{"id":8882,"date":"2015-11-23T00:05:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-23T06:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/?p=8882"},"modified":"2015-11-22T16:28:38","modified_gmt":"2015-11-22T22:28:38","slug":"on-the-street-where-i-lived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/on-the-street-where-i-lived\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Street Where I Lived"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>A week ago today I visited the home where my family lived from 1961 through 1965. The molding above the front door where my sister and I posed in our Christmas best was still there, more lovely than I remembered.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>The corner where a Westmar college student snapped a photo of us in front of the best snowman ever is framed in bushes, but the memory of that day remains.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>The side yard where Grandpa supervised my sister, brother and me while we swam in our inflatable pool…<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>…the same yard where my one and only birthday party was held, looked smaller than I remembered.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>The house looked smaller too, much smaller, when we went inside. When my cousins and I were very young, we never noticed how completely we filled the space between the door to the upstairs and the kitchen table. Now in our fifties, my cousin and I both commented on how small that space was. I marveled that Dad had been able to right angle his wheelchair around two corners to get to the bathroom from either the living room or his bedroom.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Scanning the living room, I wondered how we crammed the upright piano, the TV with rabbit ears, the fold out couch, grandma’s walnut desk, and an upholstered chair with a large footstool, and found room for company.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>I thanked the present owner for welcoming into her home and allowing me to take pictures to show Mom and my siblings. Leaving with my cousin, I realized that our family of five\u2013and Grandpa Stratton for a few months\u2013filled the house to overflowing and then some.<\/p>\n

Ever since, my thoughts have overflowed with memories of the years on the street where I once lived.<\/p>\n