Snow Time

Mom is feeling the Olympic spirit.
She is doing her Dorthy Hamill impersonation.
Mom did go as far as to have her hair cut to the Dorthy Hamill camel style.

I think this was taken in Columbus or Bloomington in 1974.



The old Datsun B210 buried in the snow.
It didn't take too much snow to bury this little car though.
I still can't believe all five of us rode in this car on vacation.
Dad drove it all the way to Boonesborough, Kentucky.

While we were on vacation there Dad took us to see this new movie, the guys at work were talking about, Star Wars!


A cozy ice covered house.

A shot from the back of the property towards our newly constructed home.

House Progression

It looks like the construction workers are coming along pretty well with the new house.
Date, 1974.

The foreman, Mom, is overseeing the framing.


This is taken form the living room looking into the kitchen.

Starting to hang some drywall.



In the garage looking through the wall, into the living room and out the living room windows.


Mom seems overwhelmed or is she just hiding from the camera. You decide.


We are now in the garage looking into the living room. You can also see where the floor steps up for the kitchen.
The wall to the left is no longer there.



We are now in the kitchen looking into a bonus room.
I guess we called it a bonus room. I don't really remember ever using this room until we took the wall out.
Then it became a dining room and is now the kitchen today.
Before then I think that it was Mom's art room.

I know at times it held our second TV.
It was a portable, small TV that was usually in Mom and Dad's room but was in this room from time to time.
The cool thing about this TV, besides being our second TV, was that it was covered in Wrangler jean material.How cool was that?
As I was saying. This TV was normally in Mom and Dads room but I know it was in this craft room sometimes too.
I remember sneaking in the room to watch "Kiss meets the Phantom of the amusement park" in 1978. They told me not to watch it after I had lobbied to do so.
So while we were watching whatever we were watching I would get up from time to time to sneak a peek of the show on this Wrangler TV.
It was one of the most watched television movies in 1978 but is also known as one of the worst movies ever made.
I thought it seemed weird because I only caught bits and pieces of it but no, it just stunk.
I should have listened to Mom and Dad.


There I am in background in the days before I watched lame-o TV movies on the sly.
Chad is in the foreground with a stick sword attacking Dad.

More drywall.

The place is really starting to come together.

Living Room

Here is a nice picture of our living room in 1982.

Black and white T.V. over in the corner. (If I remember right, my parents did not get a color T.V. until I was married. Now that all of us are married and moved out they have a T.V. as big as the wall on the right.)

I can remember Dad saying we wasted to much time watching T.V. in the summer.

We woke up one morning and the T.V. wouldn't work.

I looked behind the T.V. and sure enough Dad had unplugged it.

T.V. in the 70's and 80's was only tolerable until lunch time with such great gems as the Price Is Right and The Bob Braun Show as the highlights of the morning shows. Then soap operas came on and you couldn't make us watch it.

I see the pinball machine off to the right. (I wish we still had that.)

I also noticed the Rubik's Cube and another game on the coffee table where you tried to match all the number on these little gear like things.

The yellow thing off to the right folded into a chair, out flat or wound up into a barrel shape. Winner got this seat for prime time T.V. watching.

I also noticed the pictures on the mantel.

The center is my freshman class picture but Mom has lovingly placed our favorite pictures of ourselves in front of them.

Brett in his football belt out fit, Chad being a clown and me as my alter ego.

Thanks Mom.

A Busy Picture

Not only is this busy because of the quilt wall but there is a lot in this picture that I liked as a kid.

First I deduced that this is Chad's birthday party because the toys being opened were all Chad's.

I am holding (coveting) a Star Wars landspeeder, the coolest of all the Star Wars toys we owned.

It looked like it hovered and flew across the kitchen floor great.

There is also a Hulk pick up truck model and two other toys I cannot make out.

I did have trouble finding Chad in the picture and am not sure who anyone else is in the picture besides Amy Arkenburg.

I also don't ever remember eating a single meal in this room. I remember it being a storage room and a T.V. room but not a dinning room.

I always liked the chicken coop board that hung on this wall though. It contained. . .

Fair ribbons, dolls (I guess Mom needed some space), a Ted's Best sign, the big number "5", Moms paintings, a picture of 1451 Lexington Ave., trophy's, a whisky bottle of Rip VanWinkle, a drawing of Bugs Bunny one of us made, a headline reading "Brett's sure bet with his bat", and my favorite "The Apple Head Guy".

Apple head Guy was made from a shrunken apple made to look like an old mans head. Mom made it and placed it on a wire frame body covered with overalls and a shirt.

He fascinated me. The longer he sat on our shelf the more real he looked.

I don't know where he went but in my mind he is probably roaming the Earth some where.