Monday, June 4, 2012

Old places

James and I went on an adventure this past week.  It involved a house and an awkward conversation with a cute kid and his Mom.

Here is the backstory.  My great grandparents (the Andersons) built a house in Millville on land owned by my great grandpa's father.  The house was finished in time for my great grandma to give birth to my grandma, the only one of their 8 children born in the house.  She was their first daughter after three boys.

I love reading my great grandma's history and her feelings about having a daughter after three boys.  She was so excited and I know she had a special place in her heart for her oldest daughter.


 This is a picture of my grandma, LaRene, with one of her brothers.


My grandparents, shortly before their marriage, 1957?

The house as it looked when my grandma was young.

 And...


The house today! 
 I wasn't sure if it was the same house because it looked so different from the picture.  My grandma told me where the house was located and so James and I paid the owners a call.  When we knocked on the door I was still nervous about the prospect of talking to complete strangers about the history of their house.  A little boy answered the door and when we asked if his parents were home he replied that his Dad was at work and his Mom was in the tub.  We weren't sure about the truth behind these statements so we asked if we could talk to his Mom.  He left and we stayed on the porch.  
A few minutes later he reappeared with his Mom, whose hair was wet, she really was in the tub!  (I felt so bad because she was also pregnant...)  We introduced ourselves and explained our connection to the house.  I showed her some of the pictures of the old house and the family.  She was really nice and she gave us her number so my Grandma could talk to her about the house.   It was kind of scary to talk to a complete stranger about her house but I'm glad we did it!

1 comment:

Brandon and Mandy said...

What a cool post! The house looks a lot different, but nice. It's nice to know that it still exists though. c: