About once a year I dream of my childhood home – at least one of them. We moved quite a bit, so there were many “homes.” But there is “the one.” It is the one I lived in from the summer of 1965 through early September 1970. It was my parent’s first home purchase so it was a big deal. It is the one that was only 4 blocks from Wallace Elementary, where I attended school from Kindergarten through 4th grades. It was just 4 blocks from Grandma’s house and a couple of blocks from my cousin Diana, who would drop by and “pick me up” on her way to school.
I loved that house. There is no explanation for the value I place on it except maybe: It was green grass and having a best friend just across the alley and lilacs and long summer days. It was a rusty old swingset on which I spent hours singing my heart out to the heavens. It was neighbors who paid us nickels and quarters for rocks and shells we took door-to-door, us thinking we were giving them a real bargain, kind people knowingly supporting our adventure, divining we really just needed some penny candy money for the corner grocer 5 blocks away. It was neighborhood relays with homemade ribbons and paper drives and screen doors that slammed musically to the cricket’s songs as we ran to capture lightening bugs for jewelry. It was innocence and family, it was friends and church. It was my mom on the piano teaching us to sing gospel for all we were worth. It was the safe place.
Several times over the years I have been moved to send Christmas greetings to the current inhabitants of the house at 1723 York Street in Des Moines, Iowa wishing them all the joy and love and peace I experienced there. They have never replied and for all I know there are restraining orders on file concerning me.
So, occasionally I dream about it and have googled the address from time to time. Last week I did so and was overwhelmed and delighted to see that “my house,” my place of nostalgic extravagance, was up for sale. My parents bought it for $12,000 in ’65 and sold it for $17,000 in ’70. It is listed at $110,000 now, which seems an amazing bargain for such a magical childhood palace.
There it was. My 1723 York Street house! I have actually always daydreamed about owning it now. And there it was on a real estate site – with pictures! And even though the colors are different (the woodwork is painted now), it has not changed much at all. It seems smaller. It’s old (built in 1913). The old-fashioned 3-car garage with swing-open doors is long gone, replaced by a nice new 2 car version with an overhead like everyone else. But it is my house, my home, my street. That is my grass and enclosed side porch (lots of Barbie time there). My trees are gone, as is the sidewalk that once went straight from the front stairs to the public walkway. But it is my house, my home, my street.
The other day, I went “thrifting” with the girls and made 2 totally fruitless purchases, except that they gave me something tangible to remember those years there. I got an over-sized, burnt-orange Haeger pottery ash tray just like my grandma used to have in her house (there are slots for at least 9 cigarettes!). So 1960s! And, I got an old black, rotary, wall phone by Bell – one exactly like the one that hung in our kitchen at 1723 York Street when my phone number was 266-7121. These are worthless artifacts except to look at and recall a time and place and the innocent girl who skipped and romped through it.
I am somewhat war-damaged now. Time has taken it’s toll on the body. Circumstances have wreaked havoc on the heart. The innocence has been lost and lost again, but finds repair and healing in the heart of the Father. I can’t help but believe that my address in heaven will be 1723 York Street, for I am that same girl yet, beneath this outer crust, but there, I will never grow old.
Forgive my indulgent reminiscing…Jeanie
NOTE TO READERS: Two days after I “found” it, the listing (www.dsmhomes.com) seems to have been removed, which I can only assume means it sold. I think finding it was a gift from God to help me update my dreams…
pictured: the house at 1723 York Street in Des Moines as it currently looks and the dining room; a couple of shots of the kitchen at the York Street house; the York Street living room – it’s windows are it’s true glory; the old Bell phone and Haeger ashtray I just got while “thrifting” with the girls; the girls in Olde Town Arvada; a cute bakery sign in Olde Town.
