I’m In a Fog…Not Unusual For Me….

  First of all…an update on the train car.  They opened up the West side of the house that is attached to it and covered it with a huge tarp in case of rain. I know there was an upstairs when the Wrights lived there, and I am hoping they somehow make use of it in the new restaurant.

  Sunday morning here was a moist mess.  I felt like I was wrapped in a damp washcloth and couldn’t get out…Here is our screen windows looking out on our deck…

  I know little beads of moisture are good for the old skin, but I feel more like a damp wrinkled prune.  The grass never did dry out, so Dennis finally mowed about 4PM, clogging up the blades as he went..

Spider webs take on a life all their own when it is foggy…..

Sunday morning I was having a visit with Den’s Aunt Neenie (Jr.’s and Den’s mom’s sister..maybe I should make a spreadsheet).  She lives two houses West of us, and has lived there for 60 years.  Neenie is 91 years young..She still goes to swim exercises,  and is very active at the Senior Citizen Center in town AND…she still drives…Not so sure she should be, but that is another story. She has kept a daily journal since she was a young girl, so when anyone wants some info about something that happened years ago, we go to Aunt Neenie.  She has settled many a potential family “brawl” by resorting to her journals.

  I wanted to ask Neenie about a house down the street . Den’s Great Aunt Clara lived there at one time…As the story goes, in the early 1930’s that lot was vacant, and Aunt Clara Elliott had been recently widowed. She found out that they were selling train cars out of Aurora, IL., to be purchased and used as houses , so she bought one. Supposedly, they took the train car down the tracks from Aurora to just behind our houses here on Center St. (about 30 miles), and moved it onto the lot.  Neenie said that Grandpa Bark, (Den’s Grandpa and Neenie’s Dad), had a basement put in first, with a steam furnace, and the train car was placed on top…(Copies of the genealogy charts will be distributed later…ha ha).  No one is sure if the house that is there now was built around the train car, or if the car is still underneath the house…or what!.  According to Neenie,  this was a train car formerly used by one of the big wigs of Burlington Northern, and was set up like an apartment..It had a living area, with a pull down berth, possibly for the maid…a long hallway leading to a bedroom, bathroom and small kitchen.  Neenie remembers it  because she was in it frequently as a young girl. This was in the early 1930’s….depression time. You lived in whatever you could afford.. I’ll keep you posted on the “case of the mysterious Center Street train car”.

Left is Den’s Great Aunt Clara Elliott…..She lived in the train car….

Our grandkids stopped in Saturday afternoon.  They think this place is a “Dairy Queen” now. I bought some candy sprinkles to put on their ice cream sundaes when they come over. Secretly, I wanted them myself…Ice Cream is my downfall….

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If I can stay away from the ice cream and sprinkles it will be a miracle of epic proportions…

Welcom to the insanity blog train to our new and brave followers, Kathy and Robert…Put on your seatbelts..this blog ride can be like a rollercoaster!!!

Thanks to all who expressed concern about my sister, Darlene..She has a battle ahead of her…Breast Cancer, and… Bone Cancer in her hip. She is now getting chemo and radiation…and I will be seeing her again soon .  Her spirits are good (she is a bit of a jokester,  imagine that)… We are praying for her to come through this…