so much fun in that small house. We lived 3 blocks from the Rose Parade route, and early on New Years Day, we carried our ladders and boards with our dad, and got our 'spot' on the parade route. The 3 of us sat on the board which was held by the 2 ladders and our view was perfect!
We had a huge backyard in that little house, with fruit trees, flowers and plenty of places to play. I even planted corn one year in my attempt to try 'farming'... it died while we traveled that summer.
I love life. I always seem to have fun, and there are so many different chapters that fill our lives these days. But once in awhile, I find myself thinking of 270 South Parkwood...
It was a simpler time.
12 comments:
Sweet memories of happy days gone by. (There's a horrific story in our family of a one bathroom nightmare where the girls in the family were occupying when the boys desperately wanted in. Something about an ax... =D )
How nice and really there is no prettier place in the world as Pasadena. The trees are just so huge and the houses so pretty. That is amazing it sold for so much money.
As my husband always says, " if the barn needs painting paint it."
I love walking with you down memory lane.
I think it is we had the eyes of a child...much like the Lord wants us to have toward Him.
Oh our house was 1100 square feet...one bathroom and six people! I loved it and when we moved to 2800 square feet, two bathrooms...we felt we had moved into a mansion.
Your memory lane always reminds me that I could do with much less and my kids could also...and we might learn contentment. At one time we did have three boys in a room...then they all had their own rooms...the memories they talk about are the years of sharing a room....I am sure Benjamin would gladly share his "cowboy" room with a sibling.
Great lesson...as always, through your walk down memory lane
What a wonderful, Norman Rockwell image you paint for us. I can almost picture you & your wide-eyed siblings relishing life's simplicities; or your parents delighting in the fun & security you gleaned from their provisions. No doubt it was in answer to their many, many prayers for you. What a legacy!
I am sitting here in my little family room, reading this post to my husband. We could not believe the price difference of the little house you once lived in. I am still smiling about the face waiting to be painted. For some reason, I find the painting taking longer the older I get. Your blog always lifts my spirits. You said you love life and I certainly can tell that when I visit here.
You made me wish that times were simpler today like they used to be. Thanks for sharing your memories.
I had to laugh with your remembrance of your phone number. I remember us having to dial 4 digits only... not even the three number prefix that came later!
Yes, life was simpler then. When I think about all I've taken on in recent days, my heart longs for a simpler time.
But then again, I would have never met you, right?!
peace~elaine
When I read this it made me wonder if we were more content back then, it cetainly was a simplier life. Enjoyed your stroll down memory lane.
I had to smile at your description of your face being a fresh pallete every morning...there are many a morning I look in the mirror and think...gonna need a lot of work today :)
Loved this. If you color that room PINK, you have the one bathroom in the house where I grew up too. Like you, I sure don't remember knocking on the door. (I do remember sitting on the sink with that sister of mine and breaking one of the legs.) I think we WERE less consumed with looking in the silly mirror back then, though. If I recall, we were just making funny faces in it.
I always loved your "Daddy Preached" stories, and I would love to hear more memory lane ones like this from you. You have a way of finding the common ground that takes us all back to a better place and time.
I tell you the truth... (Verily Verily) I would gladly sacrifice some of our modern conveniences for more of that old fashioned simplicity.
Oh Sonja, I grew up in South Central Los Angeles in a cute little Spanish stucco cottage with arched windows and a wonderful fireplace. My father bought that house for $10,000 in 1959 and sold it in 1970 for $19.500. Who knows what it goes for now!!!!
Oh the memories. I still remember specific MOMENTS on hot summer days, playing in the security of my backyard where my dear dad built me a playhouse and a pond with a waterfall.
Thank you dearest for coming to visit me. I wish you and your family a HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY! Anita
Sounds like a wonderful childhood. I love that your Dad took special attention so that you could see the parade so well. We always had just one bathroom for our family of 5. Isn't it crazy how prices have sky rocked over the years? Too bad it doesn't happen with cars. Ha!
Blessings and love,
Gwen
I grew up in a small house, too, with one bathroom for parents and four of us kids. That taught me so much right there! Loved your paint comment to your hubby! Wishing you a wonderful Mother's Day, Sonja!
this is adorable! i don't remember EVER
being in the bathroom as a kid. i'm sure
our moms waited until we flew out the
door to consider it themselves.
my dad says every barn needs a good
coat of paint, and i consider myself as
good as a barn . . . ha! at least as big
as one!!!!!!
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