Our first apartment at 812 1/2 4th St. in Alva was chosen in the spring before we married in August. We looked at several before deciding on an about 20 square foot furnished basement apartment behind the landlord`s house. It was $35 a month all bills paid. Cool in summer but if outside drains got blocked with debries the floor flooded when it rained. Think that only happened once. In May I and a girlfriend moved in for summer school. Dad headed to Lubbock to work. The apartment was within walking distance of school and my job downtown at T.G. & Y. After summerschool roomie moved home and the girl upstairs moved down with me for the remainder of the summer. I made curtains. It was small but with lots of storage.
Our next place on a $6000 per year teacher`s salary in Lebanon, Nebraska was a square TP looking home. It had 2 closetless bedrooms. One bedroom had an addition built on that was at one time used as a beauty salon. There was one closet in the dining room. This house too was furnished. I remember an old fashioned rolltop desk, a reddish pinkish sectional sofa, built in hutch in dining room and stained glass windows across top of living room window. We did not heat the bedrooms. The insulation probably was not very good. We didn`t notice the cold with all 7 of our wedding blankets on our bed.
The second school year we moved across from the H.S. in a 2 story house with basement. We bought the minimum but new furnishings - gold sofa, mattress set on frame. chest of drawers, wood table with 4 chairs, brown refrigerator and washer on time which I promptly paid off with double payments most months. Nate`s crib after he outgrew the cradle was a garage sale find of Aunt Nell`s. We used only the downstairs. The school secretary loaned us a bed when we had company to use upstairs which had a half bath. Again I made curtains. A treat for me the house had a big old claw foot tub. We only had showers up to then. Our address there was P.O. Box 26 chosen because it was our anniversay date.
The summer between those school sessions was spent back in our original apartment in Alva where Nate was born. We also lived in the upstairs apartment one summer. Another summer when Angie was born we lived in a brick duplex across from Homeland Store. My grocery bill was the highest that summer. I could just run across to the store when I got hungry for something.
Our first home in Stroud was on 8th St. in a converted nursing home. It had new kitchen cabinets, 3 smallish bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and large livingroom which must have been a ward room for it had bedroom type closets across one end. Again I enjoyed making curtains. The rent was like $70 and we had to pay utilities. When we were gone for summer school the landload charged only half rent. They rented to mostly teachers.
When Angie was 2 we lived in a furnished apartment in Weatherford for the summer with minimun possessions. That was the last year we had to uproot for the summer. Thank goodness because Nate was always busy picking neighbor`s green tomatoes and visiting anyone in complex or whatever. Dad had spent 5 summers in school - 4 for his masters and one to finish up a math degree.
I remember riding around in Stroud one year. As we drove past 604 S. 1st Ave. I thought houses like that never come up for sale Little did I know that by the time Angie was 1 we would close on our 1st home at 604 S. 1st Ave. It was only 2 bedrooms but had lots of nice wood kitchen cabinets, wood paneling in kitchen, attached garage and the latest blue green shag carpeting in livingroom and bedrooms. This was Sarah, Anna and Josh`s first home. We assumed the original mortgage and the owners carried a 2nd mortgage for us. House payments were at most $200 a month. When Sarah was about 2 we converted the garage to bedroom, bath and a larger dining area with laundry closet across one wall.. That was a mess remodeling with the dust and mess with all the little ones underfoot. Dad did alot of the work. I remember wallpapering new bathroom ceiling and walls with yellow paper with tiny white flowers. Pretty but I was so sore. I swore I would never do the ceiling of another small room- there was not much room for ladders. Again we were quite comfortable until Josh came along. I felt like a rat living in a maze in our 1200 foot house. We made do for about 2 1/2 years until we decided to bite the bullet and build our present home.
Looking back - how did we do it - 2 acreas, new 4 bedroom 3 bathroom house with variable interest mortgage that sometimes was over $400? Answer since daycare on 2 1/2 ( kindergarten was 1/2 days) was more than I could make Dad taught, coached, drove a bus, worked at pool or painting at school in summers and worked at Sonic on Wed. evenings all the while doing as much finish work on the house as he could. Everyone was disgustingly healthy. ha We scrimped, wore handmedowns or handmade, cooked at home, cut boys hair, vacationed at Big Granny`s, used school and church things for our entertainment and held off decorating our lovely new space. Many years care packages of cookies from Big Granny Balk was our Easter treat and bags of candy and fruit from Santa downtown was put up for our Christmas. The kids all worked from age 16 not to help with household expenses but for spending money and to save for college. They all took a turn at McDonalds which I think instilled in them an excellent work ethic. We persevered and proved all things are possible if one wants it bad enough.
