Were Ready to go Hunting Again!

Work has been nothing but horrific to say the least.

It is bad when you text each other at 10pm and ask if you were able to make up the stairs to get to bed?

Most of us get up at 4am to get to work you see.

So my Girlfriends and I from working are more than ready to go 

Pyrex Hunting!

It is not easy for the 3 of us to get a Friday off but we did, to go to the broom corn festival in Arcola IL, preceded by a Old Route 40 drive where we stop at every small town with a antique shop.

I love hunting for each of us.

Last week I was at 1515 for our family Reunion and found these

a set of Butterprint mixing bowls in perfect shape for $30

so after a text message or 2 I brought them home for my friend.

She has most pieces now

exchange at work, how do you like our sheet backdrop?

She will be trying to find that darn butterprint butterdish!

In the mean time my friend in Charleston texted me while at the auction

"Is a Pyrex white bowl with yellow dots a collectors piece?'

Why YES!

so she got the one like this for $1

I guess I will be looking now for the red and green dots too.

She also pulled this our of her cabinet once to give to us. 

a yellow butterprint Cinderella!

she also had a turquoise loaf pan she gave to Patty and then the Sputnik piece came from auction.

Do you forget what pieces you have?

I did a quick inventory at 1515

I have 6 friendship casseroles in various sizes and in yellow, red and the print.

My Friend found some and I got 3 at auction.

Now if I could find the bowl set and that elusive lasagna dish!

We also like promotional pieces

like my $8 salad bowl

and my favorite my $5 black rooster

My one friend has pink gooseberry, clear bottom and has one more to get her pink set.

The other has dots, stripes and sunflower

My only regret...........

I got the sunflower set at auction for $2.50!

why did I not keep them, I gave them to my friend and she gave them to someone else.

So all 3 of us now want these.

I also love the Christmas pieces..

poinsettia I use at Christmas for my cheese dip

and a blue snowflake divided dish. I found the holder later.

So we are ready to go again!

Here is what we found in 2012

So what do you collect in Pyrex?

Or what is your best memory of Pyrex.

We wish we could all go on a trip to the Pyrex museum in Washington State,

but IL will have to do for now!

What Happened 100 years Ago?

July 1914

A Young man named Walter was working as a Brakeman on the Clover Leaf RR.

His leg got ran over by a train.....ouch!

There he sits with his left leg up.

While he was there he met this young lady name

Mary Elizabeth or "bessie" as she was called.

she was doing her nurses training

I recently found out she took the picture of Walter

And by July 15 Walter wrote Bessie this letter

Friends?

Really?

move forward 1918

Walter was now in the Army during WWI

and there had been another girl but Elizabeth seems to be his true love.

His letters are so eloquently written for a farm boy with at 8th grade education.

her response

This could of been the end of that 4 year romance?

luckily not or I would not be here writing about this.

These are my Grandparents Walter and Elizabeth,

the owners of 1515.
They were married Sept 2,1919

1957 some 43 years after they had first met,

the young RR worker and the young nurse.

The look in my Grandfather's eyes says it all.

I have been scanning the letters, some of my cousins feel like we are intruding in on their personal feelings.

I think they left the letters for us to find, to read, to understand the struggles and see that somethings are meant to be.

Thank you Grandad and Grandmother

Part II of Dreams Come True

Yesterday I told you it had been 5 years since I bought my
Grandparents home as weekend place for myself and my cousins.

I bought the house on July 10th and before the next weekend, I had all new carpet, flooring in the bath, kitchen and utility put down. The couch and washer and dyer delivered.

It was like a military maneuver and I got it ALL done!

Everyone was amazed but I was determined the next weekend was our family reunion and I wanted us all in at 1515 for that weekend.

How about before and after pictures?

Things have changed so much!

Living Room

furniture of the lady who lived there after my grandparents

my old lazy boy, my Mom and Dad's end tables, my MIL coffee table and my old rocker

we gathered as much furniture together as we could.

I bought the couch which is a Ashley couch, nice and long.

My Aunts bedroom

boy did it need a paint job!

soft blue. my cousin made a vanity out of a old bookcase by adding a curtain and hanging a vintage mirror above. 

a head board she had in her storage shed and some purchased side tables

a wall of family pictures and Grandmother's gloves, and hankie

Now moving on to my Grandparents bedroom, which is mine now

The lady used it as a library, she had bookcases of genealogy work

 I had everything in the entire house painted

Here is the update

nice there was a chandelier

Vanity given to me by my painter, twins gave me the chair and purchased a dresser

the bed was a big purchase. A Wesley Allen vintage iron bed

the pocket doors turned out so pretty with paint

Now the dining room

 the beautiful chandelier with strawberries my Grandparents had is gone

I have the original table at home, but can not part with it to bring it back, I just adore it and is one of my most treasured things.

there we are in 1977 for Grandad's 90th birthday!

My Mom and Dad's table and odd and end chairs, it looks so bare here.

now my Great Grandparents is at the end of the dining room

There use to be a built in hutch they took out, I hate that the people did that.

The picture above the book case was lace made by my GGGrandmother in 1863.

Now my Dad's room

My Mom and Dad's bed and a Laura Ashley comforter I got for 80% off!

the books case my MIL. My Dad's grocery store delivery jacket from the 1940's hangs on the door ready to go! And Grandad's RR lantern and lunch pail live here too.

What about that kitchen and those cabinets? And that wallpaper!

walls painted yellow, cabinets painted white with glass knobs and vintage looking black and white cabinets.

What a difference!

The table came out of my Garden cottage and mix and match chairs

my Grandmothers Hoosier cabinet back home.

The coffee grinder, Campbell's tin were from 1515 too.

Mr. got the white cabinet for me and redid it, it matches one on the other side that was my other Grandmothers.

Grandmother's cookie jar, crock and meat grinder...back home

How nice to have a bit of both Grandmothers!

This actually it would be where the door was to the pantry they took out.

I hate that too but the bathroom is much bigger

the utility room use to be a porch area with windows

 the counter is a great place for a buffet line, and boy do we use it.

my painter made me this shelf.

My Mom's sorority apron hangs there with Grandad's RR flashlight, ice tongs and ice pick.

Cousin Tom that passed away gave me the flashlight, he told  me that that is where it us to hang, he thought Grandad might come back some night and want it.

Now that pitifully 1970's bathroom!

 now bright and cheery

new flooring, cabinets painted and same glass knobs added.

The mirror I found at a resale shop it was avocado green, painted white you can see the scroll of roses in it.

I had just changed out my bathroom at home so I brought my old pink rugs, curtains.

Amazing, new flooring and paint made the place looks so alive again.

I sometimes feel bad that a family does not live there day after day.

But we make up for it with the laughter and fun we all have when we are back there together again.

It just makes us all so HAPPY!

You Can Go Home Again

I guess I did not listen to the saying "you can never go home again" because 5 years ago today after a 36 year absence our family was back home at 1515

July 10, 2009

I bought my Grandparents home that they lived in from 

1926-1978

I am sure some thought I was nuts, I was buying it as a second home.
I remember that day thinking "Dreams really do come true"

The day I bought it I ran through my Grandparents closet that opens in my Dad's room and you can run from their into the dining room, living room and back to their room.....I was 6 again and loving it!

All the Grandchildern have been back and many Great Grandchildren.

But without a doubt that home has changed lives, made stronger family ties and brought so many memories alive.

It looks different now, the trees are gone

the white clapboard is gone.

The lived through the Great Depression, WWII, marriages, deaths, weddings, anniversaries, birthday parties. 

They were so proud of the place they called home.

now

But so many traditions are back

pictures taken on the front porch

My Mom and Dad in High School

the cousins

if you come visit you sign the guest book and have your picture taken on the porch.

we again gather in the living room where my Aunt was married

1943

It is now where her daughter welcomes long lost relatives

My cousins sleep in their Mom's bedroom.

My Dad's room is full of his things again.

The Christmas tree then

now same spot

the dining room that saw a Christmas Eve of uncertainly in 1941

the Christmas Day 50th Wedding anniversary of my Great Grandparents in 1936

now is filled with family meals, parties and celebrations once again

The kitchen that saw many a meal made by my Grandmother and cleaned up by others

my Mom and Aunt Catherine

My Dad's cousin and Aunt Catherine's daughter Mary daughter

The kitchen is the hub of laughter

Dad and Aunt Catherine

Grandad, cousin Deb, me and Jesse

cousin Marty and Fred with Mr.

morning coffee is a tradition there.

Even somethings have come home

Aunt Catherine and Grandmother's Hoosier

Thank you cousin Donna for lovingly taking care of it all those years and being generous enough to bring it home again on her last trip.

Donna's first trip there in 1950

I love 4 generations pictures

now her Grandchildren have come to visit the home of their G G Grandparents

notice the 1515 sign?

It is back to, taken the last time I stepped off the porch with me in 1978.

Hard to believe one home holds the memories of the 6th generations who have laid there heads there.

Happiness of weddings and anniversaries, sadness of those we lost.

Birthdays, reunions, girlfriend get a ways.

I asked on our family FB page to tell of your favorite memory,

most have said, being with family and becoming closer.

This home has worked miracles in many ways for our family,

whether 1926 or 2014.

God Bless 1515 Jackson

Grandad your Grandchildren are still laying there heads there now, sometimes with a giggle or two and the
"Good night" like the Walton's

PART I

PART II
show you the interior changes since I bought the house