250417 Ravenwood

The house was built in 1904.

This house is where I grew up from 6 months old until I was 18 and left home for the navy.

The house was 2 stories high. Upstairs had 2 large bedrooms and one bath. Downstairs had a small narrow kitchen and an adjacent hallway from the front door to the back door through the kitchen. There were all hardwood floors throughout the house. There was a huge living room and an equal sized dining room. There was a full basement that included a workbench, a coal bin, mom’s maytag washer with a ringer on top of it. The washed clothes were all hung in the basement. That was my job as soon as I was tall enough to reach the line. The huge furnace in the basement was fueled by coal. When the coal truck arrived there was a chute that went through a window and onto the floor of the bin. The coal would pile up at the end of the chute. It was my job to climb through the pile and kick the coal out further into the other side of the floor. I loved that job! I was a filthy mess after all was done. The work bench was used by dad and grandpa. Grandpa made small, sturdy wooden houses for the kids Christmas presents and benches for all the kids to sit on and watch TV. We kids had the job of turning the channel selector on the tv so dad didn’t have to get up and change it.

The upstairs bedrooms had grandpa and grandma sleeping there and mom and dad in the other bedroom. Dad had a job driving an ambulance and picking up patients all over Saint Louis. He worked overnight, so I got to sleep with mom. Eventually dad got a job driving a truck during daylight hours. My brother Tom was born and then dad bought a set of bunk beds for us to sleep in. They were in mom and dad’s bedroom. Tom was a baby so I had the top bunk. I have always been a restless sleeper and over most nights I would fall out of bed and hit my head. It's a wonder that I’m not as dumb as a sack of bricks. Every night when I fell out of bed, I went over and laid down on the floor on dad’s side of the bed and when he would wake up he would step on me, not knowing I was there. Eventually dad secured a board across the open side of the bed and I no longer fell out of bed.

Later the dining room became mom and dad’s bedroom with a half bath for them and guests.

After grandma died, grandpa moved into mom and dad’s old bedroom and Tom and I got the other bedroom. There was a window in the room and at night I would climb out the window and climb up to the top of the roof and enjoy the view. I could see the whole neighborhood and the streets 8 blocks away.