The First House I Lived In
By Jabo
@jaboUK (64346)
United Kingdom
April 15, 2016 6:21pm CST
@TRBRocks has written about his childhood home, so I thought I would do the same.
I was born in an upstairs room in a small terraced house in England. 'Terraced' means that it was in a row of identical houses, all attached to each other. They were 'two up, two down' properties - two bedrooms and two living rooms, with a rudimentary kitchen at the back and an outside toilet.
Though we had two living rooms, we rarely used the one at the front as this was kept for 'best', though we seldom had visitors as such. Neighbours often popped in and out, but we didn't regard them as visitors as we all knew each other well.
Mum and Dad slept in one bedroom and we three little girls in the other. We had no bathroom, and the only running water was from a tap in the kitchen - cold water, of course.
There was a small 'garden' though it was more a place for Mum to hang the washing out, and for we children to play in. I don't remember anything growing there except an old lilac tree.
Though it was a very basic house by today's standards, we were happy and we lived there until I was 11 years old.
Do you remember your childhood home?
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Photo is of my family taken by our back gate - I am the baby.
49 people like this
48 responses
@allknowing (153530)
• India
16 Apr 16
I almost felt I was there visiting you although you said you hardly had any visitors (lol). I am tempted to write one myself. I am off to write that post. now.
What a pretty photo of your family.
7 people like this
@jaboUK (64346)
• United Kingdom
16 Apr 16
@allknowing I hope lots of people do posts about their childhood homes, I'd certainly love to read them.
3 people like this
@jaboUK (64346)
• United Kingdom
16 Apr 16
@allknowing You did that really quickly didn't you. I've just read it
. It's a bit different from mine!
. It's a bit different from mine!2 people like this
@Juliaacv (56241)
• Canada
16 Apr 16
You all appear to be wonderfully happy together in the photo. And for the times your home sounds like it was adequate, although I'd not like to use outdoor plumbing, it was a fact of life. I guess that I am glad that I was born when I was. I think that it'd be fun to live in a home such as this because you would never be far from your neighbour, we had a family member who lived in a home such as this.
I grew up in the family farm house that my Grandpa had made when he got married. Now my little brother and wife are raising their family in it.
2 people like this
@jaboUK (64346)
• United Kingdom
16 Apr 16
@Juliaacv Yes we were happy, though being wartime we didn't have a lot materially. The photo was taken on one of Dad's leaves from the army - it would have been the first time he'd seen me as he sailed for France on the very day I was born.
Living close to neighbours made us a real community, and we all supported each other - especially when anyone got that dreaded yellow telegram saying that their loved one was killed, wounded or missing in action. (Though of course I was too young to understand all that.)
Your home sounds wonderful as your Grandpa made it himself.
2 people like this
@Juliaacv (56241)
• Canada
16 Apr 16
@jaboUK Four walls and a roof do not make a home to me, its the love and the everyday life and comings and goings that make it a home. I never thought of the support that would be needed when the telegrams came. I can understand the love of the community feeling, that was what struck me first when I read this discussion. And I'm certain that mothers and children who had loved ones away during the war could support each other and be the better for it.
Our farm house was nice, it was really big and as a home owner now, I wouldn't ever want that house because there is just too much of it to keep clean and kept up.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
16 Apr 16
Yes, I remember quite easily. I lived in the house my parents built from about the time I was a couple years old until I was nineteen when I moved out. It was what we call a Ranch style house here, meaning it only had one floor. It didn't have a basement but it did have a crawl space that was used for certain types of storage. I know my mom kept her onions and potatoes under there in a bin my dad made for that purpose.
We had three bedrooms, and I'm the oldest of six kids. Two boys and there were four of us girls. The two boys shared one bedroom and we four girls shared the third, but it was a bit bigger than the others. Once we began moving out, my parents took that room. We had a large back yard which my mother eventually used for a small garden.
2 people like this
@jaboUK (64346)
• United Kingdom
16 Apr 16
@MarshaMusselman That's interesting Marsha - you could have made a whole post out of what you've told me here. Four of you in one bedroom - I hope you all got on together.
. Four of you in one bedroom - I hope you all got on together.1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
22 Apr 16
@jaboUK We are all a close-knit family. I don't know if it had to do with our living arrangement or just how we were raised. I know of families that haven't talked with one another for over ten years. We have none of that. We all get along and enjoy spending time together. The bedroom would have been like one and a half of a normal room or about the size of master bedrooms these days. If the two beds weren't in there it probably could have fit a small couch and side table.
My dad built the house when I was two and then added on when more kids were on the way, especially the boys. They came about five years after I was born.
1 person likes this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
16 Apr 16
It was one of those post-WWII little tract houses built in the San Fernando Valley, (part of L.A.). It had one living room, two bedrooms (until my father added on a master bedroom with bathroom) and a kitchen. I remember an "icebox" and a washer with a wringer in there). The backyard (garden) was pretty large. We had two huge fruit trees, peach and apricot, a lath house and a big wooden swing set.
3 people like this
@jaboUK (64346)
• United Kingdom
16 Apr 16
@ElizabethWallace. Yours sounds like a nice home. We didn't have such things as iceboxes or washers, and a swing set in the garden would have been heaven.
1 person likes this
@jaboUK (64346)
• United Kingdom
16 Apr 16
@ElizabethWallace Such a simple thing, a swing - yet it can bring so much pleasure.
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@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
16 Apr 16
@jaboUK We spent hours flying in the air. I wish they had swings in the parks for adults. I know they would be kept busy.
1 person likes this
@puddleglum (1380)
• United States
16 Apr 16
What a lovely, evocative description of your childhood home. I am sure you have many, many memories from those days.
2 people like this
@jaboUK (64346)
• United Kingdom
16 Apr 16
@puddleglum I do have a lot of memories, and I write quite a lot about my childhood, though it's over 70 years ago. Thanks for your nice comment.
2 people like this
@SIMPLYD (90717)
• Philippines
18 Apr 16
Before father decided to go back to the province , we once live in a rented house in Manila , the center of business in the Philippines . Then we transferred to the house our father designed and had constructed in a long lot .
It was where we 5 siblings grew up so happy together .
1 person likes this
@SIMPLYD (90717)
• Philippines
19 Apr 16
@jaboUK Oh yes , it is so much nicer in the province . The heat is not that much specially in the residence areas because we have trees and plants around our premises . 
Besides , we don't have traffic , except in some extreme cases .
Indeed , my childhood was a happy one too like you .
Besides , we don't have traffic , except in some extreme cases .
Indeed , my childhood was a happy one too like you .1 person likes this
@rebelann (117226)
• El Paso, Texas
16 Apr 16
We mostly lived on Army bases and either it was apartment style ... I think you call them flats ... or if you had kids sometimes they would let you live in a small house. There were always inspections so that no one would abuse these dwellings but frankly I wouldn't have called any of those homes.
1 person likes this
@bluesa (15022)
• Johannesburg, South Africa
18 Apr 16
@jaboUK , we moved around a lot and lived in hotels because my Dad was a food and beverage manager and then manager for quite a few hotels. So I remember hotel rooms, with tvs, the pool and garden as my pool and garden and the restaurant as our dining room, interesting times, Janet. :)
1 person likes this
@nanette64 (20363)
• Fairfield, Texas
16 Apr 16
I do @jaboUK . It was Grandma's house. I even remember how it was laid out. We did have indoor plumbing.
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@jaboUK (64346)
• United Kingdom
16 Apr 16
@nanette64 Yaay for the indoor plumbing! You were lucky.
1 person likes this
@nanette64 (20363)
• Fairfield, Texas
16 Apr 16
@jaboUK Yeah, it wasn't until we moved when I was 11 that we had the outdoor john and no utilities and bathes were in a metal washtub.
1 person likes this
@jaboUK (64346)
• United Kingdom
16 Apr 16
@nanette64 It was just the opposite for me - when I was 11 we moved to a house with all mod cons, and I got a room to myself
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (382068)
• Rockingham, Australia
18 Apr 16
@jaboUK They still build streets of these types of houses in Ireland today. In Australia, I think mostly we go out of our way (in most cases) to have something a bit unique. We had what we called a 'front' room which was hardly ever used. It was kept for 'best'.
1 person likes this
@ridingbet (66854)
• Philippines
18 Apr 16
i recall my childhood home, it is still standing to this day. it is in that house where i had the accident where i got the scar between my eyes. i fell down the broken cemented area when i was calling my big brother, and i tumbled down.
1 person likes this
@jaboUK (64346)
• United Kingdom
18 Apr 16
@ridingbet I suppose we all have accidents of some sort when we are little, and these do stand out in our memories. You must have a lot of happy memories of your old home as well.
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@jaboUK (64346)
• United Kingdom
18 Apr 16
@ridingbet Oh goodness - I can see why that is still a vivid memory for you.
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@ridingbet (66854)
• Philippines
18 Apr 16
@jaboUK well, i had my first experience seeing a ghost my friend. it was a ghost of an old woman wearing our national costume and moving her shoulders and head as if calling me. it is still so vivid in my mind
1 person likes this
@miniam (9151)
• Bern, Switzerland
16 Apr 16
@jaboUK
Correct, I don't have happy memories with her, she was this person *what i say is law,no discussion, no compromise* I never had a sleep over,i could not go to after school activities.
wheni think of happy memories, i think of dad but not mum and she`s stayed the same.
1 person likes this
@hereandthere (45628)
• Philippines
16 Apr 16
2 living rooms because the one out front is for receiving visitors while the one inside is like the family room?
is the garden at the back or front of the house?
1 person likes this
@hereandthere (45628)
• Philippines
16 Apr 16
@jaboUK here only one, the living room is out front where guests/visitors are received/entertained and is also the family room where everyone watches tv, sing karaoke
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@jaboUK (64346)
• United Kingdom
16 Apr 16
@hereandthere Your living room sounds a fun place. At the time I'm talking about in my post there was no TV or karaoke. It was over 70 years ago.
1 person likes this
@jaboUK (64346)
• United Kingdom
16 Apr 16
@hereandthere The front room was for visitors we didn't know very well - we had lots of neighbours coming in and out of the family room, though it was very small. The garden was at the back, then there was an alley, then another row of houses. We all lived in close proximity and everyone knew everyone else.
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61463)
• United States
17 Apr 16
I do. I only lived in one home until I got married and we have lived in this house that we bought after 5 years of marriage since 1973. My childhood home was a cape cod, it had a large yard and we always had a garden my father grew all kinds of things. We had 4 bedrooms, one bathroom, a parlor and a kitchen with a large basement. Not fancy but comfortable. As the only girl I had my own bedroom, my two younger brothers shared, my older brother had is own room and my parents as well. My uncle and father built the house so you may remember I wrote about how traumatic it was to have to sell it. Your family looks so happy.
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61463)
• United States
18 Apr 16
@jaboUK I can see why, it is wonderful and your mother is glowing, I imagine because your father is home!!
1 person likes this
@jaboUK (64346)
• United Kingdom
18 Apr 16
@BelleStarr Yes, that would be it. Just imagine what she must have gone through when he was gone - him in danger and her having to look after us.
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@jaboUK (64346)
• United Kingdom
18 Apr 16
@BelleStarr I do remember you writing about having to sell it. It sounds like a lovely home, and you must have some lovely memories associated with it.
The photo must have been taken when my father was on leave from the war, and it would have been the first time he'd seen me. I was born on the day he sailed for France in 1939. He apparently carried it with him for the rest of the war.
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
16 Apr 16
I was born in a hospital in Abilene, Texas, then taken home to where my parents lived until I was eight months old, when my mother moved the two of us to Abilene, and ended her marriage. I have no idea where we first lived there, but then there was a duplex where we lived until I was about five, then to an apartment. Suffice to say that we moved rather often.
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@jaboUK (64346)
• United Kingdom
16 Apr 16
@JamesHxstatic So you have no really fond memories of any particular place?
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@jaboUK (64346)
• United Kingdom
16 Apr 16
@JamesHxstatic That does strike me as a bit odd that you've never got attached to any house - one's home is such a personal place.
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@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
16 Apr 16
@jaboUK As a child? I liked visiting my dad in the little west Texas town where he lived, but it was barely more than a hotel room, so it was the town and my dad that made it good. Funny, I have never become very attached to any house I have lived in.
1 person likes this
@CRK109 (14556)
• United States
17 Apr 16
I love that photo! What a beautiful family! And yes, I remember my childhood home. It was in Providence and we lived on the second floor of a three story tenament house. My parents in one bedroom and my sister and I in the other. Little kitchen. The living room was called a parlor and it was only for guests. But I do remember the most gorgeous Christmas tree gracing that room and a toy train running around underneath. :)
1 person likes this
@jaboUK (64346)
• United Kingdom
17 Apr 16
@CRK109 Thanks for being so complimentary about my family - my sisters don't live near me, but we get together at least once a year.
It's funny about having a room for when guests came when space was so limited, isn't it? I think we may have used ours for Christmas too, like you.
1 person likes this
@CRK109 (14556)
• United States
17 Apr 16
@jaboUK Growing up, I always thought it was a waste to save one room just for company. And now our homes are the way I always thought they should be. We can enjoy every room every day. So if company doesn't come, we're not missing a room! lol
1 person likes this
@sgbrown (1638)
• United States
22 Apr 16
What a wonderful picture, @jaboUK You look like such a happy family! I do remember my first childhood home. We lived there until I was 17. It was a 2 bedroom stucco house with a huge back yard. My dad loved to cook outside and even built an outside fireplace.
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