Happy New Year, Family! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.
Sandy and I were in Phoenix with our daughter, Lindsay, and her husband, Jason, our son, Steven, and his four children. (For those of you who are unaware, he is raising the infant son of his ex-wife. The little guy doesn't know his father, so Steven is his only "Daddy.") Lindsay and Jason were spending their first Christmas in their new home, so it was fun to spend Christmas Eve there, open presents with little ones and make a complete mess making sugar cookies with an 8 year old and a 9 year old!
Unfortunately for Sandy, he took a fall on Christmas Eve and we spent the wee hours of Christmas morning in the ER. He apparently has a bad sprain and he's still hobbling. If that were his only mishap, we'd count ourselves lucky, but before we returned to California, he was taken out by a kid on a sled while we were playing in the snow with our grandchildren, and sustained bruised ribs from that one. A couple of days later, he hit himself in the nose while retrieving a box, and may have broken his nose! Tough week for him in spite of the fact he enjoyed being around kiddos and grandkiddos for the holidays!
Enough of Wassons --I'm here to ask questions about Hathaways! 714 S. Windsor has been mentioned by all of you with such affection that it is clear it is the site of many happy memories. Can anyone take me on a "tour" of the house and tell me where the living room was, where the kitchen was, or about the sleeping porch? Was the dining room big? Sandy used to mention a place on the floor where Moms could ring for assistance from the kitchen. Did you all get in trouble playing with it as kids?
Did Moms and Dad have parties there? Were they formal dinner or cocktail parties or did they ever barbecue in the backyard? (Or was that kind of entertaining, if done at all, done out on the ranch?) I've been in the family a long, long time, but still don't have the answers to all of these questions. Someone start talkin'!
Love,
Cyndi
2 comments:
Details of Windsor House. In looking at the photo: the large window on the right is the living room. It was at least 30 ft. long, with a sofa at each end, and at each end, windows with heavy, velvet, dark red curtains. Grandad had his favorite naulgahide (sp?)green recliner by the fireplace, with his pipe table next to it. Moms had a comfy chair near his. Grandad's office is on the right side of the house and would be just off the living room, near where his chair was. It was a very airy room with the 3 walls being all glass. The large window on the left is the dining room. It was a lovely room, with a large dining room table in the middle, and a very lovely, built-in oak (?) hutch on the wall opposite the window. There was a very large throw rug on the wood floor. The smaller dining area at the end of the entry hall did indeed have a door to go out to the patio. When one opened the fron door, the entry area/hall took you past the dining, living and stairs, to this smaller dining area. The patio wall was glass, as Marianne remembered. The kitchen indeed has cupboards and drawers all along the right side. The pantry connected the kitchen with the formal dining room. On the other side of the kitchen was the laundry area, with a door to the driveway, and a door opposite the outside door, that went to the maid's quarters. Yes, the basement was rather large, and very useful in storing food stuffs and such. The staircase to upstairs was wide, and gorgeous. So much of the house had beautiful wood in it, as most of the homes of that era were. There was a landing 2/3 of the way up, a turn, then about 8-12 more stairs, to a large square area, with bedrooms coming off of it. The upper right window was Grandad's bedroom, the upper left window (hidden by tree) was Louise's and Helen's bedroom, with a large bathroom in between them. That is where you see the two small windows above the front door. On the other side of Grandad's BR, to the back of the house, was Moms' BR, and next to hers, at the top of the stairs was the boy's bedroom, with the screened porch off of it. Another bathroom was between these two. Lousise's and Helen's BR had two twin beds with lovely dusty pink taffety like bedspreads. The bathrooms were made of the small white tiles so popular back then, and seen often today again. Mom's BR was very bright, and lovely. The boy's BR was darker, I believe because the screened porch cut off a lot of sunlight. The kitchen was painted an off-white/yellowish color. The dining area off of it was wallpapered - something in green, light and nice I think. The phone was in this room. Mom's and Dad had a swining sofa with an awning out on the patio. I used to love being out there with them. Yes indeed, hearing Dad sing his songs was such a thrill. I remember when he would take us to lunch. I would sit next to him in the car and he would sing away for me. Such great memories!
Susan
Susan: You have a good memory. I can see the things that you mentioned. What a great house that was!
Does anyone else have any other memories?
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