Our Roots~Carver St

This is the remains of our grandparents house before it was erased ,in 1974,from its' address on Carver St, Larksville PA, ~~but never from mine.The girl on the porch is my cousin Mark's wife, Pam.

The doorway to the right bore 13 McCue children,born in the upstairs middle bedroom.My mother, Elizabeth,was born there in 1925.She was the youngest of the 10 surviving children. 3 died as babies.

I have a greater affection for this home more than any that I ever lived in,except my present address( that's another story).I am so sad that this is the only front view pic we have.The windows are broken & it gives a dysfunctional appearance to what had a nobler stance.

My earliest memory of this house was when I was very very small, probably 3.My baby brother Paulie was sleeping in a car bed (carriage thing) on the floor in the middle bedroom .In the morning I tried to crawl in there & wake him up & I remember a rooster crowing up the hill by Castner's .At the top of the hill there were 2 stores, Castners & a little grocery store that later was turned into a private dwelling.That store had an outdoor light that shined down the street .It was during the Gene Autry reign on TV & seemed like a cowboy store to me.We arrived there during a rainy stormy night when a bridge was flooded out & a man, carrying a kerosene lantern & wearing raingear spoke with my father on the road (probably RT 22 in NJ near the Easton border).Black metal round balls with flames lined the road as flares to guide us. We arrived safely at night & a hanging bulb dimly lit the upstairs middle bedroom.My Aunt Annie hushed me & said I should "Go to sleep".There was a very characteristic scent to that house~~ the wood smell.The stairs were very steep in the morning when we tried to climb down.The whiff of urine was in the air~~ the CAN at the bottom of the stairs .No indoor toilet here! Stairwells were enclosed in the old days to preserve heat on the lower levels.No plumbing upstairs, so you didn't have to worry about pipes freezing.But the furniture was so lovely! Doilies covered everything and pretty nick-nacks ,wind-up-music dolls & ceramics decorated the dresser tops.Each bed had a decorative bedspread. Whatever they had,they took very good care of.Furniture was immaculate & always well polished.

My next memory was my brother Paulie , a toddler,& I walking past the grapevines on the back porch.My grammas side had shallow stairs.Next door, my Aunt Annie had steeper,harder to climb stairs & we knocked on the back door.The glass window had a contact-stick-on covering that was decorative but kept you from seeing inside. My Uncle Fritz came home from the mines,covered in coal dust,face blackened & only the whites of his eyes discernable.The galvenized metal tub was pulled off the back porch wall & filled with hot water from the coal stove in the kitchen.He scrubbed his back with a brush on a long stick, much like a toilet bowl brush but probably a back scratcher type brush. Ohhh, that stove! A beautiful cream colored enamel stove! Always with stew or soup simmering to warm your belly! Uncle Fritz 'settin' you down' with a piece of bread & butter to 'sop it up with.Of all my Uncles, Uncle Fritz is the pinnacle.The first I want to meet again in heaven.

When you're a child all these roots and foundations are taken for granted. Then one day , they're gone.Oh, how I miss them~ my loved ones and the wonderful memories they blessed me with.