By the Summer of 1973, my parents had decided that although our house on John Glenn, which we had been renting from my Grandma Range, had served our little family well, it was time to move on to the next chapter in our lives. They didn’t care all that much for the area where the John Glenn house was located and wanted a bit more room both inside and outside. They had seen a listing for a nice little white house built in 1953, located in the Country Acres sub-division in the up-and-coming suburb of Beavercreek, Ohio. It had a spacious yard perfect for tending a nice, garden – and sending their kid out to play. It even had room to add on an additional garage where Mom and Dad could store their growing number of cars. In short, the house (seen above with our green ’65 Volkswagon Squareback and Oscar’s Buick in the driveway) was the perfect place to start.
We bought the house at 3574 Echo Hill Lane for $22,000, which gave us a monthly house payment of $160. Both of my parents were working steadily at the time, Dad had just began a job at Miami Litho and Mom had worked part time at Connelly and Company since just after I had been born, so they figured that we could make the payment with little problem.
Move-in day came sometime in August not long after our vacation week in Cumberland hadended. Dad had secured a moving truck from a gas station on the corner of Wayne and Smithville in Dayton, but when he went to pick up the truck that morning, they had given the truck to someone else. After Dad cussed out the proprieter, he moved on to Plan B: to borrow a 6-and-a-half foot bedded pickup truck from his friend Don Filbrun and move every single one of earthly possessions in that. Good thing we didn’t have a lot of earthly possessions. Dad’s friend and co-worker Bob Henz assisted with the moving. Parenthetically, Bob would later join my Sons of the Desert tent nearly twenty years later.
It wasn’t long before we were settled into our new pad and kicking off our stay there with a fun-filled family Labor Day party. Dad took a few nice photographs of that day of Monday, September 3, which highlighted not only the participants in the day’s festivities, but many nice and rarely photographed angles of the house.
The new house on Echo Hill. That’s Tom and Diana’s ’65 Ford in the drive-way.
Family members greet the new homeowners in their new expansive back yard
Labor Day croquet frolics: Jim assists Lora, Cathy, Lori, me, and Darlene with the game; Ed and Bev explore the side of the house; Diana feeds Debby; Mom, Grandpa, Dottie, and Grandma Murphy look on from afar
Dottie, Grandpa Murphy, Diana, Ed, Bev, Mom, and Grandma chat while Debby conks out in her stroller
Mom tuckers me out with badminton as she beams one toward my cranium
Jim gives me a view of the new roof
On top of the world in my new digs
“I like any house that has this great game”
I don’t remember moving out of John Glenn and into Echo Hill, but my memories first came to life in the house on Echo Hill. As far as I recall, this was the first place I lived. My whole world revolved around that home for almost the next five years. I really enjoyed my days at that house and often drive by to take a look at it.
The house in 2008
The second garage was added by my Dad in the Summer of 1976
1973 will continue…
Jim has changed a little bit, hasn’t he! Of course, you have too!
Diana Claude
November 26th, 2008
To answer your question, I now recall that Oscar’s Buick was a ’71.
Dad
November 30th, 2008