I don’t get back to my hometown much anymore. Still have friends there but the 5 hour drive seems longer every time I make it. I was there this past weekend and killed a couple of hours looking at some of the houses where our family lived when I was growing up. My first thought on seeing these is, how can they still be standing?

No.1 is on Holt Street and is the house where — as I recall — we got our first television. Probably around 1951.

No.2 is on West 9th and I’m guessing we lived there around 1952-53. I attended first grade just up the street a few blocks.

No.3 is the first house our family owned. 1955? A nice little 2 BR home where my brother and I grew up. It has fallen on hard times in the years since I sold it following my father’s death.

No.5 (on Lester St) was my grandmother’s home back in 1957. And it wasn’t a new home then. She lived with our family for several years after she sold the farm where my mother grew up. Bought this little house around 1957 and it was an older house then.

Seems strange to me these house are still standing 60 or 70 years later. And that people are still living in them.