“The house where I was raised from the age of 6 was a special place. It was on three acres; it was a large two story stucco. We moved in in 1948 and my mother stayed there until 1988… just a few shy of 50 years. There was nothing really special about the house itself but it had four bedrooms and two baths, one up and one down, which was unusual for that time. What my sisters and I loved were the woods and all the little critters that lived there.
I learned to identify about all the trees of East Tennessee by leaf and bark, learned to identify all the birds by sight and sound.
We had wild flowers: jacks-in-the pulpits, blood root, wild columbine, pinks, myrtle, thousands of daffodils, you name it. In the summers we would always have a turtle for a friend. Sometimes a green snake. It never had air conditioning and I wonder sometimes how we did make it in some of the sweltering summers, but we did. I dream about that house and wish I had the money to buy it back. It has fallen into disrepair and is now covered in aluminum siding. I know things change but I wish I could go back and it would be just as it was when we left it. Lots of memories, good and bad, still are with me. I did truly love that old house!”
—Diane
“I loved the home I grew up in. We did have a lot of family meals and time around the tv. And I had my own room large room (the house was/is an old Victorian, built in 1830).
The back yard was huge and had a woods behind it, and I was always finding horse shoes and rusty bits. It was wonderful.
If things had worked out, I would have bought it from my siblings when my father died, but alas it didn’t. I do miss it and often dream about it.”
—Laura