Childhood home /vintage things

[jmm63]

When I'm occasionally killing time at work, I'll google addresses I used to live at or check them out on Realtor.
After my Dad died in 1970, my Mom remarried 2 years later to an Air Force friend of his and we all packed up from the Detroit area and moved to rural Sterling Illinois. 45 minutes SW of Rockford. The middle of nowhere. We (us 3 kids) hated it. We did, however, move into a 6 month old, custom built, good sized ranch house. The height of 70's decor. We made friends and adjusted to country life. The marriage didn't last and 6 years later, they divorced, mom sold the house, and we moved back to Michigan.

We kept in touch with our neighbors, the Perrone's, for years. He was the manager of the local Sears. (so many wonderful stories about them too but I digress) The house only changed hands twice and they were very good friends with the woman who just recently passed away. She collected everything and loved to entertain.

I wasn't able to find a listing about the house, but it did sell and there was an estate sale with tons of pictures. To my surprise, almost nothing has changed since 1970. Also to my surprise, was our Harvest Gold Kenmore Side by side from 1972 was still there, although moved to the basement kitchen. We had a Harvest Gold GE TOL P7 electric stove and GE dishwasher and red and black indoor/outdoor carpet in the kitchen. I remember going to Sears with my mom and meeting Mr. Perrone who had his best salesperson show us. As a matter of fact, if you were able to move the broiler pans in picture 8, you would see the burn mark in the counter I put there.
Here's some pictures and you can google 4205 Woodlawn Road, Sterling Illinois to see the outside, and the middle of nowhere..lol

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Coldspot and Whirlpool fridges really were the best built and you can find still a good many of them working today, to the point where if you didn't buy one and bought the more popular brands you eventually discarded after about ten not quite twenty years you didn't know what you were missing...

Love the lots of memories left there, too bad my childhood home would be nowhere near that kept up or having much left from my birth on...

-- Dave

 

[helicaldrive]

Such a mind blowing paradox

Photos from the past make us so wistful. To realize that in our 20s we thought our folks would always be there in that house. In our 50s and 60s it’s so hard to comprehend how much time has gone by, and how much our lives have changed since. And that we can never go back. Even though we wouldn’t really want to go back to being a child under the folks’ thumb again. Yet still it makes us wistful that we can’t go back.

And then there’s the realization that everything we spent so much time and money to collect and make a happy home life with, will one day be thrown in a dumpster and landfill, or staged, filmy and dirty, for others to sort through and comment about.

After we went through the same with our own folks’ stuff. It’s such a mind blowing experience to throw away or sell the stuff of our folks’ lives.

Then again I’ve known other people who seem to look at the situation with no wistfulness at all, in a very concrete way as just a bunch of meaningless stuff that has to be gotten rid of.

 

[pulltostart]

Jim,

My father passed away in 2012, I retired in 2013 and moved to Mobile in 2014.  After I moved to Mobile my mother went through a phase of cleaning out my dad's desk and files.  She was going to just toss everything into the garbage, so I asked if I could go through them first.  She said 'yes' and I carried several file folders home to go through.  In one I found a form that dad had filled out, as required by the Air Force, documenting all of his previous addresses.  It was really fun to find the address of several places where we had lived before I was old enough for the address/location to register with me.  As a result of finding that form I was able to google several and by checking out the Street View, confirm - yep - that's our old house!  I kept the form and occasionally refer to it if I have questions or don't remember something.

 

lawrence

 

[appnut]

Jim, former member MrFrench70 was born and grew up in Sterling until he finished high scvhool.

 

[polkanut]

My parents sold my childhood home in September of 2022. I live just 2 blocks away, so I more or less have to drive past it to get my house. They have done some nice improvements such as adding a 3/4 bath upstairs (previously only a full bath on the main level), built a fire pit in the backyard, restored the wood floors in the living & dining rooms, and updated the landscaping in front of the house. 

 

They are a young couple who've only been married 2 years but so far, they haven't done anything radical, and I don't think they will. But it's theirs to do with as they see fit to suit their needs.

 

The link is to the real estate listing on realtor.com. 

 

105 Edwards St, Wausau, WI 54401 | realtor.com®