The "925 Memories" Story

It was an ordinary day. We've been in our new house for about a week. The year is 1969 and we had just moved to 925 Janet Ave. last weekend from our apartment at Manor House Apartments off the Millersville Pike. Really like Manor House. We had a second floor apartment that had a living room at the top of the steps that led into a small dining room. There were sliding glass doors at the back of the living room that opened onto a balcony that over looked the complex's swimming pool. Pretty neat, and the place was brand new. No one had lived in our apartment before we did. I enjoyed sitting on the balcony and reading the paper and watching the activity in the pool area. off the dining room was a small kitchen. Really small! At the other end of the living room there was a hall that led to the two bedrooms and the bathroom. Just enough space for a newly-wed couple with next to nothing to furnish it with. We did have a modern design sofa that felt like fur and a round black fur chair with a matching hassock. I had made the coffee and end tables at the shop in Eastern York High School in Wrightsville, PA where I taught wood shop. It was my first in teaching. We had a very modern light that stood about 6 feet tall and had 8 100 watt bulbs in it. Really lit up the room. In the basement of the apartment unit was a washer and dryer as well as storage for all the units. Kept my nearly brand new Lawn Boy in it, waiting for the chance touse it on my own lawn someday. About a year after we moved into our apartment, we were visiting with my parents at 944 Janet Ave. and they told us about this semi-detached house at the other end of the block that was going to be up for sale. We took a walk up the street and saw the Tudor style three story brick place. Had a garage in the back that opened onto a common alleyway. Would make a great "Starter" home we thought. We inquired about the place with the owners and got to look through the house. They knew we were interested and decided to wait until we gave them our decision before they put it up for sale. My dad had his lawyer, Mr. Fred C., Esquire, look into the place and he reported to us that it would make a great investment for us if we would decide to buy the house. Hey, we would be closeto both my parents and Carol's parents who live a block and a half in the other direction. We agreed on a price of $15,200.00 and bought the house. We were moving from a place that was a little over a year old to a home that was a little over 50 years old. The kitchen had a white enameled sink with washboard that was open underneath that you could see the plumbing and the radiator. Had an old electric range and fridge that were left behind. The bathroom had 1" square tiles on the floor with a pedestal sink with with white enameled fixtures. The plaster ceilings in most of the rooms were cracked. The hardwood floor was stained very dark and was dirty. The basement had a heating system that looked like it came with the house, but we knew it didn't since it was an oil unit. But, it was ours! And, the first few nights we both would lay in bed thinking we had made a terrible mistake by leaving our new apartment and buying this old, old house. How could we let anyone talk us intothis ugly, ugly mess! A lot of tears were shed the first weekat 925 Janet. Eventually we redid the kitchen, cleaned the floors, painted the walls, fixed the ceilings, put storm windows everywhere and put in a new heating unit. The one really neat feature that that we had to nothing with was the laundry shoot that ran directly into the basement from the second floor hallway with an access door in the kitchen. What was supposed to be a "Starter" home ended up being our residence for 29 years. We brought three children home from the hospital to be raised at 925 Janet. We had countless pets that lived with us at 925 Janet. We had a great mailman, Gary at 925 Janet. We laughed a lot at 925 Janet. We had neighbors to our rear, sides and across the street who became good friends. Our oldest son had a best friend who lived next door to my parents. Our daughters best friends lived right down the back alley and our youngest son's best friend played Star Wars with him in the back alley. I eventually did the 3rd floor over as a bedroom and bath for the boys, redid the kitchen two times, made a TV room in the basement and fenced in the back yard to avoid the shock of seeing our next door neighbor's yard all the time. Must have painted the house at least 10 times and opened the sewer line from the basement to the otherside of Janet once or more a year. Oh, the memories! We still drive past the old "Starter" from time to time and say, "Remember when we ..........." Our "Beach House" is our home now, and I wouldn't trade it for anything (maybe a house in the Caribbean), but we still have fond memories of our house at 925 Janet. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photos from the top are: exterior of 925 Janet Ave showing our half of the semi-detached house with screened-in porch, living room fireplace with tile in front and hardwood floors, old kitchen as it was when we moved in, and our first remodel that we did the first year in the home.