It was 1952, I was five years old, and moving into our new house located in Bluewell, WV…. My parents and 11 children. My parents had this home built and mom made some design changes to the rooms. The rooms were very large, and just right for our family. There was a large eat-in kitchen, dining room, living room and two bedrooms on the first level. One was my parent’s bedroom and the other bedroom was for the oldest sibling…..usually the oldest girl got that bedroom.
The upstairs had two bedrooms, with a bath between the two rooms. The rooms were so big; mom had two double beds in each room. On each side of the house there was a large attic. One attic was turned into a bedroom. There were still six girls and three boys living at home. (My brother Danny joined the military and Betty got married.) I can remember at times there were two (somestime three) girls in one bed. It was truly fun. We would laugh and giggle until Mom would call upstairs for us to be quiet and go to sleep.
Hardwood floors were throughout the house. I remember on Saturdays we all helped clean house. The most fun was when mom would clean and wax the hardwood floors. With our socks on, we would dance around on the waxed floors and pull each other with old towels; while one of my brothers would use the buffing machine. Thus, putting a great shine on the floors.
I remember the day we moved into the new house, the new television arrived before our furniture and mom said we could watch TV, but we had to sit on newspaper because she didn’t want us to track up her beautiful new hardwood floors.
Mother died in 1967, Dad followed later in 1999. We sold the house in 2008, after my brother got too sick and had to go into a nursing home.
Today, the house is back on the market. It is sad when I think of my childhood home, both happy and sad memories, without a loving family to run the halls creating new memories.
This house, that was my childhood home, located on a hill overlooking Bluewell, was mother's pride and joy, will always hold a special place in my heart, as will the memories.
