This week’s topic from Lynette Kraft at Dancing Barefoot on Weathered Ground -

Tell us about your first house – after you were married.
OR
If you’re not married, tell us a special memory about another house you lived in.

Russ and I were married almost ten years ago, on March 25, 2000.

We had both been living in our own apartments, neither of which would work for two of us to live together. Mine was income restricted – I was a happy enough but not terribly financial successful unmarried woman   and Russ’ apartment…
perfectly fine for a man living alone but it didn’t look like a place where I could create our “nest”.
Russ left it up to me to find an apartment I did like. (I didn’t know then that he was already planning on buying a house so it didn’t much matter to him where we lived in the interim)

I loved our first apartment. The building was old, the kitchen was huge with this funky vine entwined wallpaper, the living room had a polished wood floor…
That floor became one of our first lessons in creative compromise and harmony in our new marriage. I adore wood floors. They’re clean, with enough love and care the wood glows with warmth.
Depending on your point of view.
Russ likes thick carpet. His feet get cold. Wearing socks is not a simple solution. There is still a “draft”.

My first gift to my new husband was a 9′ by 11′ wool area rug centered in front of his favorite chair. I admired the wood floor gleaming around its edges.

We’ve moved a few times since then – living in different homes but remaining in a place of creative compromise and (sooner or later, depending on the degree of difference in opinion ) harmony in our marriage. I’ve kept rugs on the floors. Russ, bless his heart, has put up with an assortment of pets that no man who remained a bachelor would ever have allowed house room.

We love each other.
We’ve done well.

Rooting around in the box of pictures in the closet, looking for a picture of our first apartment, I found this:

1957 – I’m a month past my third birthday and wearing my Mickey Mouse ears. This was my first home. Russ was living in a far off city, busy attending 4th grade.

Thank you, Lynette, for the opportunity to look back on pictures and happy memories.

Read more entries of So We Don’t Forget – add one of your own! Visit Dancing Barefoot on Weathered Ground – click here.

a poem by Edgar Guest (1881-1959)

The Old-Fashioned Parents

The good old-fashioned mothers and the good old-fashioned dads,
With their good old-fashioned lassies and their good old-fashioned lads,
Still walk the lanes of loving in their simple, tender ways,
As they used to do back yonder in the good old-fashioned days.

They dwell in every city and they live in every town,
Contentedly and happy and not hungry for renown;
On every street you’ll find ‘em in their simple garments clad,
The good old-fashioned mother and the good old-fashioned dad.

There are some who sigh for riches, there are some who yearn for fame,
And a few misguided people who no longer blush at shame;
But the world is full of mothers, and the world is full of dads;
Who are making sacrifices for their little girls and lads.

They are growing old together, arm in arm they walk along,
And their hearts with love are beating and their voices sweet with song;
They still share their disappointments and they share their pleasures, too,
And whatever be their fortune, to each other they are true.

They are watching at the bedside of a baby pale and white,
And they kneel and pray together for the care of God at night;
They are romping with their children in the fields of clover sweet,
And devotedly they guard them from the perils of the street.

They are here in countless numbers, just as they have always been,
And their glory is untainted by the selfish and the mean.
And I’d hate to still be living, it would dismal be and sad,
If we’d no old-fashioned mother and we’d no old-fashioned dad.

Click Here to visit Lynette Kraft at Dancing Barefoot on Weathered Ground and the new format for Wednesday Memories.  (I’ll be on topic for next week – I promise )

Some places we visit make memories, others bring back memories. We’ve found a place that does both – a little diner in town waiting to transport Grampy back to the days when he was ready to rock around the clock and filled with sights and sounds to make Maya squirm in her chair with delight.

Let the Good Times Roll!

Walk with others this Wednesday Down Memory Lane – Click Here

Maya and I were looking at old pictures today.
We were cleaning Grammy’s closet and got distracted.
It was still time well spent -
look at what we found…

Grammy on Easter in 1959. (except they called me Karen then )

Miss Maya on Easter, 2008

Visit more bloggers Walking Down Memory Lane – click here

Todays’ Post in Grandmother’s Patternbook - Crochet Camisole Vest

Todays’ Post in Grandmother’s Dollhouse - Make a Pieces Doll

Today’s Post in Thrifty Creativity – How to make Marzipan Fruit

This is my first time participating in Wednesday’s Walk Down Memory Lane. When I read the topic – childhood games – my mind jumped back in time to a school recess spent with my friend Mariette clapping in rhythm to “Miss Mary Mack”. My daughter must have played this same game because she asked me just a few weeks ago if I remembered the words. She wants to teach it to her daughter.
I do remember – here it is, along with a couple more.

Miss Mary Mack

Miss Mary Mack Mack Mack
All dressed in black, black, black
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons
All down her back, back, back.

She asked her mother, mother, mother
For 50 cents, cents, cents
To see the elephants, elephants, elephants
Jump over the fence, fence, fence.

They jumped so high, high, high
They reached the sky, sky, sky
And they didn’t come back, back, back
‘Til the 4th of July, ly, ly!

Miss Susie

Miss Susie had a baby,
She named him Tiny Tim
She put him in the bathtub,
To see if he could swim

He drank up all the water,
He ate up all the soap,
He tried to eat the bathtub
But it wouldn’t go down his throat.

Miss Susie called the doctor,
Miss Susie called the nurse,
Miss Susie called the lady,
With the alligator purse

In came the doctor,
In came the nurse,
In came the lady,
With the alligator purse

Mumps said the doctor,
Measles said the nurse,
Hiccups said the lady
With the alligator purse

If Miss Susie is used as a jump rope rhyme, rather than a clapping game, then three more jumpers enter as the doctor, nurse and lady with the alligator purse. They exit with this last verse.

Out went the doctor
Out went the nurse
Out went the lady with the alligator purse

and here’s another Jump Rope Rhyme

All in together girls
its fine weather girls
when is your birthday
please jump in
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September,
October, November, December

All out together girls
its fine weather girls
when is your birthday
please jump out
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31!

Walk down more Memory Lanes – Click Here

Today’s Post on Thrifty Creativity – Your desk, at home/at work – Wednesday – other furniture and equipment

Today’s Post on Grandmother’s Patternbook – A crochet lace collar