It was a cold, dreary day in December 1953. We had been visiting family over the Christmas holidays when Morris had been offered the job of working for Uncle John on his Prairie land, and we decided to drive the seven miles from the old Johnston home place where Uncle John still lived with his Mother and his younger brother, to look at this house on the prairie ranch where we would live.
There were still patches of snow along the dirt road as we drove west from the paved highway. No other house for miles. No fences along this road either. As we cross the railroad tracks that ran through the Johnston prairie ranch, Morris pointed out a ranch house that was nestled up against a large mound of dirt. This area had been mined for coal many years ago and A J. Cripe, owner of Town Talk Bakery in Pittsburg Kansas, had bought this land and built this retreat for him and his cronies.
Farther down the road was a two-story house. This would be my nearest neighbors. Davis’s lived there. Morris and I had gone to High School with Boy Lee Davis and his younger sister Bonnie. Mrs. Davis still lived there with her youngest son Gary who was about 8 years old at the time.
Just past the Davis house we turned north. The road was straight and narrow. It would be hard for two cars to pass on this road back then. Prairie on both sides of the road, with no fences, and you could see for miles. Even at this time of the year the distant trees looked very close, except they were at least a mile, maybe two miles away.
I could see the small house ahead. It had been a miner’s house in Mindenmines, about three miles away, before they moved it out here. It was what they call a story and a half. The upstairs had two dormer windows. One on the east, and one on the west.
There was a long drive up to the house from the road, for the house sat right on top of the hill. There was a cellar just to the north of the house and a well with a concrete top and a pump on the east side of the house. About 50 feet east of the back door was a shed.
I stepped out of the car and into the cold wind. I would have to get use to this wind, for it blew, summer and winter. I looked out over the prairie at the barn that was north and east of the house and contemplated what our life would be like out in this quiet world.
We opened the door to see a big mess that was left from the folks who had lived here a short time and worked for Uncle John. I could see why he didn’t want them as renters anymore.
Stepping gingerly over this bundle of papers and old clothes, I walked through what was the kitchen and into the living room. There were 12 foot ceiling and two long windows in each of four rooms on the ground floor. The front room faced the west and had one window on the north, and one on the west, as well as the door out onto the front porch that crossed the front of the house. There was a large opening into the south room that had two windows in it. One on the west and one on the south and a door that went into the east room where the open stairway on the side of this room lead up to the half story room.
Climbing up the stairs I thought to my self that we would have to put some railing and a gate at the bottom on this to keep the kids from climbing the steps and falling. There was only one big room upstairs. Luckily, there was a door at the top to close it off so we wouldn’t have to heat it in the winter time.
By this time I began to feel the cold and we went back out to the car. There would have to be a lot of work done on this house before we could move in.
to be continued......
to be continued......
