My Boyhood Home ~ Free Life Nostalgia Neighborhood
Growing up in Butte, Montana, during the 1950s and early 60s has provided me with numerous good memories of a childhood that was, for the most part, much enjoyed. Even though it concluded with the accidental death of my father, the earliest part of my life was one of being secure, loved, and very much a part of the fabric of what was once a proud mining community. Mom and I left Butte in 1963. It would not be until 2009 that I would return again. The old neighborhood looked very much the same. Our home on Center Drive had changed very little. It was as if my hometown waited for me to return along with so many wonderful memories of a time long past and people long gone.
It was 1953. Dad and Mom puchased a small new home in what became known as "The Drives." Our home was on Center Drive. Dad spruced up the place by building a concrete block fence all the way around the yard with black wrought iron gates, railings, and lanterns to spruce up the place. Some seventy years later, the house still looks the same except for a change in the color of the siding and the yard bushes having tripled their size.
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Dad's Jeep was definitely his favorite toy. Even though he owned a 1954 Kaiser Manhatten automobile, it was the Jeep that he drove most of the time. How well I remember sitting on those back seat metal wheel wells during the winter time. Even though we had a once car garage, the family vehicles were never parked in it nor under the car port in front of the garage but, rather, always close to the house side door.
Creating My Boyhood Home...
I visited the house in Butte some fifty years after having left it behind. The couple who now live in the house welcomed me inside to see it again. It was exciting to discover that it was just as I had remembered it. The graphic to the right is the floor plan of the house. I can recall numerous memories of happenings that occurred in each of those rooms from sitting at the dinner table as a family in the kitchen to my parents finding me asleep on the top shelf of the utility room after a night of sleep walking. My bedroom was the place where I enjoyed several hobbies that my brother instilled in me. Although, I was sure that there were creepy creatures living in my closet, especially at night. Although the passing of my father (I was fourteen years old) resulted in our having to leave Butte, I have fond memories of a what was a good childhood and one that draws me back time and time again to remember what was my beginning. |
It was the early morning hours of August 17, 1959. I awoke to find that my bed had moved to the other side of my bedroom. Instinctively, I leaped out of bed and in just a few steps jumped on to my parents bed that was shaking in place. That was the night of the great Montana earthquake.
Just two nights before Dad passed away, Mom was showing him some Scriptures from the family Bible after he had read about half of Dante's "Inferno", which is a fanciful vision of Hell. Mom was sharing her faith with Dad. How could they have known that within twenty-four hours he would be gone? |
Why Mom had that ugly wallpaper installed on just one wall in the living room, we will never know. When my brother and his wife bought the house just before Mom and I left for Michigan, the first thing he did was purchase some wood wall paneling and cover up that wall. Even the little memories bring a smile.
Whether it was putting together a plastic model car, working on my stamp collection, learning how to play some chords on my guitar, or reading a new comic book, my bedroom was my secure place.
Dad constructed a one car garage in the driveway side corner of the backyard, along with a side room that doubled as my brother's bedroom along with some office furnishings from Dad's time as a union leader. He also built a barbecue from the leftover blocks from the fence. Mom loved her vegetable garden even though I had to keep it weeded. I spent a lot of time as a boy playing in that backyard.
My brother's garage bedroom featured what looked to be a knotty pine wall with some small built in book shelves. However, behind a four-piece door was what we called the "tool room."