Y is for Yearning

Mrs. Matlock has assigned our letter for the week and it is "Y" which is an interesting letter that can be many things like: yodel, yard, yes, yoke, you, yucca, yo-yo and countless other words that begin with "Y".

Lately I've been very nostalgic thinking about my childhood and how wonderful it was. Maybe I'm doing this because my 95 year old mother, who lives with us, is getting quite frail and facing new challenges each day. I know what is going to happen so I think I'm re-living my past when times with my mother were less complicated and more carefree. I yearn for those times and my mind keeps taking me back to my childhood home on S. Central Ave. in Rockford, IL. If this was a perfect world, I could easily say that I had a perfect childhood. Instead I'll have to settle for an almost perfect childhood with indelible memories filled with love, security, warmth, belonging, wondering, and creating.

Not too long ago, I found some papers that my mother had from the first house that she and my dad worked and saved for. My father helped build this house and drew the plans for it with my mother. It is a typical 50's house...not very big, only 2 bedrooms, a nice-size kitchen, a living room, a bathroom, a basement and an attic. This first photo shows the plans that my dad drew with notations on the side. The year was 1949 and my mother still had this floorplan!
A work in progress~~~The little white house with the green trim. My house...the womb of my childhood contentment.

This is a photo of the little white house with the green trim in 1961 shortly after my parents put it on the market so we could move to Arizona. We lived here for 11 wonderful years.
I yearn for my memories of all the parties that we had in the basement like this Halloween party when I was almost 3. I'm the little gypsy in front!

We had many yuletide celebrations in our little house and I can't help but wish that I still had some of these precious toys from yesteryear.
Oh the fun I had with my cousins playing cowboys (when toy guns were acceptable because we watched the Lone Ranger).
My dollhouse! I played with this forever and I'm sad because my mother gave it away before we moved to AZ in 1962. What would a 14 year old need with a dollhouse?
I had many happy birthdays in our little house with family, friends, and neighbors. Notice the socks, shoes, and dresses. In fact, all but one of the pictures in this post is with me wearing a dress! Times have changed!
Another dress, coat, hat, gloves and purse for Easter 1955. I still have the doll, the rocking chair, and the ballet slippers in this photo. Curtains with ruffles were the thing back in 1955 as evidenced by the ones in my bedroom. Oh, yes, let's not forget the big Venetian blinds!
Finally a photo with me not wearing a dress! I had so much fun on my swing set which was in the backyard of our little house. I'm on the right without a shirt along with my cousin, Rosalie, and Joe on the glider.
Another dress with a nurse pinafore no less! I'm standing by my train which I played with a lot. My father put it on a piece of plywood in our basement and I would build hills for the train to go over. That train didn't make the trip to Arizona either because my mom gave it to one of my cousins!
My bike and another dress or skirt and blouse! I know for a fact that I was an active child that played with the neighborhood kids so I'm sure I wasn't always in a dress! I rode my bike constantly and, until I learned how to put the brakes on, I would stop by falling into the neighbor's bushes or the sidewalk. I had a lot of skinned knees and scratches on my legs and arms.
This is the house as it stands today. Every time I go back to IL to visit my family, I stop by my childhood home to reminisce and take pictures. One time I rang the doorbell and the owner let me in so I could walk through my memories and relive part of my past. The house seemed smaller than I remembered or maybe I was bigger!!!!

and only the good times matter when you're young

I can't help but think of the song, The House That Built Me by Miranda Lambert. She wants to visit her childhood home again but, unlike me, she is troubled and she wants to feel the security of the house she grew up in. Apparently Miranda and I yearn for walls that cradled us in our formative years.

This is linked back to Alphabe-Thursday for the letter "y".