Long ago and far away.

1. The Stanley house at 525 Avery Street. Behind the right hand dormer was where Mr. Stanley kept the crocodile head.
2. Rear of the Stanley house. They had a black cocker spaniel named George that liked to sleep on the small porch. He also liked to sleep directly in the middle of Avery Street in the summer. I could never really quite understand that.
3. 519 Avery Street. My parent's bedroom was behind the window on the left side. It looks like the weeping willow that my mother planted has been removed. The front porch was painted a dark red when we were there.
4. Another view of 519 Avery Street. Long before the carport was erected, my red Schwinn bicycle was leaning up against that side of the house. The window on the gable with the air conditioning unit in it was my bedroom window.
5. Living room at 519. The mirror over the mantle was not there when we were there. We had a console radio against the wall where the lamp shade is, right next to the front door. A monstrous thing, it had vacuum tubes in it the size of an ordinary soda pop can. My mother kept a blue jardiniere on the bookshelf to the left. The lime green chair to the right of the fireplace is the exact spot where photo #12 was taken. On the south wall of the living room was an upright piano that my mother liked to play.
6. Dining room at 519. The wainscotting was added sometime after we moved to Avondale in 1955. My mother's china cabinet stood directly in front of the picture hanging on the wall. Just to the right of the china cabinet, and underneath the two windows was a hutch, and on top of the hutch was the telephone. We had a party line and the number was CRescent 1760. Remember how they used to do the telephone exchanges?
7. Just behind the wall on the right hand side of the photo was my father's shop.
8. My bedroom, which was in the attic directly across from my father's shop. The knotty pine tongue and groove paneling that he installed has either been painted or stained. My red bunk bed sat right where the brown table is. I was partial to the top bunk. I sure could have used the air conditioning unit back then. Just below that unit are some shelves with curtains. I used to keep my baseball glove and other stuff like that on those shelves.
9. Stairway from my bedroom leading down to the kitchen. Just to the right of the black thingy was the water heater. It looks like everything upstairs has been carpeted. I have had a hyperactive bladder for my entire life. Even as a boy, I trudged up and down those stairs in the middle of the night to get to the bathroom. It drove my parents crazy.
10. Rear of 519. Several things strike me about this photo. The deck, of course, was never there when we were. What is now the sun porch was a screened in porch where we used to eat when the weather was nice. The large window on the right side was never there, again, when we were. Instead there was a single, much smaller, window in what was then my sister's bedroom. And there was never any grass in the back yard. My father tried, but alas, in vain. There probably will never be any grass in that area. I can tell you that I have raked the leaves in that back yard many times.
11. The BBQ pit is just behind the big tree to the left. Just to the right of where the hammock is stood the little playhouse that my father built. I simply cannot imagine where all the ivy might have come from. It certainly appears that the second terrace is completely overgrown. When we were there, the second terrace was all grass. I can remember my father having to cut it. We had a garden up on the third terrace. I can remember having to weed it.
12. Photo, circa 1950, taken by my mother in the northeast corner of the living room, with my sister, my father, and me.
Below, a photo of 525 and 519 taken in February of 2006.

Avery Street revisited.