Category Archives: The Barn House

1955 Grandparents Relocate, The Barn House

More Building and Relaxing

February 10, 2016 Alpha

1955, JANUARY

Last Fall, Grandma and Grandpa started thinking about retirement as Grandpa would turn 65 this year. They both loved gardening and the outdoors so they talked to Mother and Dad about the possibility of buying a little ground from them for a retirement home. Mother and Dad decided it would be nice to have family around so they sold them the chicken house and the garden area they had been working. They had Nealis do the contractor work on the chicken house for a dining room, kitchen and bath. An addition was joined on the South end for the living room and bed room.

The inside was finished in knotty pine boards and we helped seal the wood with a Fabulon finish which was a step up from shellac and prior to polyurethane. They sold the machine shop and started moving in this winter.

1955, APRIL

Dad was still working second shift at Circle Engraving Company in downtown Indianapolis. With the long drives and overtime work, he still kept pushing himself to complete projects while still starting new ones.

Dad`s camera is to his left. It was on a roller track to serve as a zoom feature of the camera. The arc lamp in the foreground provided the intense light needed to photograph the fine detail of the copy print. These same lights are what contributed to Dad`s macular degeneration in his later years.

We managed to find time for our first real vacation this spring! It was decided that a trip to Grandma`s native Canada may help her relax and be better prepared to sort out her future.

Dad had just bought a new 1954, Oldsmobile 88 with the new “Rocket V-8” engine. Maybe that was more of a reason for a vacation trip?

We stopped at Niagara Falls on our way to Canada and that was when reality set in for Grandma that she was actually going back to Canada. Then the anxiety started. If she went back to Canada would they keep her and not let her return home? We finally convinced her that all was legal and she would return home safely.

I got my very own Kodak Brownie Camera for Easter, just in time for our trip! This model came with a detachable flash attachment and of course you had to by the disposable flash bulbs as needed. The roll of film had to be loaded from the back of the camera. An empty spool had to be threaded with the lead paper end from the new roll of film. Once the back was closed, a winding knob on the side of the camera was turned to advance the film into position for a shot. The back of the camera was fitted with a round red plastic window through which the progression of the film could be monitored. It started with arrows pointing the direction of winding, followed by a series of small dots indicating that the first number was coming up. With the number one centered in the window, the camera was ready. After the shot, you had to remember to wind the film to the next number or you would get a “double exposure”.

After the last picture was taken, you would have to rewind the film back onto it`s spool and have it developed. In a week or two your prints and the negative film could be picked up and shared via social media…AKA… personal contact!

Mother and Dad updated their 8mm movie camera too. Also a Kodak Brownie model which used 8mm movie film on a reversible 25ft reel. No battery power, had to wind the spring motor to progress the film. After one side was used, you had to open the case in a darkened room and reverse the spools and rethread the film to run through again. The movie film reel was put in a tin case and sealed with tape to keep the light out and as with print film, sent off for processing. One roll of processed film produced about a 5 minute show.

When the movies were returned, the reel had to be mounted and the film threaded through a movie projector and then projected on a reflective screen in a darkened room. Popcorn was a must and history was preserved!

When we returned home from vacation, we went to pick up Prince who had been boarded at Doc Shirley`s in Pendleton. He was so excited to be home, he didn`t want to stay outside and romp. He just kept looking in the kitchen window!

When we let him in, he had a short visit with everyone and headed to his comfy spot in the utility room by the furnace.

We all felt the same way after our first real vacation; we were ready to flop!

The next day Dad started right in on the sidewalk project while Mother worked on banking dirt around the porch area for more flower beds.

A great deal of back breaking sod removal and grading for the gravel base, but Dad did borrow Grandpa Barrett`s rototiller to help break up the hard clay ground. Hand laid brick edging kept the stone in place and out of the yard.

1955 MAY

With the passing of Grandpa Wolff last year, Grandma elected to sell her house . At the time, she didn`t have any idea of where she wanted to live. It was discussed and decided that it would be best to move by us until she had time to collect her thoughts and figure out where she wanted to settle.

A used travel trailer, (today a mobile home), was set up between the Quonset Hut and Barrett`s Chicken House and we helped settle Grandma in as well as possible.

About the same time, unbeknownst to me, the plans were being formed to purchase a horse for the menagerie. This was done without even using the $7.50 I had saved in the piggy jar! Hey, I still had to buy my own comic books, bubblegum baseball cards, ammunition and arrows. I didn`t have much left to save!

We installed an electric fence around the front yard, (baseball diamond), and converted the north end of the Quonset Hut into a

stable. Saddle, bit and harness, curry combs and brushes, oats and molasses along with bales of straw and alfalfa were stored in the new stable.

Wow this was a dream come true! Riding from dawn to dusk over hill and dale, what a life. I couldn`t wait for school to be out! We quickly learned how to bridle and saddle Rusty. Learning to properly ride was another matter all together. Rusty was smarter than we were!

1955, JUNE

With school out and more time available for riding, I got along pretty well with Rusty. I learned pretty quick that there is a great deal of maintenance that goes along with having a horse, but it was worth it.

We had a scare one stormy night. I discovered Rusty had evidently been scared by the lightning and broke out of the stable and headed up the drive toward the highway. Somehow a trucker, rounding the curve, spotted Rusty in his headlights and stopped. He helped Dad calm him down so we could lead him back home. We closed the front gate for the night and secured the stable door. What a relief.

Spring brings thoughts of baseball and all of us guys play Little League or Babe Ruth ball in Pendleton. Little league baseball came to the Falls Park in the 50s. More property was acquired for this exciting addition and a Babe Ruth diamond was built adjacent to the Little League field. Pendleton`s senior league was called Pony League back then.

The opening day parade featured the Pendleton marching band, floats and all the baseball teams. That cute girl, Carole, was a majorette in the band.

1955, JULY

One of my birthday gifts was a pair of steel spiked baseball shoes for “Pony League”. The first time I wore them on the diamond, I felt as though I was running twice as fast as I had before. It was an awesome feeling!

Dad also set me up with the chemicals and light box needed to develop and print my own film! I could close off the bathroom window and set up my darkroom. It was great!

Always progressing with the Wolff`s Den, Dad would prove to be one who liked to close things in. It must have been from something in his genes that required “closure” to a project! The project that required finishing was the newly added sun porch just added to the den.

Doyle was home on leave from the marines, so this seemed the perfect opportunity to complete the project.

With that project still ongoing, we started to finish off the den with horizontally run knotty pine boards. The ceiling would be finished with gypsum board. I got to be pretty proficient with a hammer and nail set. The boards were tongue and groove like flooring so the nails didn`t show.

1955 AUGUST

With the start of school just around the corner and looking back, this was a fantastic year! Grandpa and Grandma were completing their fall harvest and preparing for canning and freezing the fruits of their labors. I was taking pictures with my new camera and looking forward to my junior high school days and the adventures to come!

1955, SEPTEMBER

Eighth grade started and friendships were renewed after a summer`s absence.

Carole laws is the first one of the third row and I am the second one on the last row.

We took Grandma Wolff with us on a visit up north to a Barrett family celebration for Grandpa and Grandma Barrett`s wedding anniversary. I managed to get a rare photo of my two grandmothers together. Grandma Wolff would turn or put her hand up to her face if she saw a camera so this photo is special!

1955, NOVEMBER

The first snow of the season and Dad is out planting evergreens along the new walkway.

Leona`s flower shop didn`t take off and she sold the house on the highway and moved to Anderson. The new owner would give new meaning to the phrase “neighbor from Hell”! More on that later.

The sunroom was completed and we continued work on the den paneling.

The Barrett clan all came down for Thanksgiving at the recently finished Barrett`s Roost. Left to right; Aunts Mae and Jin, Mother, Grandpa, Aunt Marg, Grandma and Uncle Jay. With us and all the cousins and in-laws, they had 22 family members for a great Thanksgiving reunion at the old chicken house, just like we did three years ago in the old barn house!

1956, WINTER

It was finally a pretty mild winter this year. Still busy feeding and watering the animals and finishing the paneling and ceiling molding in the den.

Grandma Wolff decided to go back to Park Place in Anderson. She rented a house on College Drive which was within walking distance of the drugstore, the Park and Shop grocery, the Church of God and also the city bus route came right by her front door. It was a great location for her and we soon had her settled in and her television hooked up so she wouldn`t miss any of her soaps!

Prince helped keep me warm in my hayloft bedroom. We had to remember not to get up too quickly as the loft ceiling angled just over our heads!

Dad traded up to the 1956, Oldsmobile 98, four-door hardtop sedan. At mid-year, Olds introduced the new pillarless four-door hardtop body, dubbed the Holiday sedan, in the 98 series. Perhaps because of the popularity of the new 4-door hardtop body style total 98 sales set a new record of 118,626.

As it was the top-line Oldsmobile, the series had the most technologically advanced items available, such as the four speed Hydramatic automatic transmission, the Autronic Eye, an automatic headlight dimmer, and Twilight Sentinel (a feature that automatically turned the headlights on and off via a timer, as controlled by the driver), and the highest-grade interior and exterior trim. It weighed over two tons and sold for around $3,000.

Standard equipment included armrests, bumper guards, lined trunk, rotary door latches, dual horns, cigarette lighter, turn signals, rubber floor mats, aluminum door sill plates, sun visors, front and rear carpeting, foam rubber seat cushions, courtesy lights, front fender medallions, deck lid ’98’ script, back-up light moldings, electric clock, Jetaway Hydramatic Drive, padded dash, power steering, windshield washers and Deluxe steering wheel.

The new padded dash safety feature was not a favorite of Dad`s. He couldn`t polish it to a bright shine as he could the old painted steel dash!

1956 SPRING

Spring had sprung and Dad was eager to clean out the Cow Barn and Quonset of their stored “junk”. So, one day, while Mother was shopping, we loaded up the trailer with the “junk” and headed to the Pendleton city dump. We returned home about the same time as Mother. She asked what we had been up to and the next thing I knew we were heading back to the dump site with the empty trailer.

When we pulled in and headed toward our dumping area we noticed several people in the area with there arms full of “junk”. Our “junk”! It took a lot of explaining and begging on Dad`s part, but we were able to retrieve most of our “junk”. As it turned out, Mother knew the value of her collections and Dad never messed with them again.

Dad`s first self propelled power mower was a Snapping Turtle that was designed to walk behind, but Dad soon engineered a tractor seat mounted on a two wheel axel that attached to the back of the mower. No springs or suspension and the rough turf beat your butt sore. We usually preferred to walk behind!

Mother had a long flower bed that ran the length of the front drive entrance. It kept her pretty busy especially in the spring. Dad planted Multaflora Rose Bushes along the side of the drive and ended up cussing them every year.

The highway department used these dense growing small flowered shrubs along the highways and medians to help prevent automobile run-offs and accidents. They had sharp rose thorns and spread so much that they had to be trimmed each spring so they wouldn`t scratch the car. When Dad would finish the trimming and we would haul the brush to the burn pile in back, Mother would be waiting with iodine and bandages for Dad`s arms.

1956, JULY

I received the most wonderful present for my 14th birthday, a Scottish Border Collie! He and all of the responsibility of taking care of him was to be mine. He had a white tip on his tail so I named him Tippy.

Dad and I finished the porch for the front entryway after we finally got the mixing, pouring and grading done on the cement walkways this fall.

Dad made a small Wolff`s Den sign to hang over the walkway leading from the carport to the front entry. Mother used the wood burner tool to burn the name into the sign.

Uncle Jim and Aunt Jin came down for a visit and while they were here, cousin Becky and I, Grandpa and Dad, shucked some sweet corn from Grandpa`s garden. Boy, that was the best sweet corn!

1956, AUGUST

Mother and I just started another bought with bronchitis and sinus infection and the doctor making the house call commented on the horse in the front field. This could be a strong contributor to our allergies and congestion. This made sense, as we recalled that all of this trouble started shortly after we got Rusty.

Well, we sold Rusty and with masks in place, cleaned out the quonset hut stable. It was a great ride, but I resigned myself to the fact that I would not grow up to be a cowboy! With my freshman year of high school about to start, we will just have to follow the course of the journey and discover which road it takes!

1954 MOVING FORWARD, The Barn House

BUSY SUMMER THIS YEAR

January 13, 2016 Alpha

1954, JUNE

Big, big doings at The Wolff`s Den this summer! School is out and Doyle graduated this year and heading to the marines.. The gang is starting our summer adventures. Mother and Dad are progressing with the remodel and landscaping. Grandpa and Grandma Barrett are planning a big garden just south of the chicken house.

Dad`s first project was to dig a hole for the post that was to hold the Wolff`s Den sign at the gated entrance to our long drive.

The start of Mother`s long flowerbed runs along the left of the drive. The drive crested the hill and then went down and curved in front of the house and back up the other side then across the top of the hill. This was my daily walk to and from the school bus each school day. As you can see, it was up hill both ways with 3 ft. of snow in the winter and heavy wind and rain in the spring, but it built character…. and a character!

In Indiana, the spring weather spauns many tornadoes and since Mother was in a terrible one as a child in Oklahoma, she was deathly afraid of storms. Whenever a storm would pop up, it was the drill for everyone to head for the basement. A storm at night and a pallet was made for me to sleep on top of the chest type freezer in the basement. I remember begging, “Just let it blow me away so I can be in my bed!”.

Spring was also kite flying time and this year we added a new twist. We four boys each asked for bow and arrow sets for Christmas, not the toy sets but the longbow target shooting sets and we got them! They were so stiff we could just barely bend them enough to loop the cord over the bow.

After we finally figured out how to shoot the arrow without the cord leaving a burn mark on our wrists, we were ready for some serious targets. The most obvious and challenging targets were of course our kites. This was great for awhile, but retrieving the arrows from clear across the field soon became tedious. Some other target had to be found that didn`t require all this retrieval.

A few days later, we devised a game that solved the problem. The “brilliant idea” was to get in a circle and one of us would shoot an arrow straight up in the air. The object then was to maneuver yourself to be the closest to the arrow as it hit the ground. We got points based on our distance from the arrow and the bonus was we didn`t have to chase after the arrows, wow how awesome! It was funny to watch someone just take off running because they had lost sight of the arrow and wanted to get out of the target area. Luckily we all survived the summer and our parents never learned of the game till years later!

Dad finished the masonry stone work on the outdoor fireplace grill and Mother painted the Quonset barn red. The work on the sunporch and carport continued.

As the sunporch and carport were being finished, Dad always wanting to be one step ahead of today, started on the front entry way and porch.

Some of the receipts for building materials, back then, shows how prices have really changed over time.

Roll roofing $3.40 each, bundle of shingles $2.55 each, 1 3/4 roofing nails 25 cents #, no. 6 finish nails 12 cents #, 330 board feet 1/6 clear pine boards $72.60, 3/8 in 4×8 plasterboard $1.76 each, 30# blu nails $6.00 and crushed stone $3.20 a ton. It took 41 tons of crushed stone to cover the drive. Then we had to grade and rake it out and of course Dad wanted to do that in one day!

We extended the drive to the carport as it was finished. Mother is on the new front porch and the used, tan, 1954, Nash Rambler station wagon is parked in the carport.

1954, JULY

Summertime was also swimming time at Pendleton Falls Park. Well, more like frolicking and splashing, as I couldn`t swim. Mother and Mike and Jeff`s mom would bring picnic lunches and sit under the shady trees on the hill while we boys played in the swimming pool below.

On one of these days, I was following the shorter boys across the swimming area that was roped off from the deeper falls area for safety. We were heading to the concession stand and walking along the rope buoys as this was the shortest distance.

Suddenly my foot went in a hole and I fell over under the rope. I tried to regain my footing but the sloped gravel bottom just slid me toward the deep falls area. I frantically tried to reach the surface for a breath of air, but could never quite make it. After some time, my life didn`t flash before my eyes as they say, I was just so exhausted that it felt like a welcome relief that the struggle was over. I just relaxed into a peaceful state of resignation when I felt an arm around me. After some coughing and hacking I was fine. The boys went running to Mother to tell her I was O.K. and when I got there the hugs and kisses turned into lectures and threats of not returning to the pool.

I promised to stay well away from the buoy markers and to take swimming lessons at the YMCA and Mother relented. On completion of my swimming classes, I still could not swim! A second course proved just as futile. We kids continued our trips to the pool, but with more respect for the water.

The sunporch was finished and Grandpa and Grandma`s garden was starting to produce. Grandpa would load his trailer with the garden produce and set up a roadside sale in the area across highway 67, where highway 9 junctions. Shortly after he started his enterprise, he would have customers waiting for him to come and set up and he would be sold out in a short time!

This summer, to earn some money, I went home to Chicago Heights with Grandpa and Grandma to work with Grandpa in his machine shop. I stayed a week or two and learned how to safely operate several metal working machines and have my first exposure to what a machinist did.

Besides the new work, I enjoyed the TV programing available in the Chicago area. The network market was much larger in Chicago and I was able to watch many more of my favorite hero shows.

I earned enough money to buy the 22, rifle I had been wanting since Christmas. The purchase was conditional on my completing a firearms safety course at the Indiana State Police Post in Pendleton. All of the gang took and passed the course and we were anxious to purchase our guns.

1954 AUGUST

While waiting for our rifles we planned our target range in the back field. We started saving the wax cardboard milk containers to fill with water for a splashing target and tin cans for jumping targets.

Another pastime was our version of Mumbley Peg. The game gets its name from a stick driven into the ground by the winner of the game, which the loser must pull out of the ground with his teeth. There are different variations of Mumbley Peg. One version involves two opponents who stand opposite from one another, feet shoulder-width apart. The first player takes his pocket knife and throws it at the ground, so that it sticks into the ground as close as possible to his own foot. The second player take his knife and does the same. The player who sticks his knife closest to his own foot wins. A player could automatically win if he purposely stuck his knife into his own foot.

Our version was more interesting and took more skill and time to complete a round. We faced each other, but we had to take the point of the blade between the first and second fingers of the right hand, and flip it with a jerk so that the knife turns once around in the air and strikes the point into the ground next to the OTHER PERSON`S foot! Then, if the knife stuck in the ground, that person had to spread his foot out to the edge of the knife and if the knife didn`t stick a turn was lost. The person to get their opponent to spread out and lose their balance and fall over would win the round. This was an outdoor game that developed strategy, dexterity and comradeship. Somewhat different from todays electronic thumb manipulated games.

The family would take the short trip to Geist Reservoir occasionally to do some fishing and relax and recharge our batteries. This was before any streets or houses were developed. This site is where the current north end of Carroll Road meets the bridge. Big houses there now!

Mother didn`t mind baiting hooks but we had to clean the fish for her to fry!

1943, SEPTEMBER

Summer winding down and we boys have gotten to be pretty good marksmen. Now we were off to the neighboring fields and small creek that provided more challenges. The creek that eventually found its` way into Falls Creek and on to the Falls Park pool, was our favorite shooting gallery. The floating twigs, leaves and occasional water snake provided great moving targets.

Surprisingly, given our past record of devising FUN activities, we never had a close call or unsafe act. Well, except for the time we were trying to shoot crows as they flew overhead. Not having any luck with our 22s, I borrowed Grandpa Barrett`s 410 shotgun to give us a better pattern of fire. One crisp fall morning, we hid in the corn field and waited for the crows to circle overhead. Great plan! Here they came: straight overhead and we blasted away. Didn`t hit a thing. But, shortly we could hear the 410 pellets falling back to earth, striking the dried corn stalks all around us. Lesson learned; don`t shoot straight up!

School starting and I will be in Junior High 7th grade. We get to move upstairs and have our own locker and change classes at the bell! Wow, big time.

I met a nice girl at school this year. We shared several classes together and I let her copy from my test paper. We traded class photos and I thought she was cute. Her name was Carole Laws.

Some of the wild cats stuck around to join our menagerie and a couple eventually became semi-house-cats.

1954, DECEMBER

We had our worst winter yet at the Barn House this year. Mother and Dad used the grader blade on the David Bradley tractor to clear a path down the drive. This is Mother taking her turn!

It was deep! I kept busy feeding and watering the animals that congregated in the Cow Barn as if it were a Noah`s Ark!

Christmas was soon upon us and my wish for an English type bicycle was granted. It was prominently displayed beside our giant Christmas tree.

Our dog, Prince, was even excited! A great two plus years at The Wolff`s Den!

1954 The Wolff`s Den Christening, The Barn House

Officially “The Wolff`s Den”

January 2, 2016 Alpha

1953, November

Closing out the fruitful year, we celebrated Thanksgiving Day with Grandpa and Grandma Wolff and family on High Street. After we came home Mother painted another waterproofing coat of paint on the Den fish pond. Dad finished the steps from the Den up to the hallway leading into the upstairs. I finished stapeling the remaining insulation on the Den walls.

As we were finishing Aunt Mae and Uncle Fred showed up for a visit. The next day Mabel and Bob stopped by for coffee and a chat at our round oak dining table.

Mother and Cookie got a chance to rest in the old Morris Recliner in the Den. The brick steps leading to the upstairs that Dad just finished are in the background to the left.

Even in November if the weather permitted, we hauled limestone gravel to top off the drive.

Mother was kept busy chasing the ducks away from the ground level windows. They had a taste for the glazing putty holding the windows in the frames.

Grandpa and Grandma Wolff were out for a Christmas visit and opened presents in the Den.

The “Big TV” with the useful knobs and behind it is the deer feet lamp that Elmer had made after one of his hunting trips.

I took this Christmas dinner picture of Doyle, Dad, Mother, Grandpa and Grandma Barrett. Note the post to the right isn`t finished yet. Mother and Dad still look exhausted. I can`t imagine why!

1954, FEBRUARY

Dad, Doyle and I went to Anderson to visit Grandpa Wolff who hadn`t been feeling well lately. On the way back home we were involved in a five car pileup on highway 67 just before we got to our driveway. One of the cars that had already been hit, crossed the centerline and headed straight toward us. We were all in the front seat of the 1940 Buick and I remember Dad putting his arm out in front of me as he turned the wheel and headed toward the ditch. This kept us from being hit head-on but the left rear wheel area was impacted and straightened us out as we went into the ditch. We checked ourselves and decided we were fine and lucky. Dad sent Doyle to tell Mother that all was well and we would be a little late. Doyle was so pumped with adrenalin that he ran the whole way to the Barn House, tripping and stumbling all the way. When he found Mother all he could say was, “Wreck……..all ok……….be late!”, as he regained his breath.

Shortly after that, Dad bought a new 1954, Oldsmobile, two-tone blue and grey coupe. It was the new model with the V-8 engine called the rocket 88.

Winter didn`t stop the renovation progress on the Barn House. New windows were installed during this time. This was before the time of self contained storm and screen windows. Just above and below the windows we added the fasteners and hooks to hold the external storm and screen windows in place. This advancement in weatherizing created another chore for me; every spring and fall my job was to swap-out the storm and screen windows.

1954, MARCH MADNESS

Early spring and Dad took time to construct a basketball goal on the cow barn for us. We had some rough one on one and HORSE games out there.

Uncle Jim was a high school basketball fan from the northern Indiana region. The state finals were always held in Indianapolis and televised on a local TV station. The TV signal, then not traveling much more than 50 miles, was not received at his house. So each year at tournament time they would come down to watch the broadcasts with us. Dad`s new Oldsmobile is parked behind Uncle Jim`s wagon and the Quonset is in the background.

This year would be special since little underdog Milan would be in the state tournament for the second time. Sandwiches, chips and popcorn were ready and the living room was packed.

The Indianapolis Star reported on the finals;

“Of all the legends of Indiana high school basketball, one of the most enduring is the story of the 1954 state championship game in which tiny Milan High School won on a last-second shot by Bobby Plump.

The story was further mythologized by the 1986 movie “Hoosiers” in which fictional Hickory High School prevails against all odds. But the real-life Milan team was more experienced than their wide-eyed movie counterparts. Milan had gone to the state championship the year before.

The story of the Milan championship is also inevitably linked with the issue of classbasketball. Milan was the smallest school to play in the Final Four two years in a row since tiny Wingate in 1913 and 1914. Milan beat powerhouse Muncie Central 32 – 30. Tied at 30 in the last seconds of the game, Bobby Plump hit a 14-footer as time expired to get the win and in the process, denied Muncie a fifth state title.”

March found us finishing some projects and starting others. The living room windows were finished and a new carport project was started.

I thought we were finished with the cement mixer, but around here I learned that we were never finished with anything! Along with a cement floor for the carport, They started a sunporch addition off the den.

The sunporch was on the back side of the Barn House just through the double French doors in the den. The chicken house and Seybert`s field are in the background.

Grandpa and Grandma Barrett came down again with more plants and trees for spring planting. Portulaca was planted around the water trough fish pond. A window box flower planter was added to the Cow Barn shed along with a coat of trim paint to help spruce the old building up. Spring had sprung!

1954, APRIL 1ST

My Grandpa Felix Wolff passed away today at the age of 75, following a two week illness at Saint John`s Hospital in Anderson. This hit me especially hard. Not only was this my Grandpa, but it was the first time in my life that I had to process the grief of losing someone dear to me.

The Wolffs were very reserved emotionally, seldom outwardly showing or expressing their emotions, but carrying deep within them the devotion and love of family.

One of my fondest memories of Grandpa was when I was very young and he lifted me up on his lap. I had been moping around because it was raining and I couldn`t go outside. He was going to fix it and make it better! He took out one of his bookbinding spools of heavy thread and measured out a yard of cord by holding the spool to his nose and extending his hand, with the pinched cord, straight out to his side. Then he cut the cord at the desired length with his pocket knife. Grandma`s button tin was on the end table and he asked me to pick out a big button. After a careful search, I found a big oval shaped button that Grandpa said was just right! He had me put the two cord ends through two of the button holes and then he tied the ends together. Holding my hands with the cord looped around my thumbs, he positioned the button in the center of the loop. Now we twirled the button and the cord till it wound itself up and then as we pulled on the ends of the loped cord, the button started spinning and buzzing as it unwound and rewound itself in the opposite direction. When the button stopped, another pull would start the process in the other direction, creating a perpetual buzzing noise. Grandpa called it a button buzzer and he saved the day!

Grandpa joined the Gospel Trumpet Company in Moundsville, West Virginia on July 11, 1901, at 23 years old. Here he is operating a paper shear.

Grandpa was working on religious mottos which became one of the mainstays of the Trumpet Family.

The Gospel Trumpet was planning a move to Anderson, Indiana and Grandpa made several early trips to help settle the site. His journal details one such trip.

March 21, 1906, left home with my brother for Huntsville. Had pictures taken $2.50 for six. Stayed overnight in Huntsville.

22nd Left Huntsville at 1:40 p.m. for Anderson, on the N.C. & St. Louis to Dichend, then to Nashville, from there on the L. & N. to Louisville from Louisville to Anderson on the “Big Four” R.R. arriving there at 12:25 noon the 23rd.

25th Attended my first meeting in Anderson – on the third floor of office building. Frank Shaw made a talk. Bro. Tasher preached. In the afternoon Bro. Shaw took me over the city in a buggy – and took my trunk to the depot. Clay Weiss, Melvin Bamford and I took a walk out in the city after supper.

24th Evening went to fire department to see them “hook up” when the alarm was given.

26th Left Anderson for Moundsville

Left Anderson via “Big Four” 5:25 a.m.

Arrived Union City (50 miles) 7:10 ”

Left Union City D & N R.R. 7:10 ”

Arrived Dayton “Big Four” 8:40 ”

Left Dayton “Big Four” 9:53 ”

Arrived Columbus (70 miles) 11:35 ”

Left Columbus B&O 11:40 ”

Arrive Benwood (138 miles) 4:02 p.m.

Arrive Moundsville (6 miles) 5:39 ”

This attention to detail was a hallmark of the Wolff family and is still evident in the generations that followed. I don`t know if it`s a blessing or a curse but we live with it!

In 1949 The Indianapolis Star newspaper did an article about Grandpa being the “Bible Doctor”.

Grandpa`s life was devoted to his family, The Church of God and The Gospel Trumpet and his work with bookbinding. Following his retirement in 1945 he never took time to write any more in his journal. When we would arrive for a visit he would always be running up the basement stairs from his shop to great us.

This hot stamping machine was one of the machines Grandpa designed and built to emboss gold leaf and colored foils into leather book covers and mottos. He also built a whole house water softener system of his own design.

Grandpa loved The Popular Mechanics Magazine and saved many of the early issues from the 1920`s. After he retired, he leather bound those issues into several large volumes of books. We are lucky to still have a few of these to enjoy today and remind us of our first Pack Leader!

1954 JUNE

I think Grandpa Wolff`s passing started Mother and Dad thinking more about our heritage and the Wolff namesake. They evolved the idea of The Wolff`s Den as sort of a “brand” for the family. Dad did some sketching at work and Mother drew up some ideas at home for a sign to hang at the entrance of the driveway. Dad cut out the sign on the Shop Smith and Mother painted their collective Wolff idea.

The Wolff`s Den Was christened!!

1953, April, The Upstairs Days, The Barn House

THE UPSTAIRS DAYS

December 18, 2015 Alpha

1953, APRIL

Spring has sprung and that means our annual Easter best is showcased as we return from Easter Service.

Grandma, Me, Dad and Grandpa Wolff on Easter morning after church. Grandpa Wolff was 77 years old and at 6 foot 3 still very active and agile. Grandma Wolff was 69 and very spry. Many times Grandpa would take the Trailways bus from Anderson and come work on the Barn or yard. He almost had a problem on one such trip when he decided to bring his big scythe with him to cut down the weeds around the Barn. After some discussion, it was decided to put the scythe under the bus in the luggage compartment for safe keeping! (You youngsters may want to Google or Wikipedia “scythe”.)

Grandpa and Grandma Barrett were down from Chicago Heights every chance they got. Grandpa would be 63 years old and Grandma 56 this year. Grandpa was also tall at a good 6 foot 2 and very active and hard working in their machine shop. They looked forward to preparing a small plot for a garden this spring, south of the chicken house. They usually showed up with a trunk full of plants and tree saplings which they helped us plant.

We were glad to be upstairs with bedrooms, more space and a new dial phone. We were still on a party line but we could now dial our own phone calls. Our number was 525-R, the “R” meaning rural. We didn`t own the phone. It was leased from Ma Bell. When we wanted to make a call we had to check for a dial tone and make sure no one was on the line. Long distance calls still needed an operator. Dial zero and wait for the operator to come on line and then ask for long distance and state whether we wanted a person to person call or anybody that answered. We also had the option of reversing the charges if the callee accepted the charges.

This was a later photo but the only one that shows the stairway going up to my open beamed bedroom loft. The brick wallpaper is on the master bedroom.

This is the double window in the living room looking out to the back yard and fields.

With the upstairs nearly finished and the weather breaking our time was well spent outdoors and Mother was already adding to our menagerie.

Nanny and her kids joined another goat that Dad had gotten earlier from a friend at work. Mother and I learned how to milk Nanny and we drank rich goat milk for quite some time. It went good with the big duck eggs we gathered from Daisy and Lazy. If a recipe called for two eggs, we only needed one!

School wasn`t quite out for the summer but we four boys spent as much time outside as we could. Exploring the creek and the woods out back was a daily adventure and springtime brought the new challenge of kite flying. The field next door had a high hill which provided open spaces and a great wind updraft. Four kites flying at one time introduced the fun of kite fights with newspaper and scotch tape on hand for the many needed repairs.

Steve had the only paved driveway and basketball goal, so his house was the basketball arena. Our front pasture/yard, which Dad kept mowed by hand, was the only large open area for baseball games. We made a wire fence backstop and a pitchers mound. The turf was rough and fielding ground balls was always an adventure. That`s how I broke my front tooth in half that first summer!

I had other mishaps and bruises playing in the great outdoors, but the one that scared Mother the most was a fall I took one afternoon

after Dad had gone to work. One of the old Madison County jail doors that Elmer had salvaged from one of his projects became a landscape backdrop for the kitchen porch. It also made a great place for me to practice my balancing walk on it`s edge. Only today I fell with my knee gouging into the corner of the door and puncturing a triangular shaped hole beside my kneecap. With no car and in no-mans-land between Anderson and Pendleton, Mother called the Indiana State Police Post in Pendleton. A trooper came out and drove us to Saint John`s E.R. where they cleaned the wound, sprinkled some sulfur powder on it and said to be more careful. I was lucky, no stitches just a badge of honor scar to go with my cinder imbedded scar.

1953, MAY

This spring it turned out that we four each had new BB guns. We spent a lot of time down at the creek shooting at leaves and twigs as they floated by. As we became more proficient at hitting our targets, we advanced to a more precise game. War games!! Naturally we were such accomplished marksmen by now, what could possibly go wrong? Surely the safety rules of no shooting above the waist would protect us from any harm. Without our parents knowledge or consent we managed to survive without any serious injuries.

With all of this mayhem going on, Mother, Dad and Doyle continued making progress on landscaping and finishing upstairs work.

Another of Elmer`s salvage items found it`s way into the landscape. The water trough was buried into the back yard slope and turned into a water feature and flower bed.

I have no idea of how these cement rollers were manhandled into position and landscaped with the water trough. I obviously was off on some adventure.

These steel banded cement rollers were made to be connected together with an axel through the center pipe in the cement. Once connected together at the proper width they were pulled behind a bulldozer to roll out and pack down the base material for a road or runway. Elmer must have used these in his construction business. Now they serve as seating areas around the water trough.

More landscape improvements included topping off the driveway bed stone with crushed limestone.

This also served as the base for the kitchen patio entrance.

It seemed like a long time ago, looking back at the quonset hut days…but then time flies when you`re having fun!!

1953, JUNE

The cement porch area was finished and it was decided it was time to make our barn house “The little Red Barn” they dreamed of. We all pitched in on this project with Doyle tackling the high peaks.

As was usual, Dad engineered the weather sealing of the 1×12 redwood vertical plank siding. Each seam had to be caulked and then 1×2 furring strips were nailed over the seams before painting.

The early Barn House plans that were sketched out on scale grid paper called for a den addition on the high end of the barn. This just happened to be the end with a big dirt mound drive for the tractor to have access to the loft. Start shoveling!

We bought a David Bradley tractor which was very versatile. It was designed to mount various accessories to the front or rear of the tractor frame. This tractor became our trailer, plow and front blade grader and snow plow.

Grandpa Wolff helped add the roof to the kitchen porch entry way. Additions were new windows upstairs, the oil tank for the furnace, more trees and a new Dalmatian dog, Prince.

Grandpa Wolff came out to offer his masonry skills he learned while helping build the original Gospel Trumpet building in Anderson. We were in need of a chimney for the oil furnace.

Mixing the footing for the chimney blocks required a supervisor. We did have a powered cement mixer to mix the mortar and later the cement for the den floor.

The foundation blocks were laid and ready for the cement floor to be poured. Grandpa Barrett helped with the framing to close off the barn doors. When Doyle wasn`t busy helping us, he worked at the Flower Shop for Leona.

Our future den for the Wolff`s Den!

After the Den roof was flashed and attached to the Barn, the remaining furring strips were added. The opening for the Franklin wood/coal burning stove insert is on the end of the den. School was out for the summer and I was kept busy shoveling gravel and cement and carrying wood scraps to the burn pile.

1953, AUGUST

After our ordeal with my fall and not having a car here, Dad bought a 1940 Buick Super Coupe for a second car. Of course he had to upgrade it to his satisfaction.

We continued work on the den while still taking time to landscape and plant 17 more trees this weekend.

1953, SEPTEMBER

One great, fantastic, fun filled, summer adventure was coming to a close. School was about to begin for my sixth grade. It was awesome to be in the same school with the same friends for two years in a row! I am the buzz head on the right end of the second row.

For the sixth grade, we were moved from the grade school to the basement floor of the high school. Big kids now even though we were not allowed upstairs.

I received my first corporal punishment in school with a quick whack from the teacher. She had left the room and I turned around in my desk with my knees in the seat to talk to the kid behind me. Nobody gave me any warning as she snuck up behind me and delivered the blow with her paddle. “Corporal punishment” means the moderate use of physical force or physical contact by a teacher or principal as may be necessary to maintain discipline or to enforce school rule. Now if the school rule was enforced in the principal`s office, the office door remained open so that the reverberating whacks could be heard all up and down the hallways.

Evidently talking, whispering or communicating was really frowned upon! This was only my second time to get caught talking in my long history of talking in schools. The other time was when I mistakenly thought that the boys restroom was a freedom of speech area. The second grade teacher at Seventh Street School grabbed me by the chin as I came out of the restroom and proceeded to chew me out in a manner I thought was way more disruptive than the infraction that I committed. Her only problem was that she left scratches on my chin and when Mother noticed them and heard the story, the phone line to the superintendent`s office was humming. Needless to say, I never did learn to keep my mouth shut!

1953, OCTOBER

Prince loved to get into everything and this required many bathes if he was to be allowed in the house.

As fall approached, Grandpa and Grandma Barrett still came down almost every weekend as we continued work on the Den and more landscaping. The Franklin Stove served as an outdoor cook stove and gathering area prior to its` installation in the Den.

We stapled Kraft aluminum foil backed insulation to the Den walls in preparation for the knotty pine planks to be nailed up. Mother and Dad designed and built a fish pond into the corner of Den with brick and waterproof painted block.

The Franklin Stove was the next project to be completed.

I still enjoyed my Western outfits with my Roy Rodgers two gun leather holster set.

I still can`t believe all that was accomplished in one short year! With Dad driving 60 miles a day to work and back while working much overtime with little sleep, it seems an impossible task. It took the two of them and a joined dream to bring it all together and there is still much more to accomplish!

1952, November, The Basement Days, The Barn House

THE DOWNSTAIRS

December 6, 2015 Alpha

1952 NOVEMBER, HOME IN TIME FOR THANKSGIVING

We eagerly moved into the downstairs, which served as our luxury quarters, while we finished the extensive work required on the upstairs. The use of the word “we” is a misnomer in that I was usually playing or exploring the fields, woods and adjacent creek that flowed through the fields behind us. “We” included Doyle, a high school neighbor boy who lived across the highway. He had heard of the “crazy” family, over the hill, that was living in a barn and he came to see for himself. Doyle thought it was an exciting idea and soon was like one of the family!

This was taken on the day we moved in! Mother and Dad look exhausted and they were! The horse stall sliding doors for the utility room show up good in this shot. Grandpa and Grandma Barrett came down to help us move in and took this picture with their new Polaroid Land Camera. The streaks in the photo are from the chemical that had to be wiped on the print after the 60 second development wait time. Not bad though after all these years!

Mother loved her new Sears` metal sink and cabinets!

Our first Thanksgiving dinner in The Wolff`s Den!

The first thing Mother wanted to do was have Thanksgiving dinner for the family in our new home. The place was packed but we had the best family get together that I could ever remember!

In the photo below, note the ceramic pig cookie jar sitting on top of the refrigerator. Besides surviving me growing up constantly sneaking cookies from the jar, this pig had another use assigned to it. I reasoned, since we were finally in the country, now would be a good time to get a pony. Mother always being the diplomat and lesson teacher, offered to donate five dollars to the pig toward the purchase of a pony. Wow! The lesson was, I could add my allowance and chore money too, until we reached my goal. Are you kidding??!!

This is a view from the kitchen door looking toward the bathroom door. The laundry area in the corner included the Ironrite Mangle Ironer.

It’s an ironing machine consisting of of a big metal box with a huge roller in the middle that you move up and down with a knee pedals and hand controls. The actual name of it is the “Ironrite Mangle Ironer” — sounds like your clothes wouldn’t make it through, right? But actually, if you knew how to use it, you could get dry cleaner-perfect results. I well remember watching as Mother fed slacks, pillowcases, and shirt sleeves into the machine, and the resulting smell of steam and heated cotton.

This being pre-polyester blend wrinkle free, we ironed nearly everything. Now the “we” is me too! I got pretty speedy with flatwork.

Dad made Mother a vanity mirror and makeup area in the bathroom.

The bathroom fixtures were 50`s green but the early color film did not retain it`s color hues for very long.

This is looking at the area where Dad removed the stairway and closed off the upstairs until later. This also served as our living/bed room area.

I can`t believe there were not more pictures taken ,of this epic moment in their lives, but looking at that first photo I think I understand!

Now that we were settled inside, Dad prepared for winter outside. A curving driveway path was laid out in the grass and many dump truck loads of road base stone were spread out along the markers. Doyle being around sure helped save Mother a lot of backache. We men graded, raked and tamped the new stone into place. I even got to drive the Kaiser around the drive to help pack it down!

Mentioning the Kaiser reminds me that Dad traded for a new 1952 Kaiser with automatic transmission and power steering which were new innovations in design.

When we first moved in, a telephone line was finally run to the house and being in no-mans-land, between Anderson and Pendleton, we were first issued an old hand crank phone. Being on a six party line, our ring was four long rings. If we wanted to talk to someone on our party line, we just cranked the handle to correspond to their home ring: one full crank for a long ring and half a crank for a short ring. However, if we wanted an “outside line”, we had to click the receiver for the operator to place the call. This usually followed a short conversation with the local operator concerning everybody`s wellbeing and any news that should be passed on.

Whenever we left the house to run an errand or go for a visit it always included a side trip through the country. We were either looking for saplings to transplant or large rocks or field stones to gather for the landscaping.

Farmers used to pile the stones they turned out while plowing in the corners of the fields. I can`t remember going anywhere without stopping by a field and loading the trunk of the car with field stones which we used to line the flower beds and driveway. Dad even took time to build an outdoor fireplace and grill out of field stones.

Work continued upstairs during the winter. Insulation was added to the walls and what would become the open beam ceiling. The redwood flooring was power sanded and interior framing with gypsum board (dry wall) was put up forming the bedroom and upstairs loft bedroom. Windows and an entry door were added.

Christmas was pretty calm this year. Except, now that we were out in the country, I was able to have my first BB gun! A Daisy pump action was different from what the other kids wanted, but it resembled my Grandpa Barrett`s pump action 22 caliber rifle and I was thrilled!

As winter was winding down, Mother and Dad were putting the finishing touches on the downstairs. This included a breakfast nook built into the corner behind the brick planter. The new crank out windows offered a nice view onto the porch and patio garden area.

The stairway was rebuilt with a landing and going the opposite direction from the original to save floor space. Doyle provided the necessary helping hands.

As the barn house downstairs was finished, and spring was around the corner,, we prepared and planned for the long awaited warm weather and the outside activities that followed!

1952, September, The Quonset Hut Days, The Barn House

THE QUONSET DAYS

November 8, 2015 Alpha

1952 AUGUST 23, MOVED INTO QUONSET HUT

1952 MARVIN EUGENE WOLFF, JR. "SKIP" — 1952 MARVIN EUGENE WOLFF, JR. “SKIP”

After going through 14 moving experiences, 8 school changes, 7 different cars and 10 great dogs, I was ready to settle down with some stability! I was hardly prepared for what was about to transpire.

Our new homestead was rough and tumble compared to what I was used to. I thought maybe we were here to just help Leona clean up things after the passing of her husband Elmer, the civil engineer. Then while still living at Windsor Village, Mother and Dad started to transform the quonset hut into living quarters and I realized we were taking on the biggest remodel job of all time!

Quonset huts were manufactured by a wide range of independent contractors in countries around the world but the first were manufactured in 1941, when the United States Navy needed an all-purpose, lightweight building that could be shipped anywhere and assembled without skilled labor. The original design was a 16 ft × 36 ft structure framed with steel members with an 8 ft radius. The sides were corrugated steel sheets. The two ends were covered with plywood, which had doors and windows. The interior was insulated and had pressed wood lining and a wood floor. The building could be placed on concrete, on pilings, or directly on the ground with a wood floor.

As the original design used low grade (non-strategic) steel, a more rust-resistant version was called for. The United States used an all-spruce ‘Pacific Hut’ in the Pacific Theater of Operations in World War II. After the war, in the United States, the military sold its surplus Quonset huts to the public and Elmer, our civil engineer friend, bought one of the all-spruce huts and set it up North of the chicken house.

The 16 by 36 foot HUT would be our home while working on the barn. Mother and Dad rebuilt the porch on the South end of the HUT where the hand water pump was located. The pump is just visible to the right in the photo. The out house, a one holer, was behind the chicken house, about thirty feet away.

Work began on the inside, setting up and venting the wood/coal stove that would serve as our cook stove and heater. We went to Grandpa Wolff`s with baskets, barrels and boxes to get coal from the old coal bin in the basement. The old coal burner had been converted to gas recently Grandpa was glad to get the coal bin cleaned out.

Grandpa and Grandma Barrett were frequent visitors and helpers. They really enjoyed the whole idea and came down to see the progress and pitch in.

Dad added celotex insulation to the curved interior walls and ceiling. This helped some I guess, but we still got our butts burned in the kitchen area while shivering in the living area!

No electricity yet so it was kerosene lanterns in the out house and kerosene lamps in the house. The telephone service was to walk the quarter mile to Leona`s house up by the highway.

As the HUT began to be livable, we started to concentrate our efforts on the barn and all the debris and salvaged materials from Elmer`s construction projects.

Oh, there was also the not so small issue of the years accumulation of manure in the barn.This obviously had to be removed and became the top priority. A building contractor had been selected and his starting date had to be determined!

Elmer not only rescued old building materials, but he also rescued all the stray dogs and cats that he came across. This photo shows the South side of the barn with the dog kennels and the cow barn to the left.

The photo of the chicken house shows the cat pins in front.

Leona provided the dog and cat food for the six dogs and eighteen cats that we took care of until she could find homes for them all.

Elmer also rescued a ram he named Fritzy, and we adopted him. We had to keep an eye on him because he enjoyed ramming us if we were`t watching!

With all of this going on, Leona decided to start a flower shop business in her home and wants Mother to help her get it up and running. Mother, always up for a challenge, made trips with Leona to the Chicago Mercantile Supply Company to help pick out floral and business materials.

We had work, weather and varmint obstacles to contend with, but we always kept an optimistic outlook and we had fun! As some examples, here are a few out-takes from an early letter that Mother wrote to Grandpa and Grandma Barrett following one of their visits.

“Thursday night, 11:30P.M. 9-4-52

We`re still hauling junk and will be for some time. Ha Ha! Boy oh boy our activities for the week sound like a radio horse opera, but here goes anything for a laugh!

P.S. What does one do for hornets in the out house,? or does one do without??? Early Sunday, we found some siding we could use for the quonset hut to keep wind out from under it. Marv was nailing away like mad and hit his sore thumb. Then he knocked a blood blister on another finger. I was handing him siding and nails. Out of a clear sky, big bumble bees swarmed down on us like jets over Korea! One stung me on the shoulder and Marv was chased clear to the out house. then he ran indoors to check on me.

Then he straightened up, stuck out his chest and bravely announces, “No little bumble bee is going to scare me out!” He took his trusty little hammer-AND a flit gun and had a nail in his hand with the hammer and flit gun, when he raced for the back door yelling,” Ma open up here I come.” One had sat on his head, but he could`t get his footing to strike. I knew that “high forehead” was good for something, eh?

So-o-oo that ended the siding job. We hauled wood to the back pasture and burned some up here on the hill. The wind was so calm we could have sent you a smoke signal, when, out of the clear blue sky, an easterly-North-easter blew up. We sent a smoke screen toward Leona`s that slowed all traffic on 67 for a while–the water I so zealously applied only increased the smoke, since we were burning dead grass on top of the wood. Some farmers aren`t we?

The three of us finally got to bed in one piece—more or less, and awoke to Monday morning all sunny and ideal for work. We again tackled the bumble bee blitz–and you can imagine who won out!

I retreated as gracefully as possible to the task of sanding the chest of drawers, preparatory to painting. Marv sat it in front of the chicken house so I could work in the sun. The sun being my idea. Now, don`t jump to conclusions, I got no sunburn. But from there on in the day went from bad to worse-if that is possible!

The furnace man came and we talked to him, finding out nothing except that we need about a 120,000 BTU unit. He said he could tell better when the downstairs is finished. The well man still hash`t come yet, but we expect him any day now! I painted in the garage for Leona today too!

Cliff, from Marv`s work, came up Thursday. Marv, Cliff, Skip and Bud were in the back pasture unloading wood when—-poof, a storm came up. Dora Mae and her mother-in-law and I raced for the quonset. The wind jerked the front door out of my hands twice before I got it shut.

We raced to the kitchen to look out for the men, when we saw the wind blow over the chest I`d been working on. A second later, a tree came crashing down on top of it, and another tree blew down! Dora Mae said she didn`t know who was shaking the most me or the quonset!!

In the meantime, the men were having their own storm trooping. The wind blew Marv off the truck (unhurt) and blew the dog pen gate open, letting Lassie in with the other four females. They say she`s a killer and boy she was out to prove it. pieces of dog were flying and not from the wind.

Oh boy, with an ideal banked storm shelter, I had to be in the paper shell quonset. Woe is me, poor me. I no felt so good. We people were all O.K. but that stupid Lassie and two others looked like stretcher cases. They are O.K. by now but still limping around—-the dogs I mean. I was lamenting the fact that the wind and tree had crushed the chest, and Cliff says, “Just thank God it wasn`t YOUR chest instead of THE chest,” and he was right. The weatherman said the winds reached the 60`s and 70`s. Were`t we fortunate?

Cliffs drove out as Groves drove in and it started raining again. The kids played in the barn while we sipped hot coffee in the kitchen. They left about 9band we got to bed without any calamity. P.P.S. Does Uncle Sam let this kind of fiction go through the mail??

It was too hot for Marv to sleep, so he got up and repaired our little front porch stoop, the wind had blown cockeyed. He mended the door and he and I caulked one of the living room windows and then he carried a kitchen cabinet down from the barn and I resorted my kitchen storage space. He put up the clothes racks, then we ate and he took off for work.

Today–ah-h-h today!! It has been just a good old mediocre day. Filled with good news too!! Mr. Nealis can start on the downstairs the 1st of next month. Marv worked until 4 this A.M. and his boss was a little put out because he refused to work longer.

Oh yes, one of these days just past, Sunday I THINK, we found time to paint the pump, pump porch and back porch and true up the screen doors so they don`t sag like our achin` backs!! We also managed to find time to eat and sleep a little.

It is now 2:20 Friday A.M. and Marv isn`t home yet. Working no doubt overtime. I can`t get a fire going in the stove no matter how I hold my mouth. In desperation (and to keep from freezing in our beds) I lit the kerosene heater. I am a coward and afraid to go to bed with it lit—we`ve undergone one storm and high water and I`m not ready for fire YET, so I`m sitting up with the stove and keeping it company. Marv got home at 5:00. I woke him at 10 when the contractor came for estimates.

Went to Anderson for some hooks, nails and clothes props for the hall. We got Skip some school clothes and got home in time Marv to dump us out and head for work.

Don`t you envy us? Never a DULL moment, though by now my BRAIN is, so I`ll close and hit the hay, figuratively speaking!!!

Save this volume I`ve written, I want to type it up—it sounds like the Arkansas Traveler on an Indiana farm!!

Love, Gerrie, Marv, Skip and bees.”

SCHOOL AND CONSTRUCTION START

Of all the schools I had attended, this was the first school bus I ever rode. Our neighborhood gang was small compared to past groups, just made up of three families and that was counting mine! Barbara Seybert, Jeff and Mike Hanna, me, Steve and Shirley Seybert made up the new gang.

Murry Alford drove that bus route all the way through my high school years. The bad part about this route was that we were among the first to be picked up for an hour long drive that went up highway 67 to Anderson. We picked up kids on West 53rd Street and turned South on Main Street and then cut back to Madison Avenue and Huntsville Road. The good part was, we were among the first off on the way home!!

I am third row, fourth from right, and my teacher was Mrs. Wolfe!

This building was the old Pendleton High School and when a new high school was built this became the Pendleton Grade School.

I made more friends at school, but with the distance factor, this didn`t help during play time at home. I made a good friend while living on Noble Street and luckily our families became good friends too. Mabel and Bob Groves and their son, Johnny Bill, would visit back and fourth quite often. Johnny and I would have sleep-overs and week long visits at times.

They lived out in the country too and we went in the neighbors woods and cut down sapling trees and built a log cabin fort to play and camp out in. I really hope those were not black walnut trees. Hey, we were just kids!! We used firecrackers inside tin cans as our fort cannons to ward off the evil doers!

Well I digress, again. The contractor started on the septic system first as we were finishing up prepping the inside. While digging for the septic tank, he hit gravel and water at 5ft but managed to finish it up alright. (The precursor to the IMI gravel pit!) This shows the double septic tanks installed and ready for backfill.

1952 BOUBLE SEPTIC TANK — 1952 DOUBLE SEPTIC TANK

While Nealis worked on the plumbing, we sterilized and waterproofed the cement blocks in the downstairs area. The bags of cement for the floor are ready, just waiting on the gravel.

We finally have electricity to the quonset!! The contractor set up a temporary utility pole for construction purposes and we ran a line to the hut. No more homework by kerosene lamp.

Dad had a hard day helping Nealis dig and set the septic tanks and now it`s off to work the night shift at Circle Engraving in Indianapolis.

Nealis dug the drain tile and plumbing trenches in preparation for pouring the cement floor. The water supply lines and drain pipes were fastened to the cement blocks which would later be covered with knotty pine boards to finish the walls. We took out the left stall sliding door to put in the bathroom wall.

The first cement pour was in the future bathroom.

With all of this going on, Dad and I took time to dig a little natural spring pond. Dad figured that with the water constantly filling the pond, we could pump the water from there to use on the yard and future flower beds. (always thinking ahead)

With the small pond, we had to have some ducks too! Donald, Daisy and Lazy were soon adopted.

Started well drilling 10/24/1952. Hit limestone at 102ft. 10/27/52. Pumping water at 125ft. 10/28/52. Dad would come home in the mornings from work and find the rig still drilling and mumble, “Geesh $4.00 a foot!!!”. This view is from the North and the quonset would be to the left.

Nealis and his brother started pouring the cement floor on 10/28/52. Great progress! Then the water heater and plumbing to the well pump was finished.

Nealis and his brother eating lunch in the kitchen. The kerosene heater helped as the fall weather was taking a turn. We had to remember to keep a water jug on hand to prime the hand pump at the quonset hut, especially on these freezing nights. No water meant a trek to Hanna`s house for water also phone use if needed.

After the plumbing was complete, Nealis started adding furring strips to the cement blocks in preparation for nailing up the knotty pine boards. Dad was painting the utility room in between putting the knotty pine siding on the sliding stall door that we left in place for the utility room.

11/10/52 Dad did all of the house wiring except the 220 volt lines. He used 12 gage wire and soldered any wire splices in the junction boxes. This was well above the building code requirements as was the double septic tank set up, but that was Dad his whole life! I have to say, the lights never dimmed when the well pump or furnace kicked on!

In the background, the new window was installed for the future breakfast nook and the brick planter that Dad made as a partition. While laying the bricks and pointing the mortar with his fingers instead of using (or buying) the proper tool, his fingerprints got worn off!

This is a good time to point out that all of this work was being done with hand tools. I don`t mean hand power tools. I mean hand saws and brace and bit drilling and hammer and chisel!

Adding another brick planter outside the breakfast nook as a retaining wall, resulted in less fingerprints. They used some of Elmer`s old salvaged timbers for a walkway flowerbed retainer, and dug out for a patio.

He ran the wiring through the block wall for the porch lights and figured out how to make and install a Dutch door for the kitchen entrance.

They had the Floor Store install the asphalt tile squares in the bath and kitchen area leaving the utility room floor painted cement. This was after sanding and shellacking the wood walls.

Just three months after moving into the quonset hut, we moved into the downstairs of our Barn House on 11/27/52! Now there is just the upstairs and a hay loft to remodel!!

Musings from the Den