I was born in a "company house" which was built by the Fraser
Lumber Company to accommodate the Homer Smith family. Originally it was
small virtually equal in length and width with a tin roof of a simple
gable design. A front porch with a gable roof still in place today. At
first there was a back porch across the back of the house and it had a
simple shed roof on it.
Inside the house was divided into four rooms of equal
size. The front door opened just off center to the left as you entered
the living room. the west wall of the living room had a fireplace with a
window on either side as well as a single window looking out onto the
front porch. The front bedroom opened into the living room and had a
single window looking out of the east side of the house as well as a
single window looking out onto the porch. Originally the front porch was
open but a trumpet vine was planted at each front corner of the porch
and an arbor was erected on four four by four post a pair standing to
the left and right of the front which bridged the entrance and provided
shade from the setting sun. I grew up spending many hours lying on a
swing or glider on the porch as I watched the trickle of sawdust driveling from the hole of a carpenter bee. And the hummingbirds and
bumble bees competed for the nectar or whatever they found in the deep
red trumpet shaped blooms of the vine which would eventually cover the
entire front of the house.
The back half of the house consisted of two rooms of equal size as the front two rooms. The room on the east side of the house was Mama and Daddy's bedroom. The room on the west side was the kitchen. The back door opened onto a porch which crossed the entire width of the house and was simply a raised up wood froor structure and it was covered with shed type roof and it think it was decked with one by lumber and covered with asphalt rolled roofing. The back porch at some point became enclosed in screen wire. Before it was enclosed in screen there was a "wash shelf" across the east side of the porch and we had a faucet on the wash shelf. right beside the backdoor on the porch was a steel framed Army cot which I spent many hours lieing upon watching whatever activity was taking place at the moment either on the porch or in the backyard.
The kitchen of the original house had a woodburning cookstove, a small crudely fashioned work counter and maybe a sink. There was an Icebox on the back porch and a small building in the backyard near the easter rear corner of the house where homemade canned vegitables were stored and sometimes meat such as hog hams and slabs heavily salted was hung to dry. We always had running water as Mr Quarterman had agreed to supply us as well as the house next door. One of my earliest memories is of walking with someone to the big red Quarterman house to pay the water bill and I think it was something like one dollar a month. Most folks today will identify the Quarterman house as the Kozma house. It was a very large house of unique design said to have been the design concept of Mrs Rahn the daughter of Mr Quarterman.
The back half of the house consisted of two rooms of equal size as the front two rooms. The room on the east side of the house was Mama and Daddy's bedroom. The room on the west side was the kitchen. The back door opened onto a porch which crossed the entire width of the house and was simply a raised up wood froor structure and it was covered with shed type roof and it think it was decked with one by lumber and covered with asphalt rolled roofing. The back porch at some point became enclosed in screen wire. Before it was enclosed in screen there was a "wash shelf" across the east side of the porch and we had a faucet on the wash shelf. right beside the backdoor on the porch was a steel framed Army cot which I spent many hours lieing upon watching whatever activity was taking place at the moment either on the porch or in the backyard.
The kitchen of the original house had a woodburning cookstove, a small crudely fashioned work counter and maybe a sink. There was an Icebox on the back porch and a small building in the backyard near the easter rear corner of the house where homemade canned vegitables were stored and sometimes meat such as hog hams and slabs heavily salted was hung to dry. We always had running water as Mr Quarterman had agreed to supply us as well as the house next door. One of my earliest memories is of walking with someone to the big red Quarterman house to pay the water bill and I think it was something like one dollar a month. Most folks today will identify the Quarterman house as the Kozma house. It was a very large house of unique design said to have been the design concept of Mrs Rahn the daughter of Mr Quarterman.
The front yard was enclosed by a picket fence which went across the yard at the edge of the property parallel with the road and turning back to encompass all of the front porch within it's surround. I think I can remember when I was not allowed to go out of the front yard alone. Our driveway was positioned on the west side of the house. The original pipe beneath our driveway was a metal corrugated about twenty inches or maybe two feet in diameter. One of mine and June's earliest adventures was to crawl through the pipe from the west end to the east end, she led the way. That pipe would later become the home of large bullfrogs who could be heard croaking on warm evenings well into the night. I recall falling asleep many nights while being serenaded by multiple bullfrogs seemingly in competition with their counterparts. In the very earliest memories I was only allowed out of the yard if I was with June or Homer.
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