October, 1971

October, 1971
You’ve heard me get nostalgic over Pennsylvania, my home, my childhood and my children. Today I am writing about how nostalgic I get this time of year, in October, and especially this week coming up in October. It begins when the leaves start changing colors and the height of the memories come when the leaves start falling and half are on the ground and the other half still on the trees.

35 years ago this time of October we bought our home and moved from the duplex apartment, where my Mother in Law and Bob’s two Aunts lived. It was the home where Bob grew up, 12th Avenue and First Street, in the winter you could see the part of the lake, when there were no leaves on the trees. We lived there when First Street was a main artery from east to west, before the freeway extension. It was such a busy street we had trouble getting in and out of the driveway due to traffic. It’s much quieter now.

I often wonder if we’d have a home today if I hadn’t pushed for it, it certainly wouldn’t have been that year or the next. Bob was content to be in the apartment next to his Mother. I wanted a home, so I could unpack all of the china and cookware I had purchased as a single girl and brought from PA, so that I could unpack and use all of our wedding gifts that we brought from PA, and to live in a neighborhood that I would have friends nearby, not just relatives. I wanted a home where our daughter could grow up playing with other children her age. I wanted us to make friends as a couple, find friends and get established as a family. I didn’t think we could do these things living next door to Mother (much as I loved her). Buying the home helped me to adjust to living in this new environment, and helped my homesickness. It gave me something to work toward, something to take my mind off of being homesick for PA.

In the building where I worked downtown, the Board of Trade Building, there was a real estate office. One day I stopped in and talked with one of the realtors, a wonderful woman named Nancy, just to see if there was any possibility that we could manage to afford a home. Next thing I knew, on my lunch times, Nancy was driving me to places in the city that I didn’t even knew exsisted. I really had never been east of downtown, and didn’t know that there were beautiful neighborhoods like Lakeside, Chester Park and Woodland. The first time in September when she took me up Woodland Avenue, I couldn’t believe the beauty of the old, tall elm trees that lined the avenue on both sides. At the “top” of Woodland Avenue there was this small community of newer homes, mixed with older homes. It was like its own little town, nothing like downtown Duluth. Oh, boy, did I fall in love with this area immediately. It was the neighborhood that I wanted to live in. It reminded me of the small towns near the farm I grew up on in PA. There weren’t a lot of homes there available that were in our price range, but there was one that Nancy showed me. I fell in love with it right away. There was a large spruce tree in the front yard, there was a porch, a large back yard with trees at the back of the lot. Inside, I fell in love with the living and dining rooms, and from there I overlooked everything else that might have distracted us in another house. A fireplace with a mantle, book cases on each side of the fireplace on one side of the living room, a large mirror on one wall. The dining room had a built in china hutch, with “piano” windows on both sides. There was a “plate shelf” across the the dining room walls. There were windows across the front of the living and dining rooms and a beautiful archway in between the two rooms.

The house was built in 1914. There was one other house on the block that looked similar to this one. There was a mix of older and newer homes on the block. It looked like a nice quiet neighborhood. The street was a deadline two blocks down, so wouldn’t get much traffic. That was good, for having a one year old. We were told there was a mix of young families and older families. The downside, since it was an older home, the kitchen was small, and not updated, the bathroom, small and not updated. There were two bedrooms up and one down. The bedrooms had the smallest closets I’ve ever seen, but then I was used to the farm house that had no closets, when I was growing up. I was also used to living in a farm house with an outdated kitchen and bath. So, when I fell for the living and dining rooms, I was able to overlook everything else. When I showed Bob the house he wasn’t as keen on the house as I was, but did comment that we could remodel the kitchen. Little did we know then that it would take us 32 years before we could do that). I have often told Bob over the years, that he was lucky that I grew up on a farm, and not used to having fancy things, he might have married someone who would have insisted that this home would only be a “starter” home, and would have never been content for 32 years like I was! But, remember, this was a home we could afford at the time. It was the cutest place I saw of all the homes we were shown in our price range. None of the others had the living and dining rooms that this one had. Bob knew I fell in love with it, and he knew it was what I wanted, so he agreed we should make an offer.

We put our bid in, and thanks to the GI Bill, we were able to purchase the home with $300 down and payment of closing costs. There was one benefit of Bob’s having been in the army!

The beginning of September, I had child care issues and was not able to find good care for our daughter, so I quit work. I thought, after saving money for the down payment and closing costs, that I might be able to stay home with Dawn. So, after the closing of the house, while Bob worked, I started packing and moving boxes up to the new home. It seemed far away, but I soon got used to the trips up and down the hill. Before I was married, I had bought myself a brand new 1968 Blue Ford Mustang. (I now see this mustang in antique car shows!). It was small for hauling things, so I had to make quite a few trips. It was fun though, and exciting. When I see the leaves in Woodland each fall, and the changing colors and our street in the fall, I remember those fun days of moving boxes in my little mustang. I remember being excited with our baby girl, knowing we were providing a good home for her, I remember cleaning, unpacking boxes, arranging my china and crystal (which my Mother encouraged me to buy, she said I’d never be able to afford it after I was married, and was she right!), in the built in china hutch, unpacking wedding gifts and actually getting to use them, Around the week of the 11th or 15th, we moved our furniture, with the help of some friends that Bob worked with. We started settling into our new home just in time to welcome (welcome?) winter. Now, I knew for sure I would never get Bob to move back to PA. (not that there was ever a chance!) I knew I had to adjust to living here. Having our own home would help.

It was good that we bought when we did, because within a year or two later, the interest rates started rising and reached as high as 9 %, we bought at just the right time when the interest rates were affordable. Home rates increased drastically after 1971 also. Bob had to admit that it was good thing that I had “pushed him”! We have never regretted the purchase. While Bob might have wished over the years for a newer home, I never did. I have always been happy here. I did push many times over the 35 years for us to make improvements, always had to “push him”. Sometimes it took me years, to get improvements, but eventually he would come through. It took me 32 years to get the kitchen remodeled (I’ll write about that soon too, because that happened in October also). At that time we did some other improvements too, so now, my “improvement” list of wants is the shortest it’s ever been in 35 years. And, I’m still happy to be living here. We couldn’t ask for a nicer neighborhood to live in. It’s the next best thing to living in the country (which would have been my preference, but Bob is not a country boy!) To us, Woodland is the best area to live in the city of Duluth.

And, yes, living here did make the adjustment from PA to Duluth much easier.

PS..wish I had a photo of the house in the autumn, here is our house in the winter.