714 Windsor Blvd.

Dear Cyndi:
OK - I'll try to walk you thru the house. Up the steps to the front door. Inside on the left was the dining room. You can barely see it's front windows in the picture. It was a rather large room and yes it had a button on the floor to buzz for help. The 'guys' used to get under there and push the button a lot and then get in trouble. Especially from Moms. There were sliding doors to close off the dining room. They were those wonderful old doors that slide inside the wall. Behind the dining room was the pantry and the kitchen - there were swinging doors at both ends of the pantry. It was a long narrow room with a long shelf area for food and I believe there were a few cupboards in there. I also think there was a door in the pantry that led down to the basement. The kitchen was quite large with LOTS of cupboards and drawers. I big stove and an ice box. There was always bettermilk in there and my Dad loved it. YUCK! The kitchen sink looked out over the driveway and after family dinners there Helen, Louise &/or my Mom would do the dishes while Grand Dad wiped them and he sang. Songs like 'The Old Rugged Cross' and 'Juanita'. I loved it in there at those times. If you walked across the kitchen on the driveway side there was a door with a screen door that went outside to the driveway. Back in the depression & post depression days there were always people coming around - to the side door - the knife & scissor sharpener, the pots & pan man who cleaned the pots so they looked brand new, if there were any dents in the pots they were gone when he was finished. People came around to do all sorts of things. Moms always found work for them and fed them on the back steps. Sometimes there were people who were just hungry and Moms fed them too. Keep going towards the back of the house and there were 'the maids quarters' - Moms kept her parrot back there (while it was alive).

OK now let's go back to the front door and start on the right hand side. First, there was the living room. It was huge. You can see it's front windows in the picture. It also had the same type of sliding doors that the dining room had. There was a big fireplace in the living room too. If you walked into the house and turned right - into the living room - and kept walking toward the side wall there was a doorway & a long, sort of skinny room. That was Grand Dad's home office. Above his desk was a large picture of Geranimo. At some time, when I was quite young, he told me that it was Geranimo and he was his Grand Father. Naturally, I had to share that at school and when my teacher told me it couldn't be true I had a fit because 'my Grand Father said so'!!!!!... Let's go back out into the hallway...continue walking towards the back of the house and on the left hand side - past the dining room was the staircase to upstairs. Continuing on down the hallway there was another room, I think it was at the end of the hallway, sort of like a breakfast room - or lunch room. Maybe Mom's and Dad ate dinner in there when the kids were grown. I remember sitting in there and eating smashed avocado sandwiches with Grand Dad. I also think there was a swinging door just before there where you could also go into the kitchen. I think the back wall of the breakfast room had a door that went out to the patio. I seem to remember a lot of glass windows - I could be wrong though. In the patio there was an outdoor fireplace and a sunkin fish/frog pond. I always remember hearing frogs there. There was a wooden gate to the back yard and beyond was Moms's Aviary and the backyard. There was a redwood tree that my Dad got on a family vacation, just a slip, and he planted it in the back yard and by the time the house was sold the tree was probably 30+ feet tall. On the left side of the patio (the driveway side) there was another wooden gate. I think that is the gate everyone refers to as the squeaky gate. In the back to the left, at the end of the driveway was the garage. It was big with - I think - sliding doors and it could hold two cars. On the left hand side of the garage was a smallish room where old newspapers were stored for paper drives - and stuff like that. In the garage there was a big wooden cigar store indian. I never knew where it came from. Neil, Clancy & my Dad probably 'liftd it' from some place and brought it home.

Back in the house . . . and up the stairs. I seem to remember that they curved at the top. At the top of the stairs - and here is where my memory isn't too clear - the first bedroom was Grand Dads, I think. Then there might have been an extra bedroom. I remember my Mother telling me that one time when she and my Father were staying with Moms and Dad for a short while, Grand Dads Father was visiting and they were in bedrooms that were side by side and they both snored and ground their teeth and my Mother said she could have sworn that the house shook. Then I think was the 'boys' room and the sleeping porch. Fred could tell you more about the sleeping porch. My memory of that room & porch is very dim. After that was Helen and Louises room and across the hall was Moms room. I don't remember where the bathrooms were but there had better have been several of them with 5 kids and Moms and Dad. Helen and Louises bedroom was at the front side/corner of the house above the living room and Moms was on the other front corner, above the dining room.

That's what I remember. There is one story I'll never forget and I don't remember how old/young I was but Grand Dad fell and broke his hip. There was a hospital bed set up in the dining room, near the front windows so he could look out, and there was a male nurse, a live in who must have stayed in the 'maids quarters' - but I do remember thinking that he (the nurse) was quite handsome. I didn't mind the Saturday or Sunday drives from Encino to L.A. to visit then!

That's all I remember now. Check with Sandy, he might remember the upstairs better than I do and I'm quite sure that Fred probably has the best memory - being the oldest (sorry Fred!) If I remember more I'll let you know. I hope this gives you sort of an idea of what Windsor looked like. It was really a wonderful house. It was especially great when all the cousins were young. We could hang out in the living room, laying around on the floor building card houses and playing games. I wish the house was still there.