My Other Childhood Home

So far, all of the focus has been on the home my parents currently live in, and rightly so. There's a lot of history there. Grandma and Grandpa Stoller bought that farm after the flood of 1946. The land has been in the Stoller name for 62 years. There was a different house on it at the time that they lived in. In 1964, Grandpa and Grandma built the current house. It's the house my dad grew up in. They lived there until 1989, when they moved to Mediapolis and we moved in. Of the total 44 years the house has been in existence, Grandpa and Grandma lived in it for 25 years, and we've been in it for the remaining 19.

But before we moved in, we lived just a half-mile down the road from Grandma and Grandpa, in a little double-wide trailer, nonetheless. Mom and Dad set that trailer down when I was just a year old. I have tons of fond memories from it. We moved from it when I was in fifth grade, but I vividly remember the layout of it. A few of my favorite memories of growing up in the trailer:

• Dark wood paneling. Enough said.
• Rolling around on my parents' waterbed.
• Having bunk beds with Nikki in the corner bedroom.
• Waking up on my 10th birthday and seeing a sign on my door, "you're now in the double digits!"
• Constantly playing on the swingset. That thing was the best!!
• Having a slip-and-slide in the yard.
• Making paper boats only to have them immediately crumble in the pool.
• Sledding in the ditch in the front yard.
• Attempting to play the old organ in the living room.
• Using a hair dryer to put plastic sheeting over the windows in the winter. Sounds slightly redneck.... :)
• YELLOW OVEN.
• The Toaster Story - This is classic. We had a toaster that you mounted underneath the cabinet. I don't remember how old I was - 9? Nate was little and he put pop-tarts in the toaster. I still remember sitting in the living room watching "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood" and starting to smell smoke. Mom was outside at the time and I went into the kitchen. Smoke was coming out of the toaster! Nate had put the pop-tarts in for too long. I remember unplugging the toaster and by then Mom came in and pour water on the toaster, getting rid of the small flames. We still talk about this story occasionally!
• Dad working on redoing a John Deere plow for Grandpa. It was a surprise, and I remember Dad trying to hide it when Grandpa and Grandma would bring me home from church. That plow was still decoratively sitting in our yard this year.
• Riding my bike down to Grandma and Grandpa's to feed the lambs, and of course, Grandma would always have a plate of homemade cookies!
• Cutting through the corn field to bike to Kandi's house (my cousin).

There's a lot more, but that's a sampling. The reality is that a lot of history was lost this summer. Memories, no. We'll always have those. But the two houses my family has ever lived in are now both gone. It's sad to see such a big part of your childhood washed away.

So what does the trailer look like now? It's completely crumbled....



Flood News:

1. You can now drive to the house! One of the roads leading to the house is now out of water. This will begin the line of sight-seeing. Of course, I can't say much, because I did enough sight-seeing of my own before I left.

2. Nearly two months later, my parents are finally getting the trailer unpacked! They now have a REAL mattress to sleep on, a couch, stove, washer/dryer, table, and several other things of theirs. Mom said it's starting to feel more like a home now!

3. Dad went into the basement of the house the other day. SCARY. It looks like a possible floor support is missing, meaning it may be harder to rebuild on that foundation, if they choose to.

4. Speaking of that, no decisions have been made on rebuilding, etc. Still some time for that!

5. Oakville is now going to pursue a FEMA buyout. Originally, officials were not going to do this. However, enough residents protested and they're going to go forward now. This means there's the possibility Oakville could cease to exist, at least as we know it. But it will be a LONG time before anything is decided.

Thanks again for checking in! The comments on the TPing post were fun! :)