The first few years of my life, we lived in
Creston, just a few blocks from my Grandparents house. By March of 1954, my parents decided to move to Boulder, CO.
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| First Home in Creston~ |
I missed my Grandparents & friends, but I did love our house in Boulder. I had a playroom in the basement & we were just blocks from the foothills. Even with trips every summer to visit, it wasn't long until we were
moving back to Iowa in November of 1956.
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| First home in Boulder, winter 1954 |
This time to live in Greenfield, where I started elementary school.
My fraternal Grandfather was quite a businessman & entrepreneur. From the family stories I've heard & the paperwork I inherited from my father's collection, Grandpa Jim had an Auto Livery & Taxi company, a Portable Hammer Mill & owned real estate both in Iowa & Missouri. In 1947 he sold a rooming house in Creston, for the new Union County Court House to be built.
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| Notice the phone number~ |
While we were searching for the houses I'd lived in, we drove by the original Post Office & Court House.
I was impressed with the grand scale of the building, built in 1901. On the register of National Historic Places.
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| Beautiful columns~ |
We ended the day at the city park. The smell of the lilac's drifting through the air as sweet as honey & almost overwhelming.
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| Entrance to the City Park~ |
It was quiet, just the sound of a lawn mower breaking the early evening quiet. The fish were jumping, surprising Nika! A great blue Heron flew the length of the lake & settled up at the shallow end to find his dinner.
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| Summit Lake, Sunset~ |
I remembered those fourth-of-July evenings when we'd bring our blankets, sparklers & wait for the fireworks show to begin. So beautiful with the reflection on the water. Afterward, Grandpa Jim would take us all out for ice cream! The lemon was my favorite!
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| Fishing, 1955 |
I loved to fish, just not bait the hook! Mom's photo above won a photo contest & was published in the Creston paper.
Your childhood is the envy of mine. I grew up in South Park Seattle. Butch probably knows where that is. I grew up with the sound of the South Park Community Center sprinklers watering the ball field in front of my bedroom window. Chi, chi, chuka-chuka, chi, chi.
ReplyDeleteAnyway I need your advice with a plant. Today the owner promised us several separate plots of land in this neighborhood, and the one we really want is adjacent to our own, in fact, separating us from our pasture. So we'll take it! Cost is very negotiable due to the multitude of dead trees, and uselessness of the land - building is not allowed. We'll be buying to be the protectors of many bugs and frogs.
Costs are low, it's not buildable land. 1.40euro per square meter. We're getting 9K spread around the neighborhood. We don't want all that, but it's an all-or-none deal.
But there is this plant. It doesn't belong, as far as I can tell. It is the Salix Sekka I think, and looks like it belongs in Australia, not here.
It has completely encapsulated the lovely mature Rhododendron on their land. Completely, so that there may be no hope for the Rhodie.
Do you have any experience with "Sekka"?
Interesting looking... It looks like a fast growing, invasive type of shrub. https://www.invasiveplantatlas.org/subject.html?sub=11589 Good luck with the job of cleaning it up the property & Congratulations on the purchase!
DeleteI'm thankful that I've lived in some beautiful places...
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