The Front Porch

The front porch was a large wooden structure that was covered by a roof that reached from the upstairs bedroom windows to the front steps. This was held up by four white wooden pillars that I thought were quite stately, but upon adult reflection look kind of puny and only substantial enough to hold to roof up. The front porch held the mail box, the milk box, and a whole lot of bicycles. Whenever someone who had never been to our house before called and asked for directions, Dad would tell them how to get onto Fifteenth Street and then how many blocks to drive away from the lake before they would be on our block. Then he would say, “Just look for the house on the right with all the bikes on the front porch.” This never failed to help the visitors spot the correct house. The front porch was the main portal into the house and a natural place to use as a backdrop for pictures, so we have pleanty of photographs taken from that vantage point.

Karry & Bev

Circa 1950

One of my favorite pictures of the five kids

Christmas Petticoats

The steps to the front porch were framed by two small bushes that Daddy kept clipped down neat and tidy. One Christmas evening when I was about seven, Beverly and I were the happy receivers of one of the most popular items of the year, Alice Faye petticoats. Alice Faye was a dancer on the Lawrence Welk television show and she always wore these huge petticoats and every little girl just had to have one of those petticoats. The ones we received were nylon on top with rows and rows of netting below. We were so proud of those slips! This Christmas evening had been a long one, but eventually we were sent to bed, and we grudgingly dragged our exhausted bodies up stairs. At the same time Mother was extinguishing the candles that sat atop the television in the front room. For some reason she became distracted (undoubtedly she was yelling at us to be quiet and get the heck in bed, for once and for all) when one of the candlesticks fell over and caught the living room sheers and drapes afire. Mother yelled for Daddy and immediately screamed for us to get out of the house. Naturally, our curiosity was more important than following orders, and we fussed wanting to know what all the screaming was about. Daddy immediately ran to the living room and pulled the drapes down flinging them on the bushes by the front steps while Mother called the fire department. Before too long we could tell from the frantic sound in our parents’ voices that this was no time to ignore orders, and we scurried out the front door. The neighbors were out of their houses and standing across the street to watch the action as they stared in horror at the two little rag-a-muffins in their new Alice Faye’s bouncing down the steps inches from the flaming drapes. Blithely we ran into the arms of our “Grandma” Burr who gave us such a scolding. This was one Christmas that would allow us to stay up later than ever before and one that we would never forget.