What it looked like in much later years. I remember Dad clearing a lot of brush off the hill side here that sloped down to the swamp edge. That huge tree you see on the right used to be a tiny cherry tree. In the foreground is Mom's rock garden.
When we bought the place in Ohio it was overgrown with thousands of flowering bushes and bulbs and plants. I cleaned it out best as I could and brought a lot out to Mom. I knew she would love them and she did.
This is Dad in that last add-on shed in the back. He put a door in on either side and a huge cement box like space out side the front door of this part. He added cement blocks for steps so we could get in and out easily with groceries.
He used to put Bernie out on his chain here so he could do his business and bark at whoever walked by the house.
That's Todd. He was Nancy's cat. Dad is working on a chain saw here. Sometimes he sharpened the teeth in the chains. Other times he bought new chains and put them on himself. Still other times he took the motors apart to work on them. I think I remember they had to have special fuel that you mixed yourself. It was made from gasoline and oil.
Another winter and another pile of snow covered logs.
Dad was building something here maybe it was the coal shed or maybe he was in the coal shed that was empty at the time and building something else. I don't know.
That was me. I'm sitting on top of the well house eating and apple or maybe a sandwich. I was going to cut of the part with the paper bag until I realized why it was there. It was full of nails. He often sent me over to the hard ware store in Argyle to buy him more nails. There's also a hunk of wood there. You can see how he had cleared as much vegetation as he could here. If he went in any farther it got too wet to cut anything.
Mom standing outside of the "finished" place. The widow directly behind her was my bedroom window as long as I lived there. The little boards on the wall behind her are of different sizes. Dad said they were supposed to be but I always though he just wanted me to think that. There was no AC, of course, so we had screens on all the windows.
One winter. You can see the "stoop" thing he made to get in and out of that end of the house. The car is my yellow Maverick I drove till I went in the Army. I think I signed it over to Dad. Tommy and I came out for a visit from Ohio. He was little then, I think. The car was just sitting there with no one driving it. Dad asked me if I minded if he gave it to one of the Taylor boys. He said it had too much wrong with it by then to be able to fix it. It would cost him money to have it towed away and he figured if they wanted it, at least he wouldn't have to pay money he didn't have to get it hauled away.
The boy wanted it but to get it across the road and up in his father's barn yard so they could work on it, they needed to tow it. They put a rope on it I think. I don't even think they used a chain. They were not known for having much brain power.
My car I'd driven out from Ohio in, was parked in the driveway. They should have not even got close to it. They were having a hard time getting it out of the mud it was stuck in. Whoever was driving stepped on the gas and the car lurched forward and fishtailed hitting the side of my car.
My car was shoved over this much and then it bounced back. There was a dent in the car door. It still opened, but it had a dent. I did have insurance and even though it happened on private property and the car that hit me was not being driven, my insurance company paid the claim. I was supposed to get it fixed when I went back to Ohio.
I have to confess here. Well, I don't really have to do it, but I will. I knew if I told Old Tom, I'd gotten the money, he'd want me to send it to him and I'd never see a penny of it. I wanted that cash to spend on Tommy and do things in New York that I'd never be allowed to do in Ohio. I lied. I told him the insurance company wouldn't pay for it.
Sometimes, no matter how honest you think you are, there comes a time when you feel you need to lie. I knew Tom wouldn't get it fixed back there. I also knew he was getting his pay check from work and he wasn't sending me anything to travel on so I felt justified. Unless he reads this, which is doubtful, he still won't know. I can live with it.