A Mother and Daughter's Butterfly Garden

I was two years old when we moved to a four-room house with one acre of land. The address, at the time, was 3209 39th Street. The house and garage with the land originally cost two thousand, seven hundred and fifty dollars. In the back of the house there was a chicken coup that cost an additional hundred dollars. The payments, after a five-hundred-dollar down payment, were twenty-five dollars a month. (The address changed to 3205 39th Street when three-quarters of the land was sold years later.) There were only eight of us then. Diana and Barb came after we had moved in there. Us kids must have thought we were in seventh heaven. There were no locked doors. The wide-open spaces of the yard and the orchard—a wonderland of fruit trees—seemed to go on forever. The apple orchard contained a variety of apples, such as Red and Yellow Delicious, Jonathans, and green apples. Oh, how I loved to climb to the top of those trees! There were cherry and plum trees, pear trees, and Dad’s pride and joy was the peach tree. His peach tree had the biggest, most delicious peaches I have ever seen. Behind all of this, were the grapevines, which defined the back of the lot. Bob used to make wine out of those grapes in the basement. In 1942 the house was completely different than it stands today. There was a kitchen, living room, two bedrooms and a basement. The rooms were small and separated by curtains, as there were no doors. After Diana and Barb were born, there were ten people living in this tiny little house at one time. Where did Mom and Dad put everyone? Making the sleeping arrangements could not have been easy. I remember Mom and Dad had their bedroom with the baby crib. My two brothers, Bernie and Bob, slept in the other bedroom with Grampa, and we girls slept in the living room on a hideaway sofa and a rollaway bed. Compared to today’s standards, I know we all wonder how we ever survived, but we never questioned the inconvenience back then. We knew Mom and Dad did the best they knew how. The kitchen walls were done with green oilcloth, and the other three rooms were wallboard with wallpaper. I remember the airplane wallpaper in the boys’ room and the old ivy wallpaper in the hallway. I believe Bernie had a hand in picking that out. One day, I uncovered the green paint that went with the ivy wallpaper when I was stripping the woodwork. The only running water came from a hand pump in the kitchen, and the used water had to be disposed of outside because there was no drain in the sink. The water came from a well on the north side of the house. I vaguely remember a pump outside the back door. If Mom needed hot water she would have to heat it on the stove. The outhouse was located about twenty to twenty-five feet from the house behind a small one-car garage. During the winter months there was a white porcelain potty with a lid for doing our business. In 1950, Dad added on to the house with no professional help. He built two bedrooms and a bathroom. Bob and Bernie got the pleasure of tipping over the outhouse. Today there stands on that spot a beautiful huge evergreen. Diana planted a seedling that came free in the newspaper one day. Today, over forty years later, the tree still stands and bears fruit. Planting the tree where the outhouse used to be turned out to be a very fertile decision. The furnace was in the basement. Coal, stored in the coal bin, was shoveled into the furnace and heated the house. The furnace had to be filled with coal several times a day in the winter months. Usually the coal was shoveled into the furnace, but Dad eventually improvised a mechanical belt that fed the furnace. The basement was cool in the summer, and I think sometimes we ate down there. The chicken house was about ten feet to the south of the outhouse. I barely remember the chickens but I do remember the rabbits. The rabbit house was on the side of the garage. My rabbit was black and white. I don’t remember what ever happened to the rabbits. One day, I watched as some rabbits were being skinned on a clothesline over at the McFarlands. Did we eat those rabbits? Dad eventually converted the chicken house into his workshed. The workshed is where I spent most of my time with Dad. Dad was never really talkative, but I loved hanging out out there with him, anyway. There have been a lot of changes to this enchanted old house through the years. After my brothers moved out, the wall that separated the living room from the bedroom came down, making that area one big room; a dining area on one end of the room and the living area on the other. In the early seventies, Mom took out the beige wool carpet and replaced it with brand new olive-green carpet. Today the living room is carpeted with a cameo colored carpet, and with the help of my brothers and sisters I have put new siding on the house. The siding the contractors took off the house was a speckled green asphalt siding. It is now white vinyl siding with hunter- green shutters and I am attempting to give the house a cottage look, and hope by preserving this house I am helping to keep memories of home alive for my brothers and sisters. The yard, with the help of my daughter, is quickly becoming a bird and butterfly sanctuary. With our own two hands, Susy and I have landscaped the entire yard. It is very picturesque. I love the landscaping. Susy is helping me to add flowers and shrubs to attract butterflies and next season we hope to tag Monarchs and follow their migration to Mexico. Gardening is fast becoming an avid hobby of mine.