The folks sold the house!

I grew up at 941 East State Street, Mason City, Iowa. Actually, I did live in another house in a different part of town for my first 3 or 4 years, but I have absolutely no memories of it. The only house of which I have memories was at 941 East State. My memories were neither of how good it was or how bad it was or how small or large it was. It was my house, home.

My parents bought it just before my dad went off to war in 1944. I’m told the actual move was after my dad had left for Europe to fight Hitler. I’m told the fellows from my dad’s bank were the ones who moved us. I don’t know why this particular house or why this particular time. It must have been rather sudden given my dad was not here. I just have no memories of the move.

What I do remember is that my brother and I had a bedroom and a bed that we shared. The bedroom was past my parent’s room on the second floor of the house. In fact you had to go through my parent’s room to our room. A curtain separated the two rooms. There was also a bathroom at the top of the stairs. It was the only room to have a door on it. The stairs also opened up to my parent’s room. Each of the bedrooms had a bed and a chester drawer¹. Our room had a small closet, but I don’t remember a closet for my parents. Where my father stored his suit, pants, my mother stored her dresses, I have no idea. The neat fact of the curtain separating the two rooms was that it acted as an opening curtain for plays my brother and I concocted for our parents. We would build some fantasy with our toys, call our parents up to have them sit on their bed, throw open the curtain and act out some dramatic scene using model airplanes, trains, tricks we had learned in school and other such imaginations young boys would dream. It made no difference to us how small or how close those rooms were.

Downstairs, there was no basement, consisted of three rooms, living room, kitchen/dining room, and a washroom. The living room had a sofa (we called it a davenport) a couple of tables and maybe one or two chairs. It also had a gas feed heating stove set into a fireplace. This supplied the heat for the whole house. I don’t remember spending a lot of time in this room except early in the winter mornings setting next to the stove to get the day started. I do remember that if you sat too close, you got your bottom burned pretty good. I do remember a lot of time being spent in the kitchen/dining room. Mom always seemed to be cooking something that smelled good and tasted better. Pies, apple, strawberry and rhubarb, and bread and cakes were her specialty. I remember the cinnamon rolls especially. We always had supper together as it was considered the most important meal of the day. Mom also used this area to make things for us kids. She sewed clothes, mended broken toys, and designed the most wonderful attire. Every year in elementary school I always seemed to win for the best Halloween costume. The washroom had a clothes washer with an old fashion wringer and a tub for soaking clothes. The wringer you had to be very careful with as if you were not vigilant it would pull your arm in as you sent clothes through.

The backyard seemed to be of decent size for us kids. On wash days clothes lines were filled and other days we used the same lines to make tents. At times there was a sand box to play in. Also there was a patch of rhubarb that was wonderful to eat with sugar when it was in season. There was also a two car garage in the back. For most of my childhood we did not have a car, so my dad kept tools in there. We thought of it as a giant room to play in when it rained.

The house was not a single family house but a duplex that had the same arrangement but mirrored. For most of my childhood, my father rented to the same family and they became good friends.

For a couple with one child this house could be considered adequate. For family with two children it would be considered crowded. When my sister came along (see Mom you are what?), it was really intolerable. At first a crib was added to my parent’s room and then the crib moved into our room. By this time I seemed to remember that my brother and I each had our own bed. With a crib in the room and two beds, there wasn't hardly any room to turn around in. And as my sister got older, I spent less and less time in the bedroom. By my sophomore year in high school, I started sleeping downstairs on the sofa. My parents must have noticed, because that year they stopped renting the other side of the house. It was announced that I could have the other side for my own apartment during my senior year in high school. You could not wipe the grin off my face when we were told of this arrangement. I had finally become an adult, someone all my friends would envy. I had my own place. Of course I was not allowed to bring anyone in there, but never mind that. Life was good.

The next year I went off to college. During one of the regular notes from home, it was announced that my parents had bought a new house just around the corner from my home. I came home for Thanksgiving break to walk past my home to a strange house two blocks away. In this house my sister had her own room, my brother had his own room, and my parents had their own room. None of the rooms were connected except through a hallway. And there was no room for me. I was told there was no need since I was off to college. For the times I was in the house, I slept in the basement.

Now, my sister and I refer to two different houses as home. And when it came time to sell my parents house, it probably wasn't as dramatic for me then it was for my brother and sister. The folks had sold my home!

1. In researching the term chester drawer, I found conflicting references. Two British sites insisted that this term should be chest of drawers. Yet another site stated just the opposite. I can find no etymology of the term in any dictionary. I did find that there are a number of manufactures that sell chester drawers. And there is a children’s tale that has as its main character, Chester Drawer. In all, there seems to be general agreement that term means a vanity with no mirror.

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