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Grandfather Says: The Continuing Chronicles of Elaine, Part 20

By RD Blakeslee

The following was written by my late wife Elaine. She wrote a long book, a diary really, from which this is one passage:

Our First House. Because our one-bedroom apartment would soon be outgrown, we spent a lot of Sunday afternoons looking in nice neighborhoods at houses for sale.  “We knew it when we saw it.” – a pretty house in an attractive North Arlington neighborhood, and we moved there in June 1958.  Its price:  $18,500.

There was one small and one large bedroom on the main floor, a kitchen with a door to the backyard,  living room, dining room, and bathroom.  The downstairs was finished into a recreation room with crate wood paneled walls, and a bathroom and a workshop. We eventually discovered that the crate wood, which had probably come from somewhere in the Far East, was infested with powder post beetles. Dave applied chlordane (since banned) to the walls and the beetles died with their bodies halfway out of the wood.

The house was built into a hill, so the backyard’s flat area was very small, but nice and private.  Rachel and Waddy, whose house looked down on ours, were the only “eyes” we had to worry about, but they weren’t nosy people.

I often hung our wash out in the back. Disposable diapers were not yet available, so I appreciated being able to hang the gauze diapers outside sometimes for sun-bleaching and fresh smells.  (With the coming of much-appreciated disposable diapers, I expect that not too many modern moms know about soaking the old cloth diapers in diaper pails with bleach added to the water, nasty cases of diaper rash and nasty rashes on mommies’ arms and hands, common when handling cloth diapers soaked in bleach.  I remember having to go to a dermatologist because of a sore, itchy rash all over my hands, and went around for awhile wearing little white cotton gloves covering the medication I had to use until it healed.

To be continued…

***

About the Author: RD Blakeslee is a nonagenarian in West Virginia who built his net worth by only investing in that which can be enjoyed during acquisition and throughout life, as opposed to papers in a drawer, like stocks and bonds. You can read more about him here.

Photos: Courtesy of the Blakeslee Family

 

August 3, 2023

Comments

  1. 1

    bill says

    Thank you for sharing Mr. Dave.

    All clothes went on the line. All cotton underwear dried on the line would toughen your butt up. I think some people could use some of that. lol

    Chlordane killed just about anything including us.

  2. 2

    RD Blakeslee says

    Well, Bill, When Chlordane first came out, it was touted by its manufacturer as a miracle cure for insect infestations and harmless to mammals.

    Believing that, I applied it to anthills in the lawn and it killed the neighbor’s cat.

    • 3

      bill says

      If my brother didn’t steal it, my dad still had a huge jug of Chlordane, and even worse out in the shed.
      Got any varmints you want gone?

      Just varmints not cats. lol

  3. 4

    RD Blakeslee says

    I graduated from college in September,1957 and went to work in the Patent Office in October.

    The starting salary was $4,480 per year with assured promotions up to $8,200, if performance was satisfactory.

    A defined benefit pension went with the job, as well as the same medical insurance the Congress gave itself,

    Eight months later we were able to buy an excellent house.

    In those days, there was no need for both spouses to work to pay for a house, but “progressives” insist life is better today.

  4. 5

    RD Blakeslee says

    https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/how-wall-street-killing-american-dream

    • 6

      Gee says

      Bah, Blackstone!

  5. 7

    RD Blakeslee says

    Gee, Chinese buyers are into the U.S. housing market, bigtime.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-housing-market-bad-people-010408240.html

    Don’t know how much of the traffic goes through Blackrock, though.

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